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

Fintech Fringe, an official London Tech Week Fringe Event, today launches its inaugural programme that aims to accelerate the growth of homegrown and overseas fintech scaleups in the UK. The event takes place from June 12th-15th in London in partnership with Department for Business and Trade, Barclays Rise, Fintech Alliance, Innovate Finance, Level39, London & Partners, and Tech Passport, as well as a host of fintech giants and luminaries.

With recent turbulence in the market from the SVB shakeout and the tremor effects from 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 businesses. Despite these challenges the UK remains the nucleus of European fintech, with British fintechs attracting more funding than all their EMEA counterparts combined in 2022 (KPMG, 2023).

To showcase the UK as the best place for global fintech investment, Fintech Fringe is uniquely focused on providing solutions for high growth fintech scaleups looking to expand in the UK. This includes overseas scaleups looking to assess 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 fuel their next phase of growth.

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

•       UK market insight – The inside track on the UK as a global hub and why companies choose to set-up and scale here.
•       Scale and growth – Fintech scaleup 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 around emerging regulations and policies 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-ups will be able to meet 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 has long held the reputation as the best place in the world to start and scale a FinTech business, and we’re delighted to be bringing the FinTech Fringe to life during London Tech Week,” said Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance. “Connecting the ecosystem and offering further support to scaling FinTech businesses at a time when the spotlight is on the tech sector at large. 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 renowned for its thriving culture of innovation and its 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 for Business Growth, London & Partners. “I am thrilled that alongside an exciting programme of events at London Tech Week, scaling fintech companies now have the opportunity to join Fintech Fringe to meet investors, customers and gather valuable insights. I’m looking forward to welcoming scaling fintechs throughout the week as we celebrate one of London’s most promising sectors.”

“The UK is regarded 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’ve created this unique event that has a dedicated focus on pragmatic ways to scale fintech businesses to the next level. With some of the biggest names in the industry alongside the right blend of knowledge, connections, and advice, I believe we’ve created a programme that will deliver real value to fintechs in high-growth mode.”