Scottish fintech Biscuit Tin on Dragons’ Den

Fintech entrepreneur Sheila Hogan, founder of Biscuit Tin, a digital legacy vault, will pitch in front of the dragons on the BBC at 8pm on Thursday 10 February.

Sheila’s will be pitching for early-stage investment to take her new business, launched in 2020, to the next level and increase growth exponentially.

The idea of Biscuit Tin sprang out of Sheila’s personal experience of closing-down the lives of her parents. Her solution aims at empowering and enabling people to organise their death and make the whole process easier for those left behind.

Biscuit Tin enables the secure online storage and encryption of valuable, vital information, all in one place, which is released to those nominated when the time comes. This includes information such as account details, important documents, post-life wishes and memories.

Sheila commented:

“Appearing on Dragons’ Den is a phenomenal experience; preparing and pitching to such a high-profile and massively successful group of businesspeople is daunting yet exhilarating. It has been a fantastic opportunity and enormous privilege for me and Biscuit Tin to be chosen for the show. Through my journey to the Den, I have grown in ways I never imagined. I have learnt so much due to the Dragon’s Den experience and I am more ready than ever to take Biscuit Tin to the next level.”

Flock selects Scottish fintech AutoRek

Scottish fintech AutoRek, just announced that Flock had joined their now extensive list of clients.

Flock is an innovative firm all about reinventing business models around insurance. They are looking to build a global, fully digital insurance company for connected commercial vehicles to mitigates risk, rather than just paying claims.

AutoRek was chosen by Flock because of its flexibility.

Flock will be using AutoRek to:

Automate bordereau, bank and payment reconciliation requirements
Calculate broker payments to generate statements to brokers and paid bordereau
Take various external data sources from other insurance organisations, as well as from the general ledger
Underpin Flock’s Insurance Broker Accounting (IBA) operations

Gordon McHarg, CEO at AutoRek, added,

“It is excellent to have Flock come on board as a new client. We are delighted to be seen as a flexible and adaptable tool to help fast-growing companies like Flock scale their business. We look forward to continuing this partnership over the coming years.”

Piers Williams, Insurance Lead at AutoRek, added,

“We are excited to work with Flock, they are disrupting the insurance industry with innovative new products. Behind their exciting business is a foundation of leading software solutions that are enabling the business to achieve its objectives. Flock will be deploying AutoRek’s bordereau reconciliation and financial control solution to deliver end-to-end automation.”

Fintech DirectID Raises $3m in Bridge Round

Scottish fintech DirectID just completed a $3 million (£2.2m) bridge round led by Hong Kong based venture capital firm QBN Capital. The firm grew its team and revenue by over 100% in the last year and this investment will help them pursue their ambitious growth plans and expand internationally.

DirectID has developed a market leading credit & risk platform that powers some of the world’s largest brands through the use of Open Banking data.

DirectID provides unique insights into customers’ financial situation, enabling financial institutions to have a more realistic view of credit risk and to make faster, more accurate and personalised decisions.

Based in the UK, DirectID is connected to over 13,000+ bank which represents 1.5bn users in over 45 countries.

James Varga, founder, and CEO of DirectID, said:

“We are very excited to have QBN being our lead investor. This funding step will help us grow into more markets and sectors as open banking adoption grows across the world. We are addressing a global pain with our product, redefining credit risk for consumers and businesses alike.”

Philea Chim at QBN Capital said:

“We look forward to helping DirectID expand their business to Asia. Their credit risk platform will make SME financing fairer and more accessible. We see synergies between DirectID and a number of our portfolio companies and QBN’s own initiatives, for example, in supply chain trade finance.”

UK-wide Investment Series announced by FinTech Alliance

FinTech Alliance, the Government-backed digital ecosystem for UK FinTech, has launched its third annual Investment Series, announcing FinTech Scottland as a key partner.

The series aims to bring FinTechs from around the UK together to learn about all aspects of a successful funding round and meet high-profile investors.

FinTechs can:

– Use the FinTech alliance platform for the duration, including the regulated Investment Hub.

– Build their pitch deck with advice from FinTech leaders.

– Network with high profile investors.

– Learn from a series of hybrid workshops on pitching, negotiating deals and more.

Signups are now open for the series, and the process will see a number of regional events across the UK to find the most innovative Seed and Series A FinTechs – including an event in Scotland.

The signup deadline is 30 March, after which there will be a launch party during UK FinTech Week, with workshops running through May and a pitch day in June.

Not ready to raise funds just yet? No problem! You can still take part in all workshops and build your network.

We’re delighted to partner with FinTech Alliance on the series.

For more information, email info@fintech-alliance.com

New Chief Commercial Officer at Legado

Scottish fintech firm Legado announced it had appointed Colin McKay as its first Chief Commercial Officer.

Colin McKay has over 25 years of experience in senior roles in the UK and global banking sector.

McKay was a partner in several firms, including K Legal/KPMG Law, Eversheds, and Shepherd & Wedderburn and he also held a variety of management roles and responsibility for various key institutional accounts.

More recently, Colin spent over 5 years as CCO of Almis International a growing financial technology company in the UK banking market, with responsibilities including both sales and account management.

Josif Grace, CEO & founder of Legado said:

“Colin understands the potential ”“ and increasing need ”“ for personal data storage within the digital experience offered by financial institutions, having worked in both the finance and technology sectors both domestically and internationally. We are delighted Colin has decided to take up this role and help us scale the business, laying the groundwork for continued success.”

Colin McKay said:

“The team has already demonstrated an ability to develop a scalable product and close early enterprise deals, and the market’s clearly starting to open up. So it’s a very exciting time to be coming on board….”

Edinburgh named as one of the UK’s leading tech cities

Edinburgh has been named as a UK’s leading tech cities in the UK thanks to its combination of high levels of VC funding, available tech job, advertised tech salaries, number of current and future high-growth tech companies, according to new analysis for the UK’s Digital Economy Council.

Rewarding skilled tech talents

In Edinburgh, skilled tech talent can see job offers with salaries averaging £58,405 for a new role. This is the highest in the UK outside of London and the South East. There are now over 2,000 tech job vacancies in the city, an increase of 85% since last year.

Sandy McKinnon, Partner at Pentech Ventures, said:

“Edinburgh has steadily been growing as a tech hub over the past few years and this list recognises that. The combination of world-class universities, established IT businesses and unicorns like Skyscanner and FanDuel means there is a lot of exciting talent and innovation in the city. We’re seeing this with newcomers like TravelNest, Desana, Amiqus, Biomage and many others that are disrupting traditional industries – there really is so much potential around the city.”

Investment

Tech companies in Edinburgh have raised £117 million through 47 venture rounds, the second highest number of rounds in the UK. These include health tech Current Health (£32.5), foodtech Parsley Box (£17m), and tidal energy company Nova Innovation (£6.4m).

30% of new unicorns created this year I the UK are established outside of London, including Interactive Investor in Glasgow.

Digital Minister Chris Philp said:

“It’s brilliant to see Edinburgh ranking in the top five regional cities for UK tech, with innovative Scottish startups helping tackle some of the world’s major challenges.

“Capitalising on this brilliant growth across the whole of the UK is part of our mission to level up and we are supporting Scottish companies with pro-innovation policies to help people and get the skills they need.”

Levelling Up Power Tech League 2021:

Cambridge
Manchester
Oxford
Edinburgh
Bristol
Leeds
Birmingham
Newcastle
Cardiff
Belfast

Photo by saifullah hafeel from Pexels

Growing International Diversity of Fintech SMEs in Scotland

Fintech has accelerated as a global innovation movement during the pandemic and Scotland is making a positive contribution to this force of change in the digital economy

FinTech Scotland has confirmed that the number of international fintech SMEs in the SME community has grown by over 40% over the past twelve months, complementing the growth of local start-up and growth enterprises.

In recent months companies such as YayPay and Pace AP from the USA, WeFund from Australia and Pulse Market from Ireland have become part of the growing Fintech Scotland community.

The diverse origination of the international SMEs in Scotland’s Fintech community is highlighted by the visual below.

This growing global influence in the Scotland fintech community was a key theme of this year’s Fintech Festival which concluded last Thursday its four-week programme of sixty plus events, innovation meet-ups and conferences.

The Festival included FinTech Scotland’s collaboration with Scottish Development International and UK Department for International Trade Festival to host events with enterprises in Australian, USA and Asia to highlight inward investment and export opportunities.

The global fintech opportunities was also one of the themes discussed at the Accelerating UK FinTech Conference’ hosted by FinTech Scotland last week, with presentations from Fintech leaders across the UK including Ron Kalifa, Regional bodies and Government Ministers.

FinTech Scotland used the conference to release a “Building a Global Fintech Cluster” prospectus (brochure) to further build on the momentum driving fintech innovation and collaboration.

Commenting, the Executive Chair of Fintech Scotland, Stephen Ingledew said

“The ongoing collaboration of inspiring FinTech leaders will enable us grasp the global innovation opportunities and the UK wide conference in Glasgow was an ideal opportunity to demonstrate this with colleagues and friends from all corners of our country”

Commenting on the FinTech Scotland Festival, CEO of FinTech Scotland Nicola Anderson said,

This year’s festival has reinforced the dynamism, breadth, and capability of fintech innovation in Scotland. We were privileged to be joined by so many fintech and industry leaders sharing experiences, knowledge and opportunities. We’re looking to more collaboration and to supporting the digital and green economy through continued fintech innovation.”

Scottish fintech Legado partners with MoneyHub

Today, Scottish fintech Legado announced a new partnership with open finance company Moneyhub.

Moneyhub customers will benefit from Legado’s encrypted personal Digital Vault services , enabling them to store their pension, life insurance and mortgage statements and policy documents securely and electronically.

By holding all those documents from different providers in one place, Moneyhub users can get a clearer picture of their financial histories and plan for the future. They will also be able to securely share those documents with selected third parties, such as advisers, friends and family. Each user will receive their own personal, portable and access-controlled vault, with features including after-death sharing and data integrations.

Legado is backed by UK insurer M&G and Edinburgh-based global platform-as-a-service provider FNZ, both part of the FinTech Scotland cluster.

Sam Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub said:

“As an Open Finance and Open Banking leader, Moneyhub truly is a hub for money, offering connections to pension and wealth management accounts, banking, insurance and investment, and more. And one thing all the various account types have in common is paperwork, which is why we have partnered with Legado to offer our clients a market-leading digital vault solution.”

Josif Grace, CEO & Founder of Legado said:

“As two technology leaders focused on helping businesses create exceptional digital experiences and consumers better prepare for the future, this partnership made a lot of sense. We are delighted to be working with the team at MoneyHub to create a world-class proposition.”

Scotland’s digital roles grow by over 25% year on year

Scotland’s tech sector is going through a rapid growth according to the UK’s Secretary of State for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

New figures released today show tech jobs in Glasgow and Edinburgh have increased by more than 25% in the past two years, way above the UK’s average.

According to Adzuna IT-related vacancies account for 13% of all UK job vacancies whilst this number is 30% in Edinburgh and 28% in Glasgow.

Today 135,000 people are employed by Scottish tech startups and scaleups. This is the 3rd highest number in the UK after the South East and London.

Software developers and data scientists are in high demand fo r the tech sector. Developers in Edinburgh and Glasgow can command an average salary of £45,000 or £55,000 for more senior positions.

There is an increasing demand for senior-level employees across all areas of Scottish tech. For instance, 89% of available roles for IT System Architects are all for senior positions.

Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said:

“Scottish tech is booming and this thriving sector is creating exciting opportunities up and down the country.

“The UK government is determined to see this success continue and is investing heavily to help people in Scotland get the skills they need to seize the opportunities on offer and build back better from the pandemic.”

2021 is also a great year for investment with UK Tech companies having raised £13.5 billion in the first half of this yearend Scotland raising £446 million, the highest number so far.

Fintech is one of the biggest sectors for fundraising in the UK generally and in Scotland more specifically. The biggest fundraising round in 2021 so far was for the Kirkcaldy-based fintech Paysend, which raised £90.5m in Series B funding.

Dr George Windsor, Head of Insights at Tech Nation said:

“Edinburgh is proving to be one of the fastest-growing tech cities in the UK, with a higher number of opportunities and salaries compared to other cities. Glasgow is also making a name for itself as a destination for tech workers, with some of the best cost of living standards compared to the median tech salary of the whole UK. With scaling companies in sectors such as fintech and health tech, Scotland’s tech sector is only expected to grow in the next few years.”

Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

Festival of Fintech Innovation Shaping the Emerging Digital Economy

A rich diversity of innovative participants and initiatives will be showcased at this year’s fintech festivals in Scotland which gets underway from today

For the next 4 weeks, Scotland will be the stage of more than 50 events bringing alive the burgeoning impact of fintech leaders and capabilities which are shaping many elements of the emerging digital economy.

The festival, organised under the umbrella of Fintech Scotland, is in its fourth year and will build on the impactful platform of previous years in demonstrating how financial innovation is supporting citizens, business, regulators and government build towards economic and social recovery after the pandemic.

This year’s festival is even more diverse with a broad range of innovation themes and participants form fintech entrepreneurs, large global enterprises, universities, the public sector and the regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is hosting half a dozen events on topics such as cryptocurrency, sustainability and the regulatory sandbox.

The festival has a significant global reach with participation organised with fintech innovators in the USA, Europe, Australia working in conjunction with Scottish Development International and UK Govt Department of International Trade.

The formal kick off is the Fintech Summit, a hybrid online and in person event at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh organised by online publisher Digit

The festival will conclude on the 14^th of October with an all-day in person UK wide FinTech Conference at the University of Strathclyde Technology & Innovation Centre organised by Canongate Publishing and The Times.

This high-profile event hosted by Fintech Scotland, well bring together speakers from across the UK fintech centres in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as presentations from UK Government and Scottish Government Ministers and Ron Kalifa, the author of the Treasury’s recently commissioned Fintech Review.

Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said:

“We’re looking forward to connecting with colleagues as we welcome the return of some face-to-face events as well as a variety of digital and virtual events. The range of topics, contributions and organisations taking part really demonstrates the breadth, expertise and diversity that drives fintech innovation in Scotland.”

Fiona MacKinnon, responsible for business events at VisitScotland said:

“We’re delighted to once again support the FinTech Scotland Festival. It’s an opportunity to come together to learn, connect and collaborate both virtually and face to face. This year we’re extending a warm welcome to delegates from over 30 countries and look forward to learning from a global community and sharing our own knowledge and expertise.”