News / Fintech
Bristol named as one of UK’s leading fintech clusters
The UK has been quietly undergoing a fintech revolution in the last decade, and Bristol is a leading player according to a new report.
The city and wider region have been named as one of the country’s top fintech clusters in an independent review of the sector, which includes a series of recommendations on how to maximise the potential in the growing market.
Ron Kalifa, author of the FinTech Strategic Review, which was commissioned by the chancellor, identifies fintech as a “permanent, technological revolution, that is changing the way we do finance”.
With a reputation for tech innovation, Bristol is at the forefront of this and boasts a number of fast-growing companies and startups.
Lumio, a Bristol startup with a mission to “strip back finance and democratise smart money for a generation” is one such firm. A crowdfunder offering people the chance to invest in the company launched in February and reached its £250,000 target in a matter of minutes and has now raised more than £680,000.
Loqbox, an international firm with headquarters in Finzels Reach, is another. One of the companies featured in the review, Loqbox is striving to end financial exclusion globally and has created 29 UK jobs in the last two years.
The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) has also identified financial, business and legal tech services as key sectors for the region in its latest local industrial strategy.
Welcoming the profile given to the region in the Kalifa review, West of England mayor Tim Bowles said: “The West of England is a forward-thinking and innovative region – we’re home to the UK’s most productive tech cluster which is creating excellent, well paid jobs and career opportunities for people across the region.
“Fintech brings together our region’s strengths in financial services and tech, which thanks to our highly skilled and expanding digital and tech workforce is revolutionising the way that the finance sector operates.
“Our region is hugely collaborative and well connected, and we’re proud of the startups and spin-outs that thrive here thanks to some of the best business incubator support in the world. We are committed to building on these strengths to accelerate the development of our fintech cluster into an established hub of global significance.”
Recommendations from the review include:
- Introducing a new ‘fintech scale-up’ visa route for specialists from around the world.
- Implementing a ‘scale box’ to provide regulatory support for growing firms.
- Improving UK listings rules with free float reduction and dual-class shares.
- Creating a £1billion-pound fintech ‘growth fund’ to help firms grow independently.
- Establishing a private sector-led Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology to support national coordination and growth in fintech across the UK.
Main image from CBRE Bristol, EMEA Tech Cities report
Read more: Sector spotlight: Fintech
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