Nexves, a plucky FinTech startup exceeding all expectations of what your Bank Account is Capable of
Who is behind Nexves?
I am Chris Herd, founder of Nexves. I am an entrepreneur who believes the internet and technology should enable the world to be a far better place. I have led multi-million pound international refurbishment projects, startup growth across an entire nation, sat on the board of directors for a social enterprise managing £80m worth of housing stock and advised a number of businesses on their growth strategies and innovation initiatives. I am bootstrapping Nexves while continuing as a semi-pro footballer in the highland league.
Our principal engineer has seen first-hand what we are up against. A former senior developer at JP Morgan Chase, verteran of the US military cyber security space and a few personal startups, Trey is leading the charge on the implementation of our product vision.
Our investor is a veteran of disruption. The founder/CEO of, perhaps, the most disruptive Scottish unicorn of the last decade, we believe we have the right mix of expertise, passion and guile to leave a mark on the industry.
Why did you decide to launch your own fintech?
About a year ago I was in the process of deciding my next career move. While talking to Venture Capitalists, MBA Programmes, Large Startups and investors it became clear that my vision of the world was radically different than the future most of them saw. That inspired me to explore the things I was seeing in far more detail. I had the offer of investment in a few product ideas I had previously conceived but during further research phases with potential consumers it became clear that what I was trying to create was a feature of a platform and not the product itself. Those conversation helped crystallise the idea for Nexves in my mind.
At the same time, I was beginning to spot patterns of issues experienced by my family and friends. Why was my Grandmother paying 3X what my parents were for the same service from Sky, my brother paying 2X more than I was for the same mobile phone contract, or my sister paying more for her flat insurance than I was for my house? Fundamentally, I surmised, these were intelligence problems which could be solved by technology. Who had the information needed to fill these knowledge gaps? Our banks. Open banking in particular inspired me to dream of potential application, enabling innovation which was previously impossible.
Banks were facing their own problems. Interest rates have plummeted to levels which are borderline offensive while making us poorer (interest lower than inflation) and governments are overseeing legislation which ensures the wealth gap continues to widen. When I considered the implications of all these things it became clear that a financial platform could operate at the intersection of spending, saving, investing and tokenisation which would let us harness the power and influence of large-scale collaboration. Banks have hundreds of thousands of customers, imagine group purchasing on an industrial, national then global scale. All we require is technology which enables that collaboration or organisation of action and that is what we are creating.
So what is Nexves?
The future of money and the internet. We are innovating around existing products and services to provide ramp to participation in that future with as few obstacles as possible. We realise that the majority of the world is going to wake up tomorrow and begin using a cryptographically secure wallet or cryptocurrency, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t provide opportunities for them to be exposed to these things.
Phase 1 of that plan involves 3 parts
Part1 sees us tokenise interest on the money stored in your wallet, reinvesting that capital in asset classes reserved for the richest 1%. On your own you can’t personally invest in startup companies, commercial real estate, private equity or a number of other assets. Together we can not only invest in these things but actively influence their success while simultaneously growing our wealth. The tokens you receive will be equivalent to your proportion of funds on the platform as a whole. Have 10% of the money on it? You will receive 10% of the user distributed tokens equating to 10% of user ownership of the fund and any future returns. What this establishes is an asset-backed hard currency.
Part 2 see’s the establishment of a comparative data product. Where phase 1 enables us to create the digital currency, phase 2 lets us use it to purchase the data necessary to make it intelligent. Where you have sky TV we would pay you to reveal which packages you have. We will then benchmark your spending against every other user on the platform. Where you are paying more than someone else for the same thing we will tell you how much you could save and how to do it. This wouldn’t be true only for sky, but every recurring expense you have. Eventually this free service would give birth to a premium product which undertakes these negotiations automatically on your behalf.
Phase 3 creates an influence market place. Imagine 100,000 people sharing a similar message on their social media profile urging their follower to download an app we are invested in or 1m people embarking on their local supermarket to demand they stock a product they are invested in. By paying people to act in their own self-interest everyone else benefits and that is revolutionary.
We are currently working out the mechanics of the platform but anticipate a full launch of the service before Christmas.
One final thing, how would you like to earn free bitcoin? Use Nexves to purchase certain products and services online and we will literally give you free bitcoin as cashback. You get to begin using it without ever having to buy any.
So, what is Nexves? Everything you need from a bank, but more than you’d ever expect.
How Returners can address the FinTech skills gaps and increase diversity
As the FinTech sector in Scotland is rapidly growing there is the need to consider a variety of talent pools in order to fill the skills gaps. Women Returners, the UK experts in enabling the return to work of highly-qualified professional women after an extended career break, has received Scottish Government funding to manage a cross-company returner programme within FinTech for employers in Scotland.
Hazel Little, Coaching and Programme Manager, Women Returners says “This is an excellent cost-effective opportunity for FinTech companies to address skills gaps and increase diversity with gender, age and experience. Returners are a relatively untapped talent pool that bring a wealth of professional experience, maturity and knowledge to the business.”
The Returners to Business Services Scotland Programme follows the success of the Returners to Financial Services Scotland Programme which was launched earlier this year in partnership with 12 leading financial companies including RBS, Standard life, Prudential, TSB and CYBG. All participating companies have reported that the programme has been a success for their business and over 75% of the returners have been offered ongoing roles, a testament to the high calibre of talent on the programme.
About the programme
The Returners to Business Services Scotland programme will enable Scottish employers to access and support 1-5 returning professionals in Edinburgh and/or Glasgow in a highly cost-effective way. Employers will be within business services including fintech, financial, legal and consultancy. The placement will run for 16 weeks, November 2018 to February 2019, and will be driven by employers’ recruitment needs.
Women Returners will provide employers with expert consultation, best practice guidance, promotional and manager support, including a returnship toolkit, programme advertising and line manager training. Returners will receive Career Returners Coaching Programme through four group workshops. The full cost of this is covered by the government funding.
Participating employers will provide CV worthy work (either a project or BAU role) and an internal buddy and mentor and will pay the returner salary at a professional level. There will be a good possibility of permanent employment at the end of the programme.
The business benefits
Employers will be able to tap into the wealth of returner talent in Scotland. The Returners to Financial Services Programme received over 450 applications with many employers hiring additional returners based on the high calibre of talent that they met with during the recruitment process.
Employers can increase diversity (age/gender/experience). This programme, which is aimed at professional women, enables employers to target business areas where they would like increased diversity. The previous programme filled several placements within IT, an area which is notoriously difficult to attract women.
Refill the female talent pipeline and improve the gender pay gap. Bringing experienced women back in at a level in line with their experience helps to build the female talent pipeline at professional levels and to address the gender pay gap.
An interview with Fraser Edmond, co-founder of Broker Insights
Earlier this month, we met with Fraser Edmond, CEO and co-founder of the Insurtech Broker Insights. The company recently won an award and is growing at pace. We wanted to know more about Broker Insights and the reasons for its success.
Fraser, could you tell us a bit more about yourself and your career?
I was 25 years in Aviva, latterly the Broker Distribution Director before leaving to set-up Broker Insights. In my early career I started as an insurance underwriter (writing policies), then moved to London for a few years. There I held a number of development and operational management roles. For the last 15 years my focus has been in the sales and distribution space having worked with banks, retailers and affinity brands to distribute personal insurance products. More recently moving to commercial insurance, working with all shapes and sizes of insurance brokers.
How did Broker Insights come about?
When you have a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo, you feel there’s got to be a better way of doing something. You have a moment of clarity and realise how to do’ differently. It’s then a case of assembling the best possible blend of skills to deliver on that vision and go for it.
Within Scottish fintechs, insurtechs are rare? How do you explain this?
That’s a tough one, my best guess is that Scotland is a massive employer in the banking sector, which has seen unprecedented change in recent years which inevitably leads to fintech start-ups around the sector. In terms of insurtech, I think it’s a few years behind fintech in general coupled with Insurance being very London centric with less roles in Scotland and that starts to explain the imbalance a little bit.
You recently scooped £75K at the Scottish Edge12 Awards. Congratulations!
Do you know what made you win?
The feedback we received from Scottish Edge across the various rounds centred around solving a real market challenge, being unique with first mover advantage and globally scalable, coupled with the experience of the team and our early demonstrable delivery.
Will the prize help you accelerate your development?
The prize accelerates our rate of recruitment ahead of current cashflow forecasts, which will drive growth and product development, and hopefully help us capitalise on our first mover advantage.
You have some very impressive investors backing you up. How did you go about identifying and convincing them?
We knew we had the sector knowledge and all the good disciplines that you learn in corporate. Our weakness was the tech know how’ and start-up dynamics were new to us. With Chris [Van Der Kuyl] and Paddy [Burns] we struck gold in complementing our teams skills. They needed no identification as their track record speaks for itself. In terms of convincing them to be involved, that was everything you would expect. We also had the good fortune that our business aligns with their interests of being first to market with a new concept, in data and technology and our concept was globally scalable.
Would you have any advice for young fintech start-ups?
Don’t be pre-built technology looking for a problem to solve. Really understand a sector, then build technology that solves an existing market problem, challenge or customer experience. Scan other sectors for technology solutions that could translate to your opportunity. Consult widely on your business concept and don’t be afraid to refine it until its really clear and focussed. Most importantly, you need the right blend of skills in your team with the right mind set and you’re ready to make a difference.
FinTech Scotland Announces Board Members
FinTech Scotland has today announced the board members who will work with CEO Stephen Ingledew and team to oversee the strategic plans for making Scotland a top five global fintech centre.
The details of the board members follow on from the announcement last month confirming the new chair of FinTech Scotland, David Fergusson, the Chief Executive of Nucleus Financial.
The board members represent a cross section of the fintech economy, including representatives from the six recently announced strategic partners.
The board members are:
David Fergusson (Chair) – Chief Executive, Nucleus Financial
Jude Cook – Co-Founder and CEO, ShareIn
Hugh Edmiston – Corporate Services Director, University of Edinburgh
Louise Smith ”“ Head of Design, RBS
Linda Hanna ”“ Managing Director, Scottish Enterprise
Kent Mackenzie ”“ Partner and Global Head of fintech in Scotland, Deloitte
Anneli Ritari-Stewart – Managing Director, iProspect, Dentsu Aegis Network
Melba Foggo ”“ Managing Director, UK Consulting, Sopra Steria
Yvonne Dunn ”“ Partner, Pinsent Masons
Neil Cunningham – Partnerships Director, Equifax UK
Paul Ryan – Director of Watson Artificial Intelligence & Data, IBM
In addition, the following will attend board meetings in an observer role:
Maggie Craig ”“ Head of Scotland, Financial Conduct Authority
Karen Rodger ”“ Head of Financial Services and fintech Policy, Scottish Government
Commenting on the board appointments, Stephen Ingledew said: “I’m delighted with the diverse range of experience and expertise we will have around the Board table to guide us in taking forward the FinTech Scotland plans. Each individual is passionate about making fintech a major success in Scotland and, at a personal and collective level, they will provide wise counsel and guidance in driving our core values of collaboration, innovation and inclusion.”
The first board meeting took place on Tuesday 26thJune, reflecting on the last six months and focussing on strategic priorities for the rest of the year.
FinTech Scotland announces additional strategic partners
FinTech Scotland announced the appointment of IBM and Equifax as additional strategic partners.
IBM: The company has been leading the way in terms of AI for many years now with Watson, the AI platform for business, powered by data. As an AI system, Watson can turn unstructured business data into actionable insights that enhance decision making. AI is playing a major role in the development of innovative and disruptive fintech solutions, allowing for seamless processes for customers and companies dealing with finances.
Equifax: Data is the fuel that will drive innovation and it was therefore important to partner with a global data insights provider. Equifax, have a rich heritage of helping companies develop innovative solutions underpinned by market leading consumer and business data.
The addition of IBM and Equifax means that FinTech Scotland has now appointed six strategic partners following last month’s announcement confirming the selection of Pinsent Masons, Deloitte, Dentsu Aegis Network and Sopra Steria.
“Today marks the start of a promising collaboration with Fintech Scotland to grow innovative solutions and practices” said Paul Ryan, Director for Watson at IBM. “This is particularly significant as financial organisations look to further incorporate data and AI insights to provide a better service for their customers and stakeholders, from boosting customer engagement, creating conversational agents or even supporting client representatives as they interact with customers.”
Neil Cunningham, Partnerships Director at Equifax, said: “The Fintech Scotland vision aligns perfectly with our own
aspirations to be the de facto bureau partner for data driven innovation. Increasingly our customers are looking to
us to help solve their problems by creating unique solutions in collaboration with fintech partners. I think we’ve all
been impressed by the blend of complementary strategic partners Stephen has been able to assemble, and excited
at the potential to drive innovation through collaboration. ”
Stephen Ingledew, CEO at FinTech Scotland, said: “Strategic partners of this quality supporting the fintech ecosystem in Scotland will help us achieve our ambition to be in the top 5 fintech hubs in the world. I’m pleased to have a diverse set of strategic partners and with their expertise and global reach, they will play a crucial role in ensuring Scotland’s position on the world stage.”
Previse named as one of the hottest fintechs in Europe
Previse, the global instant supplier payments decisions company with an office in Glasgow, has been recognised as one of the hottest fintechs in Europe by Fintech50 at an exclusive ceremony in London on Wednesday 20 June.
The Fintech50 is a prestigious list of the top fintech companies in Europe, chosen by an expert panel of leaders from around the world, representing investors, financial organisations, global techs and innovation leaders. Previse was selected from over 1,800 fintechs from all over Europe.
In choosing the final 50, the judges look for companies with a track record as well as growth potential for the future. The list included Revolut, the retail FX company which this year was valued at over £1 billion, as well as a number of well-known fintechs serving institutional investors.
This is the latest in a year of positive announcements for Previse. The company opened a new Glasgow office in October 2017, secured R&D funding from Scottish Enterprise and appointed business heavyweights David Tyler, Chairman of Sainsburys, and British Land Chairman, John Gildersleeve, to its advisory board. It also announced partnerships with the leading provider of digital supply chain solutions, Virtualstock, and social enterprise, Auticon.
Earlier this month, co-founder and CEO of Previse, Paul Christensen, was appointed to Innovate Finance and City of London Corporation’s Fintech Strategy Group. The group has been tasked with driving the success of the world-leading UK fintech sector.
Paul Christensen, CEO and co-founder of Previse said: “We are pleased to be included in this prestigious list of the hottest fintechs in Europe. Being selected out of a pool of 1,800 companies is strong validation of the importance of the slow payments problem we’re solving, how we’re solving it, and our tremendous team.
“Slow supplier payments are damaging the world economy. Every year hundreds of thousands of businesses which are fundamentally sound, creating good jobs and with potentially transformative ideas and products close purely as a result of their cash flow challenges.
“Previse solves this problem by enabling corporate buyers to pay suppliers of all sizes, instantly, making slow payments a thing of the past. We use hundreds of millions of data points and sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms to provide a score of a corporate buyer’s likelihood to pay the invoice. This allows funders to instantly release funds to the supplier to meet the invoice. Suppliers get cash on delivery. Widespread adoption of InstantPay will have a major positive impact on the economy.”
Be a ”˜Young Legend’ with the Visit Scotland Business Events team this year
VisitScotland’s Business Events team, responsible for attracting meetings & conferences into Scotland has recently launched a new award for young people to become one of VisitScotland’s three Young Legends’ part of Scotland’s Year of Young People.
As the first ever digital only Legends’campaign, the call has gone out for talented individuals to get involved.
A reason for fintech entrepreneurs to get involved
The Young Legends’ awards will recognise innovative work in key sectors for Scotland ”“ of which Fintech is key. The Business Events team are looking for young people (aged between 18 -26 years) who are building businesses of their own, growing existing businesses or conducting research & innovation in this sector.
They are looking to reward ideas and innovation which has the potential tobe legendary’ in the widest sense. In this connected world it will no doubt be work which has national and international reach whilst being rooted in Scotland which has a long history of being one of the financial capitals of the world.
Beyond fintech
The Young Legends award will celebrate Scotland’s reputation for invention and innovation by recognising leading-edge work. Of course, it won’t just be the financial world which provides this innovative swell of activity amongst this age group. Being a Young Legend’ could mean you workfrom any of the which country’s key economic and academic research sectors such as Technology, Engineering, Energy and Marine Biology or the creative arts including design or food & drink. Entering the awards also means the shortlisted finalists will be able to network amongst this talented group.
What about the prize?
The three lucky “Young Legends” will win a unique opportunity to see their work championed internationally within the Legends campaign throughout 2019. The Young Legends’ awardsceremony will be held in November 2018.
The awards are part of a larger digital campaign, Legends’ by VisitScotland Business Events which launched last November. The “Legends” digital campaign highlights a specific Scottish economic orsocial theme every two months, sharing original online content, blogs and video podcasts from every region of Scotland.
The sectors featured are: Technology; Education; Life Sciences; Engineering; Digital; Marine; Creative; Energy; Health; Space; Food & Drink and Surgery. The campaign will run for two years in total using the hashtag #ideasbecomelegend and the ultimate aim is to attract to Scotland even more business events (conferences, meetings and congresses) from each sector.
Neil Brownlee, Head of Business Visits & Events at VisitScotland, said:
“Scotland’s reputation for innovation stretches back hundreds of years and continues to this day. We think it’s time toshowcase the breadth and depth of the country’s young talent who are heirs to the many famous Scottish inventions and innovations that are known throughout the world. I encourage all young people working in Scotland to apply for the Awards ”“ we know there are some unsung heroes outthere who deserve to be recognised for their amazing work and pioneering spirit.”
LendingCrowd hails record month for deals
Hot on the heels of its recent £2 million funding round, peer-to-peer (P2P) platform LendingCrowd is celebrating a record month of lending activity.
The Edinburgh-based fintech company, launched in 2014 by CEO Stuart Lunn and chairman Bill Dobbie, completed loan deals in May totalling more than £3 million for small businesses across Britain.
Head of Origination Adrian Innes said: “It was a great team effort to get to this milestone, helped by our improved processes and a fantastic working relationship with our community of introducers.”
He added: “Not only was May a record for us in terms of the total value of loans, the number of deals completed also hit a new high, up 40% compared with our previous best.”
In March, LendingCrowd announced that angel syndicate Equity Gap had led a £2m external funding round that also included the Scottish Investment Bank and private investors from Scotland’s entrepreneurial and finance scene.
The company, which is fully authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and launched its debut television advertising campaign in March, is now targeting total lending of about £40m for 2018 ”“ more than double last year’s figure.
Mr Lunn said: “The support from our investors highlights the progress we’ve made since our launch in late 2014 and the potential for us to scale significantly this year.
“I’m confident that, as we expand our sales and marketing activities, we’ll continue to grow our loan book as more small businesses turn to us for their funding needs.”
LendingCrowd was one of the first P2P platforms to launch an Innovative Finance ISA and all of its investment accounts can be held within this wrapper for tax-free returns*.
*Capital at risk. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each investor and may be subject to change in future.
Fintech Scotland Announces Inaugural Chairman and Strategic Partners
We are pleased to announce the appointment of our first Chairman and strategic partners.
The appointments were confirmed this week at the joint Scottish Government and industry Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) meeting chaired by the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon and Chair of Scottish Financial Enterprise and CYBG, Jim Pettigrew.
At the FiSAB meeting our CEO, Stephen Ingledew, set out FinTech Scotland’s ambitious vision and strategy to make Scotland a top five global fintech centre by 2020 that is recognised for data driven fintech innovation delivering positive social outcomes.
FinTech Scotland aims to encourage data driven innovation and collaboration activity across Scotland to deliver inclusive growth and achieve critical mass in the sector by:
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Facilitating an integrated and innovative fintech ecosystem
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Supporting innovative and entrepreneurial purpose driven fintech enterprises
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Encouraging development of fintech skills, diversity and inclusion
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Developing fintech community engagement, inclusion and collaboration
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Building international fintech engagement and collaboration
To deliver a range of initiatives, FinTech Scotland has partnered with global enterprises who have a strong presence in Scotland as well as being significant international leaders in their fields:
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Deloitte: the market leading professional services firm providing global expertise to help drive fintech growth in Scotland and international hubs across the world
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Pinsent Masons: the lawyers recognised as a global legal leader in fintech and Open Banking
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Dentsu Aegis Network: one of the largest and most respected international digital media and marketing agencies
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Sopra Steria: a major global digital transformation organisation with a proven reputation for software, solutions and delivery.
On confirming the strategic partners, Stephen Ingledew said, “It is a privilege to be working with such world-renowned organisations who are committed to supporting Scotland’s fintech economy. Following many conversations with a range of large firms over recent months, these strategic partners demonstrated their commitment and market leadership which will support our aspirations and plans. We are currently in discussions with a view to confirming additional strategic partners in the coming weeks”
David Ferguson, the founder and Chief Executive of the very successful, Edinburgh based fintech business, Nucleus Financial, has been appointed to chair the board. Ferguson was appointed by The Treasury in December 2016 as one of two regional fintech envoys for Scotland with a remit forbuilding regional and national networks which seek to ensure a greater level of co-ordination and collaboration between fintech companies, government, investors and regional fintech hubs.
Stephen Ingledew commented: “It was essential for us to have a highly respected fintech leader chairing our board and David, who has built one of the most successful businesses in the country managing over £14 billion on their wrap platform, ticked all the boxes and more.”
Speaking about his appointment, David Ferguson added: “It is a great privilege to have been appointed as chair of the FinTech Scotland board. Fintech is a fantastic opportunity for Scotland and I am excited to build on the great strides we have recently made to position ourselves as a global leader. The country should have a bright and prosperous fintech future ahead of it and I am greatly looking forward to helping Stephen and the team drive the sector forward and deliver meaningful action to help both start-ups to flourish and the more substantial financial services establishments to modernise.”
The strategic partners are joining David Ferguson, Scottish Enterprise and Edinburgh University on FinTech Scotland’s board. Additional board members will be announced soon which will include representatives from Scotland’s fintech community.
15 million potential users for Pensions Dashboard
The dashboard launch date (end 2019) is still seen as achievable but will need to be built to support such a high demand. The results of this research should therefore help establishing the requirements.
A need for flexibility
Anthony Rafferty, Managing Director Origo, says: “It is imperative that the industry is able to deliver and maintain all the underlying services and data in a way that is secure, robust and scalable to handle 15 million consumers.”
Flexibility is therefore paramount from day 1 as Anthony Rafferty explained: “Through our role as the industry’s not-for-profit FinTech, we have also been advising on the impact of this large consumer base on pension provider systems. The demands on some provider systems, as requests from 15 million consumers come in and information goes out, will need to be managed effectively ”“ all while still providing a secure and efficient online service.”
Customer outcome as a key driver
In parallel with the development of the Pension Dashboard, the Single Financial Guidance Body is set to launch in order to help people with important and complex decisions when it comes to retirement. For this body and for existing financial advisers it is important that the Pension Dashboard not only meet requirements from an end customer perspective but also those of 3rdparties.
Rafferty continues: “Consumer engagement and access to advice and guidance are crucial to improved retirement planning. The additional capacity required to enable the Single Financial Guidance Body and financial advisers to access a consumer’s Pensions Dashboard needs to be planned for.
“Whether the decision is to start with a single government-backed dashboard, or with multiple dashboards – it is imperative that the underlying infrastructure, the plumbing, be developed with an eye to future demand and requirements and be maintained in a cost-effective and efficient way that consistently delivers sensitive information securely. “