The three Scottish companies will benefit from Tech Nation’s six-month fintech programme, which helps startups reach scale.
Tech growth platform Tech Nation has announced that three Scottish fintech startups will join the 31 tech companies that make up its new Fintech Cohort 3.0.
The Scottish fintech companies include Aveni, Squarebook and Vistalworks.
Edinburgh-based Aveni helps clients interact with the financial services industry. Their proprietary Natural Language Processing engine automates processes direct from the customer’s voice.
veni CEO Joseph Twigg said: “Tech Nation is one of the most recognised and prestigious accelerators in the UK and have helped thousands of companies develop and grow their business, we are excited to learn from this experience.”
SquareBook, also from Edinburgh, uses auction technology to guide IPO pricing and allocation decisions. SquareBook’s service reduces the costs of an IPO to the company raising capital, helping companies get funding on regulated markets.
Its founder & CEO Joe Sluys commented: “It is a privilege to learn that the Tech Nation judging panel recognises Squarebook as one of the most exciting names in Fintech. We are enormously excited about having this opportunity to work alongside the Tech Nation team in order to achieve our objective of bringing innovation to the equity IPO process. We are confident we will deliver huge benefits to growth companies and their investors.”
Vistalworks, based in Glasgow, identifies illegal products and their sellers. It also provides law enforcement agencies and regulators with essential intelligence.
CEO of Vistalworks Vicky Brock noted: “The UK is the world’s leading fintech market, and this is its most prestigious fintech programme. The opportunity to participate will measurably accelerate our growth and scale as we evolve into a new market. The relationships we make with potential partners, clients and mentors could be transformational for our future success.”
With 60% of the companies being based outside London, the candidates in this year’s cohort show how fintech hubs across the UK are maturing. With both finance and tech proving so important to the economy of Scotland, fintech companies are an important growth area.
The importance of fintech companies, and the issues facing them, will be covered in more depth at the Fintech2020 Financial Technology Summit.
Tech Nation’s six-month fintech programme includes insights sessions from fintech entrepreneurs, investors and partners. They will cover topics such as sales, partnerships with incumbents and expanding internationally.
The programme will support UK fintech founders and wider leadership teams with tools and knowledge they need to scale.
This year has seen $2.5 billion invested in UK fintech companies so far, with investment levels peaking in July 2020 at $1 billion. As such, the UK continues to lead Europe for fintech VC investment, beating out German fintechs, which have raised $1.09 billion.
Tech Nation Fintech lead Liam Gray commented: “The UK fintech ecosystem is truly world-leading and its strength is clearly demonstrated by the calibre of companies on this year’s Tech Nation Fintech programme. Our third cohort will officially introduce insurtechs to the programme, a sub-segment of fintech that has matured significantly in recent years.
“This cohort will also be the most geographically diverse group of fintechs we’ve ever had, with 60% located outside of London, highlighting the growing prevalence of regional fintech hubs.”
Source: Digit