FinTech Innovation Roadmap: One year on
The roadmap was a document that set out a plan to accelerate the development of fintech in Scotland. One year later, the number of Scottish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increased by 13% year-on-year.
The growth is thanks to new home-grown fintech startups in the region, as well as international firms establishing themselves in Scotland. This led to Scottish FinTech pulling in over £305 million in funding last year.
“We can see how the FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap is already making a real difference – helping businesses build economic growth, create jobs, work through climate finance to enable a future net zero economy, and help reduce the cost of living crisis,” said FinTech Scotland CEO Nicola Anderson.
The central focus of the roadmap was on four strategic innovation themes: climate finance, open financial data payments and transactions and financial regulation.
After one year, FinTech Scotland has seen a 100% increase in climate finance fintech businesses, a 26% increase in businesses developing solutions using open banking, a 19% increase in fintech businesses developing payment solutions, and a 13% increase in businesses which specializes in regulatory innovation.
“Fintech innovation cannot afford to slow down. Technologies advance quickly, customer expectations faster and the need for a fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable financial sector continues to be met, says Pardeep Cassells, Head of Securities and Claims at AccessFintech.
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In addition, payments and transaction and regulatory businesses have received £94m and £83m respectively in funding over the past 12 months. Similarly, all sectors have started to create grassroots infrastructure to accelerate growth, such as starting cryptofinance and blockchain courses at Scottish universities, creating innovation labs and working with partners such as Space Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and more.
“Strong, effective and targeted collaboration between industry, academia and the public sector is key to delivering much-needed innovation and growth for Scotland. The FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap is a demonstration of how collaborative action through targeted strategic action can drive good economic results and accelerate future growth, says Jane Martin, chief executive of innovation and investment at Scottish Enterprise.
