Silicon Valley can’t compete with London in terms of Fintech, says UK Treasury special Fintech envoy Eileen Burbidge: “Wall Street Talent doesn’t come to Silicon Valley.”
UK Treasury special Fintech envoy and partner at tech VC Passion Capital, Eileen Burbidge took the stage at Fintech Week and discussed the dominance of the UK’s Fintech sector globally:
“London and the UK will lead the Fintech sector,” she said in her opening statement. “It can’t be the Silicon Valley, they have produced a few start-ups like Stripe but numbers are tiny compared to the UK.” She pointed out that the “collaboration between the eco-systems finance, technology and government is unique to the UK and can’t be replicated in the US…Wall Street Talent doesn’t come to Silicon Valley.”
The UK government seeks to support the UK’s advantage over other countries and is eager to increase competition in order to further innovation. During her speech, Burbidge mentioned the 2007/2008 crisis which was due to having too few companies with too much capital. The government recognizes this and is therefore supporting Fintech in order to create more banks and more firms disrupting the banking sector.
When asked about investment tips, Eileen Burbidge mentioned the following familiar fintech companies:
- Nutmeg, an online discretionary investment management company
- Ravelin, a fraud detection company for the on-demand economy
Azimo, international money transfer company - Funding Circle, the crowd-funding company
In addition, Fintech Week 2015 posted the following infographic, noting that $49.7B has been invested globally into the fintech sector:
To view Burbidge’s lecture, please view the video clip below; for additional video streams from London Fintech Week 2015, click here.
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