Tech Nation recently welcomed what they claim to be the UK’s 51 “most exciting” Fintech companies to their fifth Fintech growth program, as UK fintech investment “reaches a record high.”
As mentioned in the announcement, 51 companies were accepted into Tech Nation’s fifth Fintech growth program. The news comes as VC investment in the Fintech sector “soars in the UK, already receiving $9.3bn in 2022 (January – August), up from $8.67bn for the same period in 2021.”
As noted in the update, Q1 2022 has “set an all-time record for quarterly VC investment into UK fintech, at $5.5bn.”
The announcement also pointed out that the UK is currently “home to more fintech unicorns (47) than any other country in Europe, with over four times the next largest fintech unicorn hub (France, with 11).” Collectively, the UK’s fintech companies are “valued at $371.9bn, up 23% from $301.2bn last year.” Tech Nation, which claims to be the UK’s leading growth platform for tech scaleups, confirmed the 51 companies who have been accepted into Fintech 5.0 – the fifth iteration of Tech Nation’s sector-specific growth program for fintech entrepreneurs “to enable their startups to scale, both at home and abroad.”
Companies accepted into the newest Fintech cohort are “working to transform all areas of the finance sector; from insurance and investment, to blockchain and digital assets.”
The Fintech 5.0 cohort “includes an ethical investment platform which is committed to addressing climate emergency (Abundance), a credit card that helps young people build credit to jumpstart their futures (Keebo), and a platform to help people set up a Will and digital end-of-life plan to make things easier for loved ones left behind (Kinherit).”
Together, the new Fintech companies have “raised more funds than any cohort in previous years, with a collective total raise of £149.2mn (up from £128.1mn last year).”
Nearly half (49%) of the companies “have at least one non-British founder, and they operate across 38 different countries (including the UK).”
The fintech sector has reached entirely new heights, already “receiving $9.3bn in 2022 (January – August), up from $8.67bn for the same period in 2021 ($13.2bn overall in 2021), and Q1 2022 hit an all-time record for quarterly investment into UK Fintech (at $5.5bn).”
More than three-quarters of investment made into UK Fintech in 2022 so far ($7.2bn) “has come from US investors (up from half of investment in H1 of 2021), showing the international appeal of some of the UK’s world-leading fintech firms.”
With 47 of the UK’s 130 tech unicorns being Fintechs – and Fintech accounting for almost half (4) of the 11 UK tech companies that became unicorns in H1 of 2022 – “the sector is driving the UK as a leading unicorn hub.”
For more details on this update (including the companies selected), check here.
