Leading fintech founder and SEP investment director join FinTech Scotland Board

Jules Salmond, Founder and CEO of CienDos, and Andrew Davidson, Investment Director at Scottish Equity Partners, have joined FinTech Scotland’s Board as the Cluster Management Organisation continues its journey driving the growth of the fintech cluster in Scotland.

The appointments are part of a strategic refresh, giving the Board a more active role – including in shaping strategy – focused on ensuring the Board can provide input aligned with the global market opportunity and future ambition of the cluster. 

Jules Salmond is a second-time founder with experience of building businesses in the UK and internationally. She was part of the executive team of Cerico, a technology and data business, before selling it to Dow Jones Inc, and has strong channel/partnership experience. She co-founded and leads CienDos, a Glasgow-based data company that closes the gaps in what financial institutions know about the businesses they lend to and insure, delivering data that feeds into lead generation, onboarding, credit, risk and underwriting.

Andrew Davidson focusses on fintech investments at Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), a leading European growth equity firm. SEP is a specialist growth equity firm investing in enterprise technology companies — a growing part of the Scottish fintech sector. SEP has a strong track record in fintech investing, including current Scottish fintech AutoRek. Andrew’s real-time activity in the market and experience of how investors assess and fund growing businesses will help FinTech Scotland support firms looking to scale up.

Aleks Tomczyk, Chief Executive at FinTech Scotland, said:
“As a founder and an investor, Jules and Andrew bring practical experience of what it takes to build companies and fund them – insight that will help us support fintechs to grow in Scotland and internationally, and raise money to power their growth, as well as helping the wider sector make the most of global opportunities. We are delighted that they have agreed to join the Board and look forward to their input.”

Jules Salmond, Founder and CEO of CienDos, said:
“Fintech Scotland didn’t exist on my first founding journey, so having FinTech Scotland in my corner as we are building CienDos has been game changing, providing key sector insights and access to scaling opportunities such as the award-winning FRIL programme helping build our strategic partnership with Equifax. I’m delighted to be joining the Board so I can help the organisation support more founders like me – and hopefully accelerate their growth.”

Andrew Davidson, Investment Director at Scottish Equity Partners, said:
“Scotland has built a strong fintech cluster with some genuinely impressive companies in it. The next phase is about helping more of them scale. I’m delighted to be able to bring the new perspective of a growth equity investor to the Board and hope this will be valuable to all involved.”