Lloyds Bank is looking for fintech partners
Lloyds Banking Group has launched a program to find financial technology (fintech) and insurance technology (insurtech) startups, which could lead to investment and commercial experiments with the bank.
At a time when venture capitalists are reducing investment in the fintech sector, big banks can find opportunities that might otherwise be missed.
Lloyds Bank’s Launch Innovation Programme, which is now open for applications, will run for 12 weeks, with fintechs and insurtechs developing their businesses with the bank. They gain access to senior management and subject experts, who provide insight into the work of large financial institutions.
The bank will also select some of the participating startups to participate in commercial experiments, and selected startups will be assessed by the bank’s fintech investment team.
Kirsty Rutter, fintech investment director at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “We recognize that better collaboration with fintechs and insurtechs is key to delivering exceptional service and enhancing our capabilities.
“We really look forward to hearing from this year’s applicants and how we can work together to bridge the needs of our business and residential customers, and the fintech community.”
Capital investment is needed, with investment in UK fintech from private equity and venture capitalist firms falling 56% in 2022, according to KPMG. A total of $17.4 billion was invested in 2022, compared to $39 billion in 2021.
Car-related payments and admin app Caura, which took part in the program last year, received £4m in funding from Lloyds.
When the investment was announced in January, Lloyds’ first such investment of the year, Sai Lakshmi, managing director and founder of Caura, said: “The cross-pollination of ideas between our respective teams will allow us to deliver an innovative range of products and services that the market does not have seen before to customers, everything from drivers to vehicle manufacturers.”
In October, Lloyds Banking Group launched a fintech sandbox where fintechs can design and test their applications in the bank’s IT environment.
The Innovation Sandbox, as it is known, will see the bank work with fintechs to improve the digital products and services it offers its customers.
The sandbox is an isolated test environment that enables fintechs to run programs or open files without affecting the Lloyds Bank application, system or platform they are running on.
