Innovation, creativity and a future focus

Innovation that expands boundaries

Always two steps ahead, the UK's talent for lateral thinking and innovation builds a successful future

The UK's offer

  • Ranked top for financial and professional services innovation and tech, ahead of other major global financial centres
  • London is the world’s biggest centre for VC investment in fintech – ahead of both New York and San Francisco
  • The best in technology expertise, training and talent
  • A forward-looking policy environment with regulators who actively support innovation
  • The UK’s FPS and tech ecosystem provides a strong alternative to the US, which has less regulatory coordination, and Asian centres, which lack market size and activity

Reach for the bigger picture and build your success

Financial and professional services in the UK are part of a ‘one-of-a-kind innovation ecosystem’. This brings together strong policy support; the finance and access to global markets required for an idea to take off, and future-focused talent from world-leading financial and professional services, and tech sectors.

This unique combination of elements allows collaboration and creativity to thrive, making the UK an ideal to drive digital transformation in finance and professional services.

Committed to innovation

The UK Government and regulators are committed to keeping the UK at the global cutting edge of technology. Its progressive and collaborative approach to regulation removes the barriers to testing and launching innovative FPS products.

Download the brochure for more on the UK’s investable FPS tech sector

UK financial and professional services tech:
innovation and investor opportunity

UK financial and professional services tech:
innovation and investor opportunity

Fintech

Fintech

Lawtech

Lawtech

Cyber security

Cyber security

RegTech

RegTech

The first financial centre to pioneer regulatory digital sandbox

A regulatory ‘scalebox’ will provide additional regulatory support to growth stage fintechs

A Financial Market Infrastructure sandbox in development and running from 2023

A closer look at corporate venture investing in UK tech

Corporate Venture Capital: harnessing the UK’s potential

Corporate Venture Capital: harnessing the UK’s potential

UK fintech stands out for its resilience in a challenging global investment environment

The UK | a resilient fintech investment environment

The UK | a resilient fintech investment environment

Download

Powerful Pensions:
Unlocking DC capital for UK tech growth

Powerful Pensions:
Unlocking DC capital for UK tech growth

The UK’s vision to be a global hub for digital assets and technologies

The UK: a global hub for digital assets and technologies

The UK: a global hub for digital assets and technologies

Funding innovation

The UK is the place to start, grow and scale innovative financial technology businesses. With a tech ecosystem second only to the US in size and activity, and nearly half of all of Europe’s fintech investment, it offers a wealth of opportunities to both fintech founders and investors.  

London is home  to one of the biggest and most diverse financial services cluster in the world. Centres of excellence UK wide make a fintech a national strength, and offers firms market access, client development and funding opportunities for fintechs. 

$11B

raised by fintech startups and scaleups in 2022

more than any country except the US

#1

unicorn hub in Europe by far

and fourth biggest internationally

Half

of Europe’s top ten fintech deals

done in London

$30B

worth of cyber security startups founded & HQ’ed in the UK

since 2017

Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology

An independent review of UK fintech was announced in the 2020 Spring Budget. The Kalifa Review was published in February 2021 and recommended the establishment of a Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT).

CFIT will focus on financial innovation in the UK by bringing together experts from across the finance and technology ecosystem. Their aim will be to identify and address opportunities and barriers to growth for UK fintech. 

Find out more about the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology

Access to the best talent

The UK has a diverse international talent pool with a unique combination of technology and FPS expertise and a solid pipeline of future-ready skills. 

The UK is home to three of the world’s most intensive science and technology clusters: Cambridge, Oxford and London.  This gives both incumbent businesses and startups easy access to cutting edge research and people they need for their firms to succeed. 

42%

of UK graduates come from

business, mathematics or information technology programmes

350,000+

software developers in London

more than any other European city

42%

of UK fintech workers are from overseas

with cultural diversity driving creativity and innovation

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Partner story

CreditEnable

CreditEnable

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Simmons Wavelength

Simmons Wavelength

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Tribe Payments

Tribe Payments

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Slingshot Simulations

Slingshot Simulations

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Level39

Level39

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Northcoders

Northcoders

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Skyline Partners

Skyline Partners

"The presence of so many different angels, financial services and consulting professionals in the UK, makes it easy to get Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and EIS funding. This is further encouraged by the recent Kalifa Review where they are proposing to expand R&D tax credits, Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCT)."

Vishnu Chundi, Co-founder and CEO AssetVault

"There is so much experience and innovation in the digitisation of financial services here in the UK that I think the UK will be able to play a disproportionately important role globally by rolling out those innovations into other markets."

Nadia Sood, Group CEO and Founder CreditEnable

"In terms of innovative fintech startups, London was the obvious choice as the hub of cutting-edge technology companies that redefine various industries and sectors."

Sylvia Carrasco, Founder and CEO Goldex

"There are a lot of things about the UK ecosystem that make it a really good place for innovation in professional services. The UK is a space where folks are not afraid of collaboration. I've seen competitors time and time again join up for the greater good. That is not something that you find in most markets."

Erika Concetta Pagano, Head of Legal Innovation and Design Simmons Wavelength