AccelerateHER by Investing Women: Bootcamps and Angel Investment opportunities
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Edinburgh: 25th September
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Glasgow: 21st November
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Aberdeen: early 2019 (exact date to be confirmed shortly)
FinTech has arrived in Scotland: Investing in skills will make sure it stays
Article written by Jim Tomaney, chief operating officer, Renovite Technologies Inc.
Historically, among the many things Scotland is applauded for, financial services and innovation sit as two of its longest-standingand best-known accomplishments. This week’s visit from Ivan McKee MSP, the Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation, to several growing FinTech’s in Fife, including our own, demonstrates the extent to which this assertion continues to bear weight; confidence in the sector is high ”“ and for good reason.
For us, Mr McKee’s visit signifies a flagship moment. It recognises Renovite Technologies as an important part of a growing FinTecheco-system that taken together is creating new opportunities for businesses and people up and down the country – whilst positioning Scotland as a central player in the global FinTech market.
New and emerging sectors like financial technology are essential when it comes to planning our economic future. As the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s latest economic forecast showed, we are potentially facing subdued’ economic growth for at least the next five years.Yet, at the same time, it acknowledges that: “The past is an imperfect guide to the future in a rapidly changing global economic, social, political and technological environment.”
To buck this trend and make sure the past does not representthe future, it is imperative that we continue to invest growing sectors andparticularly, in skills and people. As Stephen Ingledew said last year: “In these fast-changingtimes,Scotland punches well above its weight in Fintech. Driven largely by world-renownedexpertisein the use of Data, Scotland is rapidly establishing itself as a significant Fintech hub.”
It is reasons like this ”“ expertise – that we as a company that specialises in payments technology has chosen to invest in Scotland as a base for our operations. Giving people, whether it be through retraining initiatives like CodeClan or through specialist FinTechcourses, the right skills should be an absolute priority in the days ahead.
Today’s consumers continually push for new and innovative products in financial services. Scottish FinTechs have been able to satisfy that demand thanks to a highly skilled and experienced workforce – combined with a supportive business environment.
Remaining agile and responsive to these demands will ensure Scotland continues to enjoy such a strong reputation in the area and its businesses continueto grow.
Thanks to rising demand for better payments software from banks and money management companies, we have grown our team in Scotland by more than three times this year and anticipate tripling this figure again over the next 12-months.
We are only able to do this because we have access to some of the most skilled staff in the global labour market. For this to continue, we must look to grow and develop a workforce that is able to satisfy the market in the future, ensuring Scotland remains a magnet for technology-drivenfinancial services in the future.
Applied Fintech Project at the University of Glasgow
After the many important achievements during its first year of existence, the University of Glasgow Fintech Society is delighted to share its ambitious plans for the upcoming academic year.
Now that the new academic year is approaching, the society aims to develop even more by offering innovative learning opportunities.
A proof of this is the Applied Fintech Project (AFTP), a 7-week-long activity based on experiential learning, which will take place between September and November 2018.
During the working period, the teams will be supported and guided by mentors (University of Glasgow alumni and/or professionals) and they will be asked to prepare a report and a presentation to show their work.
The AFTP will end with a final event on Friday 16th November 2018, during which the teams will have the chance to present in front of an audience of academics, professionals and students. A board of judges will then deliberate which team has presented the best solution to the case.
The event, taking place at Glasgow University Union (GUU), will also represent a great networking opportunity for everyone involved.
The Applied Fintech Project is not only an exciting opportunity for the students and the businesses involved, but also the first project of its kind organised by a student-led society in Scotland.
Fintech Society members will work in teams to map out the challenges and opportunities faced by the businesses with regards to Fintech, drawing on cross-disciplinary research to devise tailored insights and potential solutions for the firm. At the same time, the startup providing the case will benefit from having the opportunity to gain another perspective on the specific Fintech-related issue from university students. Furthermore, the business will havethe chance to promote themselves among university students interested in technology,finance and innovation.
Apart from the kind support received by Orca in the provision of the case, the AFTP is supported by the UofG Fintech Society’s main sponsor, Previse, a successful Fintech startup that uses an artificial intelligence solution to support instant payments between corporates and SMEs.
Blockchain Live 2018
On September 26 in London, Europe’s premier blockchain event will bring the latest and greatest in Blockchain, DLT and Smart Contracts. Blockchain Live 2018 will welcome big names such as Bitfury, ConsenSys and EOS.
For the first time, a meeting of some of the greatest experts in blockchain and DLT will be hosted in London. Amongst others, Nick Szabo, the father of smart contracts; Alex Tapscott, Author of the Blockchain Revolution; Blockchain Guru, Oliver Bussmann and the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s Perianne Boring will share their thoughts.
Blockchain Live 2018 will deliver industry inspired content. The conference will help businesses wishing to harness the potential of blockchain. It will look at the full spectrum from pioneering developers to the new generation of investors and entrepreneurs.
The event will contain a mix of free-to-attend and paid-for content. The paid-for events: the Blockchain Leaders’ Summit and C-Suite Stage, are directed at business leaders who want to learn from real life case studies on strategic implications of blockchain.
The C-Suite events will help attendees make the most of a blockchain enabled future.
There are 7 free-to-attend Industry Stages’ around some verticals such Fintech, Govtech, TechDev, Product Journey, Cryptocurrency, Energy Forum and Creatives including gaming, gambling and entertainment.
You’ll be able to listen from BNP Paribas, SWIFT, London Stock Exchange Group, EDF, Coca-Cola, Bupa and HSBC.
On top of all of this the organisers are bringing 2 new events to Blockchain Live 2018:
Blockchain Bust Up: Live debate on the governance and regulation around Blockchain and DLT
Investor Zone featuring The Start-Up Village and Pitch: a hive of blockchain innovators with new and exciting technologies
To read more and register click here
The Herald Intrapreneurial Conference in association with CivTech®
What is Intrapreneurship?
It is an essential part of a nations landscape to encourage, discuss and focus on Intrapreneurship to ensure that a nation’s economy grows.
Internal Entrepreneurship – intrapreneurship – is crucial to companies who wish to keep their competitive edge. It is becoming increasingly important, in such fast-paced times, to encourage and grow those from the inside of a company, where their talent and knowledge lies.
The conference
To help achieve businesses’ ambitions for empowering those with an entrepreneurial spirit, The Herald are holding their first Intrapreneurial Conference to engage, inspire and showcase organisations, companies, workplaces and individuals who are leading the way on their Intrapreneurial journeys.
Intrapreneurship has never been more important to our businesses, our economy and our society in such changing times. This is an event you do not want to miss.
The Intrapreneurial Conference takes place on August 28 at 200 St Vincent Street, Glasgow.
Register on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-herald-intrapreneurial-conference-in-association-with-civtech-tickets-47350832615
For further information please contact Kirsty Loughlin on 0141 302 6016 or email kirsty.loughlin@newsquest.co.uk
Scottish fintech Butterwire gives online traders the edge
Direct online trading is the new darling of Fintech – with many new or emerging entrants offering super low cost or free online trading. But just because it’s easier, doesn’t make it smarter.
Enter butterwire (www.butterwire.com)
Butterwire is an “AI driven Equity Research and Portfolio Analyst.” It helps investors make faster, better and smarter investment decisions.
The solution keeps track of portfolios, alerting and suggesting mitigation actions as conditions change, and the heavy lifting around analysis and insight generation.
We are very excited at the moment as we have just launched our crowd funding campaign – with 40% of target already met (£80K) within a few days. More on Crowdcube – www.crowdcube.com/butterwire
How was Butterwire created?
Butterwire is the brainchild of Raphael Fiorentino, and his 10 year mission to empower investors to make informed investment decisions. Raphael’s unique background in chemical engineering & statistics and fund management drove him to develop and refine a systematic way to use Quant, Fundamental, Macro and Technical market data to inform his own successful investment career.
Fast forward a few years, a lot of worn shoe leather, and an introduction via a mutual colleague, butterwire is now being built by a small team of talented and experienced software engineers and me, right here in Scotland.
Raphael – How would you describe butterwire?
In two words – Investor Power
2. Minimising Risk – by promoting diversification across stocks and minimising correlation 3. Being Kept Aware – informing you when things change (and they do), while helping to find alternatives.
Raphael – What would you say butterwire has achieved in this last year?
A year on from starting (Sept 2017) we now have: 1. A working and evolving application that went live in June 2018 – app.butterwire.com
4. A new website – with informative investing articles and a knowledge base around our investing model.
How is Butterwire different
What makes butterwire different for me it’s the combination of the latest technology, fully leveraging the latest cloud services and machine learning capabilities, along with the industry expertise that both Raphael and the team bring. Only a few years ago – we would be unable to offer the service we can now, enabled by the advances in data processing, UI and scaleable on- demand cloud services.
Startup Summit Edinburgh – An Overview
Startup Summit was designed to bring together, inspire and educate entrepreneurs at all levels of business growth. Scotland has a thriving startup scene and a huge amount of enterprise support available; Startup Summit brings all the knowledge and connections under one roof.
At Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, this year’s summit will host over 30 world-class speakers across three themed stages: the Main Stage, the Business Builder Stage and the Impact Stage. Over 1,000 attendees are invited to join in with discussion panels, workshops and the interactive exhibition space. For business leaders at all stages, Startup Summit is an opportunity to engage with experts, build a network and gain valuable tools for long-term success. There are also 30 exhibitor spaces at each summit, which allow entrepreneurs to meet similar business, mentorship enterprises and potential corporate connections.
The theme for this year’s Startup Summit is the power of company culture.’ Experts will be looking at the growing values-led mentality of both consumers and employees, as well as addressing recent controversies and issues such as the gender pay gap results and the gig economy.
Previous years have seen a variety of high-profile speakers and entrepreneurs attend Startup Summit. In 2017 alone, the event hosted James Watt, Founder of Brewdog, Josh Littlejohn, Founder of Social Bite, Chris van der Kuyl, Founder of 4J Studios, Mary Owen, Founder of Ellis Productions and Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon (who launched the Unlocking Ambition initiative). This year, confirmed speakers include:
Alan Mahon, Founder of Brewgooder
Mike Atterley, Founder of BlackCircles.com and CEO of Atterly.
Over the past seven years, Startup Summit has grown exponentially and is now recognised as one of the leading events for entrepreneurship in the UK. Startup Summit has been organised by WeAreTheFuture since 2011, which underwent a merge and is now part of FutureX. The team at FutureX believe that values-driven entrepreneurship is the key towards a more virtuous economy for all. Through unique events, programmes and partnerships, FutureX educate and inspire the next wave of business leaders to grow their organisations with a purpose greater than profit.
Each year, FutureX run a Startup Summit Competition, which will see one UK-based tech entrepreneur awarded a top prize, including a free place on the Silicon Valley Accelerate Programme in Spring 2019. Three finalists will pitch head to head on the main stage at Startup Summit for this unique opportunity. Previous winners include Christopher McCann, Founder of Snap40 and Tarryn Gorre, Founder of Kafoodle.
LendingCrowd expands its team
Article written by Adrian Innes, Head of Origination at LendingCrowd
Festival season is in full swing, and Edinburgh is buzzing with tourists and performers from every corner of the globe. Some residents may grumble about the crowds and the blizzards of flyers, but this artistic extravaganza really shows the capital at its best.
Predictably, the arrival of the festivals means the heatwave has given way to some much-needed rain, but that hasn’t put a dampener on activities at LendingCrowd, the only peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform headquartered in Scotland.
We recently expanded our business development team with the appointment of Jordan Wright, who is working alongside Riley O’Dwyer and Thomas Boyd to forge closer links with our fantastic community of introducers and individual business owners.
Our loans origination reached record levels during the first half of the year, with total lending of £13.9 million for the six months to the end of June ”“ up from £4.9 million for the same period last year. Lending in Scotland trebled to £3.9 million as awareness of our brand and business model continues to grow.
These encouraging results coincided with another milestone ”“ it’s a year since I joined LendingCrowd as Head of Origination, following three decades in the banking sector.
I passionately believe that small businesses need ”“ and deserve ”“ access to a wide range of funding sources to continue to thrive in these uncertain times. SMEs are the powerhouse of our economy, accounting for more than 99% of the business population, but many still struggle to access the funds that allow them to grow and enter new markets.
Competitive rates and rapid loan turnaround times mean that more borrowers are turning to specialist P2P business lenders like LendingCrowd. Research from the British Business Bank in February showed that net bank lending was relatively flat last year, but P2P business lending volumes rose by 51% to almost £1.8 billion.
Since inception, we’ve helped hundreds of SMEs secure more than £41 million in funding and we’ve got a real ambition to make P2P lending mainstream as shown by our recent “Think Outside The Bank” campaign that you can see at www.lendingcrowd.com/borrower .
100,000 signatures for the Pension Dashboard petition
38 Degrees recently launched a petition in response to media reports that the Pensions Dashboard might not go ahead.
The report suggested that MP Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, was thinking of ditching the pensions dashboard due to more pressing priorities.
100,000 signatures
The petition has now reached 100,000 signatures, showing the depth of feeling and the support that the initiative has in the country. It also means that it can now be considered for debate in Parliament.
The benefits of the Pensions Dashboard are easily seen and have clearly struck a chord with people.
Anthony Rafferty, Managing Director at Origo said: “We at Origo have been passionate supporters of the Pensions Dashboard since the initiative was launched, believing it is essential to help individuals engage with their retirement planning, particularly in the new pensions environment which was ushered in with the pensions freedoms.”
The technology is ready
The technology was recently successfully tested on 15 million users. It is now ready to be implemented and used by customers and financial planners. It is seen as a vital tool with people working on average 11 jobs in their lifetime and struggling to keep on top of their various pension pots.
Anthony Rafferty added “We believe the Pension Dashboard is a superb opportunity for Government and the industry to provide a simple way for UK pension holders in the country to track their pensions, understand their value and what that means for their future and where appropriate, to act on their data in their best interests.
“The DWP Feasibility Study into the Pension Dashboard is expected to be published later this year which we hope will reflect the strong support the initiative has both within the industry and with consumers.”
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.