Fintech Fringe launches to help fintech scale-ups accelerate UK growth

Fintech Fringe, an official London Tech Week Fringe Event, today launches its first program aimed at accelerating the growth of homegrown and overseas fintech scale-ups in the UK. The event takes place from 12.-15. June in London in collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade, Barclays Rise, Fintech Alliance, Innovate Finance, Level39, London & Partners and Tech Passport, as well as a number of fintech giants and luminaries.

With recent market turbulence from the SVB shakeout and the ripple effects of Brexit still rippling through the UK economy, it has been a challenging time for the UK fintech sector with increased competition globally to attract the best fintech companies. Despite these challenges, the UK remains at the heart of European fintech, with UK fintechs attracting more funding than all their EMEA peers combined by 2022 (KPMG, 2023).

To showcase the UK as the best place for global fintech investment, the Fintech Fringe is uniquely focused on providing solutions for high-growth fintech scale-ups looking to expand in the UK. This includes overseas scaleups looking to consider the UK as their next key market for international expansion, and UK-based fintech scaleups looking to access the expertise and support they need to drive the next phase of growth.

The four-day program in collaboration with event partners CCgroup, co:cubed, Fintech B2B Marketing, Harrington Starr, Streets Consulting and Women of Fintech will cover:

• UK Market Insights – Inside the UK as a global hub and why companies are choosing to set up and scale here.
• Scaling and Growth – Fintech scale-up successes and failures, sales and partnership tactics, growth hacks from practitioners and customer insights from banks and financial institutions.
• Regulation – Expert insight into the challenges and opportunities surrounding new regulations and guidelines in the UK.
  Showcase – Scale-ups can meet leading investors and potential customers, with one of 20 fintechs selected to showcase their business.

Designed to be pragmatic in focus, fintech scale-up will be able to meet with leading investors and potential customers, gather insights from the successes and failures of industry peers, and learn from leading industry experts.

“The UK and London have long had a reputation as the best place in the world to start and scale a FinTech business and we are delighted to bring the FinTech Fringe to life during London Tech Week,” said Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance. “To connect the ecosystem and offer additional support to scale FinTech companies at a time when the spotlight is on the technology sector at large. The FinTech Fringe will bring together industry, government and regulatory voices to support the scaling journey of some of our most promising businesses and encourage global innovative companies to expand their presence in the UK.”

“London is known for its thriving culture of innovation and the fintech sector is no exception. In 2022 alone, London-based fintech companies attracted more investment than any other global fintech hub.” said Janet Coyle, Managing Director of Business Growth, London & Partners. “I am thrilled that alongside an exciting program of events at London Tech Week, scaling fintech companies now have the opportunity to join the Fintech Fringe to meet investors, customers and gather valuable insights. I look forward to welcoming scaling fintechs throughout the week as we celebrate one of London’s most promising sectors.”

“The UK is seen as a global leader in fintech, but recently that position has come under threat,” said Calypso Harland, Founder, Fintech Fringe. “Critical to maintaining leadership is ensuring the UK remains the best place to scale your fintech business. This is why we have created this unique event which has a dedicated focus on pragmatic ways to scale fintech businesses to the next level. With some of the biggest names in the industry along with the right mix of knowledge, connections and advice, I believe we have created a program that will deliver real value to fintechs in high growth mode.”