As the deadline for Tech Nation’s Fintech scaleup programme approaches, we wanted to look back at the incredible success achieved by last year’s cohort, since joining the programme in September 2018.
The UK’s position as a global leader in the fintech sector has translated into significant achievement for the list of promising fintech companies who were selected to be part of our very first sector-specific growth programme. The success of the fintech programme has seen Tech Nation launch further sector programmes for Cyber Security, which launched in April of this year and in Applied AI, which is kicking off in September.
The 2018 cohort, which was made up of 20 companies, featured fintechs such as LOQBOX, Fiskl, TAINA, Airtime Rewards and MishiPay.
Global takeover
David Grenham, VP of Marketing at self-checkout pioneers MishiPay told us about how their technology has had international impact since joining the cohort.
“Shortly after we joined Tech Nation’s Fintech programme, we deployed our technology at Mango’s One New Change store in London (one of their top performing stores globally) and in Saturn in Hamburg, Germany (the world’s largest consumer electronics store). In May this year, we launched our first national rollout with Decathlon in the Netherlands.”
Cashback app Airtime Rewards formed a relationship with MasterCard off the back of the international Fintech trip, while other cohort members Maxatta, Brismo, Thyngs and Delio have concluded or are in the process of concluding partnerships with American financial institutions and are expanding their activities to the US.
Compliance simplifiers TAINA have also benefited from plenty of inbound enquiries for both their back-office and customer-facing solutions from around the world, including Tel Aviv, Toronto, San Francisco, Singapore and Sydney. Their level of success and the related interest from US-based institutions has resulted in them taking a leap to the other side of the Atlantic, opening their first US office in May, in the heart of Manhattan.
From strength to strength
In February of this year, both MishiPay’s founders Mustafa Khanwala and Tanvi Bhardwaj were named on Forbes prestigious 30 Under 30 list, and in the last 12 months, MishiPay have exhibited at major industry shows including NRF in New York, VivaTech in Paris and Retail Expo in London.
The cashback app Tail raised an impressive £500,000 in February, a significant investment that allowed them to expand their portfolio, while compliance experts SteelEye completed a £5.7 million seed round led by Illuminate Financial. CreditLadder, who help people use their rental payments to build their credit score, celebrated getting approved as AISP and PISP by the FCA in November 2018.
Fiskl are another company who have reached some incredible milestones since joining the Fintech programme. Not only were they featured on the list of the Most Influential Fintech Companies 2019 by Harrington Starr, the CEO Alina Lapusneanu, was featured on the cover of the May edition of Financial Times Wealth Edition.
Blockchainage listed Coinfirm as one of the top 20 Blockchain organisations in the world, and CoInvestor were selected as a global Wealth Tech 100 company, the world’s most innovative providers of digital solutions having a lasting impact on the wealth and asset management industries.
Credit score builders LOQBOX have gone from strength to strength in the last nine months, launching a financial inclusion initiative with TSB bank, a first for British retail banking.
As a result of the support and network created through the Tech Nation programme, LOQBOX are now working on expanding across three continents, with the ultimate aim to end financial exclusion around the globe.
Growing fast
Cash management platform Akoni have seen significant growth, with five times more cash under management compared with six months ago. The teams at LOQBOX and compliance experts TAINA are now three times the size they were at the start of the programme, which for TAINA has meant a big expansion to their office space.
Revenue at TAINA has also grown by over 1000% since joining the Fintech programme; they are a company who are helping their business customers to scale while they scale themselves – all while improving compliance. As they develop and grow, they are beginning to assist new segments like crypto-exchanges, online trading and Challenger Banks, where compliance without UX compromise is a critical challenge they can meet.
An award-winning cohort
There have been a series of awards received by the cohort, including TransFICC, who won the ‘FinTech Start-Up of the Year’ category at the 2019 Risk Awards, Float who were awarded “Cashflow Forecasting Software of the Year” by ICB, and Funding Options, who won Phase 2 of Nesta’s Open Up Challenge for Open Banking, part of the CMA’s retail banking remedies Funding Options also won the award for “Best Commercial Finance Broker” at the Lending Awards 2018, and went on to join Tech Nation’s Upscale programme, and Enforcd won the inaugural Lord Mayor’s business of trust champion award. Giving app Sustainably won an amazing £130,000 at WeWork’s Creator Awards.
The achievements reached by the 2018 Fintech cohort have really surpassed expectations and Tech Nation are so delighted to have been a part of such an incredible bunch of companies’ growth journeys. We are so excited to see what the next Fintech cohort achieve, so apply now and become part of the Tech Nation family.
