News and Insight - UK FinTech Week 2024: Round-up
Another year, another successful UK FinTech Week! This week has been significant, hosting an array of events, showcasing the latest innovations and trends shaping the future of finance. Here’s our high-level debrief of a jam-packed week.
💥IFGS 2024💥
To kick off the week, we attended the Innovate Finance Global Summit alongside 1600 other delegates! Held at The Guildhall in London, the event focussed on what the future of finance holds – from new innovations and emerging AI, to the importance of collaborations, better policies and positive regulation. Several industry reports were unveiled during the two-day event, including:
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- Setting the pace or keeping up – are FinTech boards future-fit? by EY and Innovate Finance looking at the importance of having proper governance and an outstanding Board at all levels of FinTech growth
- The Open Finance Roadmap by KPMG and Innovate Finance provides a framework and provocation for conversation and debate on how the UK can take forward its Open Finance landscape
- RegTech Test: Identifying The Policy Impact on Compliance in collaboration with the City of London Corporation looking at how can we facilitate broader adoption of Regtech solutions
- Scaling UK Regional FinTech in collaboration with Whitecap Consulting and Streets Consulting delving into the growth and development of 250 of the UK’s regional FinTech scaleups
We also saw the launch of Project Nemo, – a pioneering disability inclusion initiative, urging the fintech industry to better serve the UK’s largest minority and accelerate disability inclusion efforts. A cornerstone of the initiative is Project Nemo’s Fintech Festival of Inclusion, an events programme to empower fintech business leaders to adopt incremental changes as part of their longer term inclusion journey. Each workshop event will bring together disability expertise, champions and success stories with the fintech community, to help fintech leaders implement change. Level39 looks forward to being part of this incredible initiative and supporting the worthy cause.
A final standout moment for us was the Pitch360 session. We observed nine inspiring fintechs pitch to a panel of judges. Amidst intense competition, Cogo emerged as the people’s winner, showcasing its carbon management platform designed to assist banks in transitioning their customers to a low-carbon economy. However, the judges winner was the very impressive, Kestrl – an app that helps Muslims to grow their wealth without compromising their beliefs. Congratulations to all involved – we were blown away by the standard of the competition – we will be watching this space!
💥Global InsurTech Summit 2024💥
On Tuesday morning, we were pleased to host a satellite event for the Global InsurTech Summit 2024! After a warm welcome from James Tortice and Amy French, a panel was introduced including Jeremy Brown, Venture Capital Investor at anthemis, Paul Middle, Global VP of Insurance at Sentiance and moderator Richard DeMel, Level39. The topic was Navigating the Global Growth Challenges for InsurTechs in 2024. The panelists delved into the pursuit of profitability and upcoming benefits in the next year, emphasising the necessity for new innovative digital technologies such as embedded insurance and their potential impact on the industry. Unsurprisingly, AI took center stage in the discussion, with both speakers agreeing on its crucial role in risk management across the insurance and finance sectors, as well as its importance in integration.
💥Pitchflix Rev💥
Wednesday evening, we welcomed back to Level39, rev by Pitchflix – a reverse-pitch series where leading and emerging investors are invited to showcase their propositions to an audience of seed to Series A founders, both in person and by live stream, nationally and internationally.
A few standouts for us, included:
Sixth Wave ventures – an investment group and community of industry experts with big plans to disrupt and vastly improve the way start-ups tackling the world’s fundamental problems are funded and supported at early-stage, all the way through to commercialisation.
Sure Valley Ventures – a VC firm that invests in early-stage AI software companies in the UK and Ireland, helpinggrow and scale businesses that will have a global impact.
Mercia Ventures – one of the UK’s most active venture capital investors. From early-stage to scaleup investment, their investment team operates from a shared set of beliefs, partnering with entrepreneurs for the long term.
Puma Private Equity – a leading provider of growth capital to small and medium-sized UK businesses across all sectors and regions. Delivering investments between £2m-£10m, partnering with management teams to accelerate their growth and help businesses throughout the country achieve their potential.
💥Department for Business & Trade: UK FinTech Showcase💥
On Thursday we hosted our partners, Department for Business & Trade at Level39 for their UK FinTech Showcase day. Entrepreneurs from 19 countries gathered to explore the potential of the UK market. We were joined by representatives from across the UK, including Mickael Paris, FinTech Scotland, Sarah Kocianski, FinTech Wales and Karen Bradbury, Invest Northern Ireland, to highlight opportunities, from funding to go-to-market strategies. The speakers mentioned the importance of regulation across the board, the pros and cons of new technology and how to integrate it safely and ethically. Conversations were brimming with optimism, with the emergence and growth of fintech hubs across the UK, including Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.
We also were joined by London & Partners, first hearing about GROW London and their programme’s mission to create economic growth in London that is resilient, sustainable and inclusive. We heard from another panel on Unlocking Growth: Why London to Land and Scale – moderated by Anna Carson-Parker and joined by speakers, Danielle Sheerin, NatWest, Jessie Longhurst, Shares and Suresh Vaghijani, Clowd9. The discussion delved into London’s advantage, the value of partnerships and the opportunities available.
But that wasn’t all for the day – the agenda was packed with supplementary breakout activities, roundtable discussions, presentations, and tours, culminating in a resounding success. The evening concluded with networking drinks at Clifford Chance.
💥UK FinTech Week Closing Party with Innovate Finance💥
To conclude the week, we hosted Innovate Finance’s UKFW closing party! It was not only a celebration of a fantastic week but also marked the 10th anniversary of our long-standing partners, Innovate Finance. Since its launch at Level39 in 2014, the journey has been remarkable. We deeply value our partnership and are committed to further collaboration, uniting the extraordinary fintechs and entrepreneurs from both ecosystems. Here’s to the next decade of success.
Find out more about Level39 and any upcoming events here.
An article by:
Anna Gilmer