£100m raised by LendingCrowd to support SMEs
Scottish fintech, LendingCrowd, just announced a funding deal with Barclays Bank, and a large global investment firm to support SMEs across Britain as they recover from the COVID19 pandemic and return to growth.
LendingCrowd was recently accredited as a lender by the British Business Bank to deliver the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). The £100m funding will be delivered via RLS and also through LendingCrowd’s popular term lending product.
The RLS was launched to support UK firms as they recover and grow. Funds can be used for any legitimate business purpose, including managing cashflow, growth and investment. It is designed to appeal to businesses that can afford to take out additional finance for these purposes.
lendingCrowd will provide RLS loans up to £500,000 over a three, four or five-year term. This is the biggest capital markets deal in LendingCrowd’s eight-year history, with operations expanding and headcount growing by a third to manage the provision of this funding to the SMEs that need it most.
Stuart Lunn, founder and CEO of LendingCrowd, said:
“It is hard to imagine a more difficult business environment than the past 18-24 months, which has seen many small and medium-sized businesses severely limited in how much they can trade, and trying to operate under rapidly changing restrictions, through no fault of their own.
“Many of these SMEs are good, solid businesses that desperately need some extra support. However, there remains a significant unmet demand for business lending, particularly in the £250,000 to £500,000 space. It is crucial for businesses, and for our wider economic recovery, that this demand is properly served.
“We have invested in our tech-enabled lending platform and, together with our funding partners, we will offer businesses automated checks, faster decisions and competitive rates for small business loans. This saves time and hassle for customers, accountants and intermediaries who support these SME borrowers.
“The next few years will require a real collective effort to get our economy back on track ”“ at LendingCrowd we are determined to play our part.”
Those who wish to apply for a business loan, including RLS, through LendingCrowd can do so here: https://www.lendingcrowd.com/recovery-loan-scheme
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.”
Introducing mnAI to the fintech ecosystem
mnAI is a multi-award winning data, insight and analytics platform that provides information on all unlisted companies in the UK. It is the UK’s largest and most comprehensive source of data – a single, unified source that holds 10bn+ data points on 8m+ UK companies. We apply a wide variety of machine learning algorithms and filters so users can access targeted, customised information and insight across industries, sectors, and geographies far more rapidly than is currently possible.
The platform is used by, amongst others, investors, advisors, corporates, professional services, government and educational establishments to improve their insight and efficiency, to enhance and support their operations across several departments, while at the same time reducing their costs.
Ricky, our Managing director in Scotland, tasked with growing the business in Scotland and beyond said:
“With Edinburgh being named as one of the UK’s leading tech cities we are delighted to have become part of the Fintech Scotland ecosystem. Stephen Ingledew and Nicola Anderson have done and continue to do a remarkable job and the whole team at mnAI look forward to developing a very long-standing and close relationship with the Fintech teams across the UK. The power of data is now more valuable than ever and we believe the mnAI platform will only add value to strategic partners across the UK.”
To find out more about our platform and technology please visit us at mnai.tech
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.”
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….”
Origo – Four of our proudest achievements in 2021
Antony Rafferty, CEO of Origo, reflects on four of the Edinburgh-based FinTech’s key achievements over the past year.
While 2021 has been another year that most people are probably glad to see the back of, as this time of year is traditional a period when we take a step back and reflect, I feel as a company we should take the time to consider what we have achieved.
Origo has a 30-year history of delivering technology solutions that make a difference to the financial services industry and to the consumers buying its products and services. Our expertise is in identifying the pain points for the providers, platforms, software companies, and financial advisers in the market and delivering a utility solution that solves the issue and whicheveryone can buy into.
We are proudly based in Edinburgh, but we work collaboratively with companies from the UK and overseas in delivering our industry solutions.
This year there are four areas I would like to highlight where, despite the pandemic, we have been able to help the industry become more efficient, more cost effective and as a result, help deliver better outcomes for consumers.
1. Being selected to build and run the core architecture of the UK Pensions Dashboards.
This year Origo was delighted to be able to announce that Capgemini and Origo had been appointed to supply the central digital architecture for the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP).
Pensions Dashboards will enable pension holders to identify and see displayed their pension policy data, which will help them make more informed decisions around their retirement planning.
This is a project we feel particularly passionate about and Origo was fully committed to progressing pensions dashboards from the day the project was announced. We see it as a major milestone in helping UK citizens to prepare for their futures.
PDP stated that the Capgemini/Origo bid was successful “due to its quality and value for money, plus the credibility and expertise of both parties to deliver the contract.”
2. Driving integration between systems and software.
One of the bugbears of our industry is that systems and software needed to run financial services businesses do not talk to one another and so force the re-keying or manual transfer of data and information between them. Not only does that increase risk to businesses but it makes for inefficient, overly time consuming and so costly operations. The solution is to integrate between companies and systems. In the past that has meant point-to-point integration between individual companies, which is expensive, resource heavy and requires ongoing maintenance and updating as rules, regulation and legislation changes.
As an industry solution, we launched the Origo Integration Hub, which enables participants to integrate once with the Hub and then operate with any other user. Currently, these arefor key operations, such as valuations, account opening, remuneration, transfer tracking and bulk transaction history, and further developments are in hand.
The Hub also helps drive competition and innovation, by levelling the playing field for all players, no matter how deep their pockets.
In 2021 signings to the Hub doubled and we now have over 40 companies integrated, from large providers to innovative new joiners to the market.
3. Doing away with inefficient paper-based systems.
Given we are in the 21st century, it is surprising that paper is still used to the extent that it is in our industry. While tackling operational inefficiencies has not been top of the priority list for financial services firms during the pandemic, for obvious reasons, this is now beginning to receive renewed focus amongst providers as they see it as a means to reduce costs and create operational differentiation in the market.
The Letter of Authority process, which is the way financial advisers notify providers that they are authorised to work with new clients, is a case in point. Currently, advisers have to manually fill in forms and have them signed by the client and then email, or in some cases fax them, to providers. Origo is making a dent in this with our Unipass Letter of Authorityservice, a way for providers to help simplify the current ad hoc way Letters of Authority are processed, creating a utility that delivers greater efficiencies for providers and adviser firms alike.
4. Keeping communications secure.
Cyber security has definitely risen up the priority list for financial services firms in 2021. As an industry we are handling huge amounts of personal and confidential information about individuals, which, if it falls into the hands of criminals, can be used to scam them or steal their identities. This can lead to devastating consequences for individuals as well as fines and reputational damage for the companies involved.
One of the most commonly used ways to communicate, i.e. email, is often the most vulnerable. This vulnerability is why we launched Unipass Mailock as a centralised industry utility to help businesses of all sizes secure their communications.
It encrypts email to keep the contents safe, combined with dual factor authentication, so the sender knows only the intended recipient can open it, and an audit trail is created for compliance purposes.
Two of the industry’s larger providers ”“ Aegon and Royal London ”“ started using Unipass Mailock in the past year to protect their communications with intermediaries and their clients and other companies are in the pipeline to go live.
These are four of our achievements over the past year. We arenot a large company and all that we have achieved is because of the dedication and expertise of our people, who, working together, physically and virtually, have done great things despite the pandemic.
If you haven’t done it already, I highly recommend taking a step back and contemplating your achievements this year. 2021 may not have provided the best environment for success but I will bet you will find you’ve achieved more than you think you have.
Bearer and Trace announce industry partnership
Bearer, the Data security risk platform, has partnered with Trace, a privacy, data security and data governance expert solutions company, to help companies leverage the best of services and software and build a connected compliance programme.
The Trace team brings decades of experience in working with companies to build their data security and data governance capability and apply a proactive Privacy by Design approach. And at Bearer, the team are innovating data risk assessments to build intelligence and stack visibility – meaning customers can scale inventories and surface critical data risks.
Together the teams bring the best blend of human and tech capabilities to help progressive organisations connect the dots for joined up data security, privacy and risk programmes.
“We have been working with Sorcha, and Trace for a number of months now and from the outset, what struck us was her deep expertise in the field while at the same time a fresh perspective that immediately connected with what we do at Bearer. By working together we believe we can offer the industry a very different outlook and bring together a new direction for data security in general.”
Guillaume Montard, CEO Bearer
“Holistic is a word much used – and abused – in this area, but we really are taking that as our North Star in creating this partnership. Together with Bearer, we’re on a mission to break privacy, governance and security out of the silo and help build connected compliance across the ecosystem. We’re going to help organisations properly embed data protection compliance properly so that it informs and enriches everything they do.”
Sorcha Lorimer, Founder Trace
Trace and Bearer’s partnership will kick-off with a complimentary clinic where attendees can pose real life dilemmas to our lead experts. This is ideal for FinTech leaders looking for a fresh perspective on data risk and compliance.
A white paper proposing solutions to some of the most pressing data compliance issues facing organisations will follow, sponsored by the Bearer Data-Sec Lab and community.
AutoRek listed in RegTech100 List
Scottish RegTech company, AutoRek, just announced it has been selected as one of the world’s most innovative RegTech companies as part of the annual RegTech100 list.
Autorek was selected amongst a long list of nearly 1,200 companies produced by RegTech Analyst, a specialist research firm, for its innovative use of technology to solve a significant industry problem and generating efficiency improvements across the compliance function.
The Scottish company is a financial controls, regulatory reporting and data management platform which provides complete and seamless control of data. Despite the pandemic.
Kemal Sangrar, Head of Product, AutoRek, said
“We are delighted to be listed in the RegTech100 for the fourth consecutive year. This award is recognition of our commitment in delivering regulatory reporting solutions to the financial services industry and testimony to innovative strategy underpinning our product. We have had a great year with the launch of AutoRek 6, with many clients looking to upgrade in the coming months.”
Mariyan Dimitrov, Director of Research, RegTech Analyst, added,
“Banks and other financial institutions are investing heavily into AI capabilities to automate highly manual regulatory tasks, support digital onboarding processes and monitor for fraudulent activity. The RegTech100 list helps them filter through all the vendors in the market by highlighting the leading companies in sectors such as identity verification, risk management, communications monitoring, information security and financial crime prevention.”
A full list of the RegTech 100 is available at www.RegTech100.com.
Clearwater Analytics’ IPO Fuels Global Expansion
Clearwater Analytics is on a mission to revolutionise the world of investing.
For more than 15 years, Clearwater Analytics has provided a true SaaS solution for investment accounting and reporting that’s now trusted by more than 1,000 clients worldwide, including institutional investors in insurance, asset management, corporate treasury, the public sector, and more.
In September, Clearwater took an important step in furthering that mission through an IPO. The company is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CWAN.
Although this is an exciting achievement for the company, in many ways it’s business as usual at Clearwater. Clearwater has always prioritisedinvesting a large share of profits ”“ 25%+ back into research and development to ensure the continual improvement of the Clearwater solution and to meet evolving market needs. That commitment continues.
In recent years, Clearwater has also committed to a global expansion that enables the company to grow and support clients around the world. Going public helps support that expansion in Europe, a major part of Clearwater’s global team, where the company recently opened offices in Paris and Frankfurt, in addition to existing offices in London and Edinburgh. Clearwater also operates in the U.S., India, and Singapore.
“Clearwater has rapidly expanded our European client base, including adding some of the largest European financial institutions as clients”, said Colin Clunie, Head of EMEA Operations at Clearwater. “This shows the exciting opportunity we have to continue to grow in the region and deliver to our clients at a local level. It also enables us to attract the highest calibre of diverse talent to support our growth, foster innovation, and create solutions for tomorrow’s challenges.”
The Edinburgh operations centre which serves as a key operations hub for Clearwater has grown by 30% so far in 2021, and that’s expected to continue. Clearwater is building out capabilities at all levels ”“ from recent graduates to senior industry professionals. Further, the European team alone speaks 22 languages. This means Clearwater has the depth and expertise to provide world-class service tailored to the individual needs of its growing client list, regardless of location.
Clearwater’s SaaS solution automates and simplifies the complex tasks associated with investment accounting and reporting while providing clients with a complete and validated investment data set across their portfolios daily. For global teams, Clearwater’s multi-basis, multi-currency solution is accessed simply through a web browser, making it easy to work from any location and trust the entire team has access to a secure, single source of truth for investment data.