By Dom Walbanke on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

When GCHQ arrived in Manchester at the backend of 2019, the city’s growing tech influence wasn’t much of a secret.

By then, nearby Salford Quays had already welcomed the BBC – igniting a media ecosystem around it – and Google in the city centre. It had produced its own fair share of tech companies: The Hut Group, Booking.com and Autotrader are some of its alumni.

A year later, Amazon opened a development centre in the city, while PwC announced a new Manchester tech hub to aid the demand for AI, digitisation and data analytics.

Today, with a £5bn digital tech ecosystem and home to over 10,000 tech companies, Manchester has been reported as the most digitally inclusive city in the UK.

Last year, its tech start-ups raised a record £532m and it has seen steady venture capital investment since 2018.

As the list below demonstrates, Manchester has its fair share of high-growth healthtechs, and has solidified itself as one of the main medtech hubs outside London alongside Cambridge, Oxford and Leeds. However, the biggest sector in the city is SaaS, with 12.5 per cent of Manchester’s high-growth start-ups specialising in the space.

The city’s tech scene is far-ranging, however. “Manchester’s got heathtech, SaaS, e-commerce, payments, cyber… it’s a really diverse tech economy,” Katie Gallagher, managing director of digital tech trade body Manchester Digital tells Growth Business.

“The size and scale of the tech industry here just means we have that proliferation of companies coming through and given that we are outside London and Cambridge but attracting investment shows there’s a lot here.

“From a talent perspective we’ve got huge talent around mobile UX, data science and AI. From such a strong and mature talent pool, those people are going on to create businesses and do things – that’s why we seem to have an above average level of investment.”

The city benefits from Northern Gritstone – which helps commercialise spinouts – as well as facilities such as the Citylabs campus which is providing crucial lab space for the city’s healthtech, medtech and life sciences companies.

In March, the government also selected Manchester – alongside Glasgow and the West Midlands – to pilot its Innovation Accelerators programme: a £100m investment into 26 high-growth projects.

“We want that critical mass so that we can say to the big players come and have a look – there’s a whole showcase of really investable businesses here,” Gallagher says. “I do think some of the narrative is changing.”

Most exciting tech companies in Manchester

This list collates the best in the city based on equity raised, turnover growth year-on-year and impact in their respective fields.

#1 – Evergreen Life

Sector: Healthtech  

Evergreen Life’s growth wasn’t just the fastest in Manchester, but in the UK in 2022 according to Beauhurst with an astonishingly high turnover growth of 10,842 per cent year-on-year.

The start-up has developed a free app containing a user’s health records and DNA genetic reports, from which you can book GP appointments and order NHS prescriptions. The app also provides tailored health and wellbeing advice via questionnaires and gives an overall wellness score.

As well as individuals, the platform can be used by healthcare professionals for remote monitoring of a patient’s heath.

#2 – Orka

Sector: HR tech  

Orka reached an investment total of £30.9m in 2022, from backers including the Future Fund and Manchester-based VC firm Praetura Ventures.

The start-up’s solution allows shift workers to see temporary roles within traditional industries. Workers can find shifts, manage schedules and find out when they’ll get paid. Workers can also access 50 per cent of their wages as soon as they’ve earnt them.

#3 – Zilico

Sector: Healthtech

Based in Manchester’s science park, Zilico works with the early detection of cervical cancer. A spinout from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the start-up has received £25.1m of investment since its foundation in 2006.

In 2021, its main product – which detects abnormal cells on the surface of the cervix – was being used across 10 hospitals across the UK and is now working towards oral cancer diagnostics. 

#4 – Sourceful

Sector: SaaS

Sourceful is a platform for brands to design, produce, source and manage sustainable packaging. Companies can see live data on their carbon footprint, as well as price and delivery information.

To date, it has raised £17.2m in equity from the likes of Index Ventures and EKA Ventures.

#5 – Cytox

Sector: Healthtech

A spinout from the University of Birmingham and headquartered in Manchester, Cytox develops early diagnostic tests and risk assessments for Alzheimer’s and dementia, raising £12.9m to date.

The tests require just a blood or saliva sample, from which it assesses an individual’s genetic risk to Alzheimer’s, dementia or further decline. The tests can also be used to identify which individuals are best suited to investigational Alzheimer’s drug trials.

#6 – Proveca

Sector: Healthtech

Proveca develops medicine for children – specifically epilepsy and heart failure medication and treatments for those with a neurodisability such as cerebral palsy, to improve quality of life. Its founders Dr Helen Shaw and Dr Simon Bryson found many medicines subscribed to children are not specifically licenced for paediatric use.

The company has raised £11.2m from investors since its launch in 2010 and made the list of 100 fastest growing businesses in 2019.

#7 – Powerlinks

Sector: Adtech

Adtech Powerlinks delivers personalised, contextually relevant ads and remarketing campaigns, with its network reaching over a billion consumers through over 400,000 websites.

The Manchester-based adtech – which has raised £10.9m in equity financing to date – allows companies to use existing content to assemble relevant adverts on websites hosting similar content.

#8 – Evergreen Energy

Sector: Cleantech

Salford-based cleantech Evergreen Energy was one of Britain’s fastest growing businesses in 2017 and has reached almost £10m of investment to date.

Building its own wind farms, it offers renewable energy but also consults businesses on renewable design and installations – such as the installation of heat pumps, solar panels, battery storage and EV chargers. 

#9 – Prevayl

Sector: Healthtech

Prevayl has developed wearables which uses bio data such as heart rate variability, heart rate zones and recovery data to provide athletic performance insights. Its products include sensors and connected sportswear.

In total, the four-year-old company has raised £7.5m in equity funding.

#10 – Peak

Sector: AI

AI company Peak has raised £85.4m in equity funding with SoftBank leading a Series C round – more than any other Manchester-based AI firm.

Peak leverages AI to help businesses optimise their pricing, personalisation and product inventory – boasting the likes of Nike and Pepsico to its client list. Its platform also contains apps and tools to assist in business decision making.  

#11 – Matillion

Sector: SaaS

Matillion received unicorn status in 2021 with a £109m funding round and describes itself as the productivity platform for data teams.

In total, the Manchester-based company has raised £226m in equity investment according to Beauhurst and counts Sony, Cisco and Slack among its clientele.

#12 – Arctic Shores

Sector: Recruitment tech

Arctic Shores helps businesses hire efficiently by assessing candidates using 12,000 data points. It says because today candidates can use tools such as ChatGPT to write a cover letter for them – deeming the process ineffective – it has developed a task-based personality assessment which tests for insights such as emotional intelligence.

It has worked with Siemens to expand their talent pool, encourage more women to apply and reduce the time and cost to hire. The company has raised £11.4m in funding so far.

More on tech businesses

Government launches £50m tech and science fund – Funds will go toward research tackling diseases, climate change and developing emerging technologies

The post 12 of the most exciting tech companies in Manchester appeared first on Growth Business.

By Kirstie McDermott on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

According to jobs site Indeed, the UK is an attractive market for tech workers looking to gain experience. Indeed’s data shows that searches for jobs in Britain from abroad are higher than those searching for EU roles, and those searches have been consistently higher since 2017.

Software development roles are particularly in demand with search volume showing a 7 per cent share in overseas searches, and there is also a 15 per cent Ukrainian interest in the UK for software jobs.

What that means for employers is that they have a wide pool of talent to draw from, and what it means for those working within the tech sector – particularly in software development – is there is a lot of competition for the best jobs.

Glassdoor, the company review website, says that tech workers are a sought-after group, and because they often have multiple offers, companies need to set themselves apart. This plays into the school of thought that “all companies are now tech companies”, and in large part this is true, because businesses of all kinds are embracing technology in order to stay competitive.

The end of tech exceptionality

As we use more technology to make banking transactions, save our documents, or shop online, Glassdoor says we are seeing the end of “tech exceptionality”.

In fact, it says that when it comes to software engineering roles, the top employers are non-traditional tech companies that include JPMorgan Chase and the aerospace and defence company Northrop Grumman.

Glassdoor also suggests that tech candidates looking for new jobs should look to these non-tech competitors who are also hiring for their skills. Because they are competing with firms such as Apple and Google, they often offer more money in order to attract the best talent.

More money is an attractive prospect. In fact, the most recent annual Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT salary survey found that 58 per cent of respondents said earning more money was their top goal.

And when it comes to salaries across 2022 and 2023, the average salary for UK tech jobs at all levels was £81,893. But if you’d like to earn more now, or place yourself in a position to earn upwards into the future, then these jobs are good bets, as identified by another recent salary survey.

#1 – Chief Technology Officer (CTO), up to £165,000

If you’re already working in IT in a managerial position, and have about 15 years’ experience, you could be on your way to this leadership job. To get to CTO, you will need an additional five to seven years’ honing your leadership and business skills.

#2 – Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), up to £158,000

Chief information security officer (CISO) is a leadership position that has become increasingly important. Not just focused on technical IT security, this role also looks at monitoring threats and understanding risk.

To get you there, you could think about this cyber security lead role at an agency client server in London, which pays up to £100,000.

#3 – Solution Architect, up to £103,000

As a solution architect, you’ll design hardware, software, or networking applications and services intended to solve identified problems within a business. To get there, you’ll ideally be working in architecture, project management, or software development and will most likely need a Bachelor’s or postgraduate degree in a relevant field.

Northrop Grumman is seeking a software solutions architect in London, where the pay scale offered is £72,000 to £100,000.

#4 – Head of Product, up to £110,000

Heads of product management are responsible for ensuring the economic success of the company by developing new innovations and markets, and increasing sales and profitability.

BCT Resourcing is looking for a product owner in London for a business software client, which pays between £140,000 and £165,000 a year.

#5 – DevOps Manager, up to £110,750

Excellent communication collaboration skills mark good DevOps managers out. This is a job where you sit between functions and are responsible for maintaining and executing organisational policies and procedures for change management, configuration management, release and deployment management, service monitoring, support and problem management.

Noir Consulting is hiring a remote lead DevOps engineer for a client which is a global innovator and one of the most recognisable names in tech. The job pays up to £140,000 a year.

Find thousands more high-paying UK tech jobs on the Growth Business job board.

Kirstie McDermott works for our job board partner, Jobbio. Based in Dublin, she has been a writer and editor across print and digital platforms for over 15 years.

More on tech jobs

10 best-funded UK fintechs to work at right now – For those who have found themselves in an environment of shifting sands, a job move to a fintech with a good cushion of funding can be a holy grail career goal, says Jobbio’s Kirstie McDermott

The post The UK tech jobs that pay six figures appeared first on Growth Business.

By Kirstie McDermott on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

Looking for a job in a sales or marketing function can be one of the best ways for skilled professionals to make a sideways move into a tech firm – where opportunity still knocks, perks and benefits are competitive, and career progression can be given a shot in the arm.

Despite the doom and gloom around tech job losses over the past 18 months, the industry is still seeking the right talent. In fact, 2 million tech job vacancies have been advertised over the past year, but an estimated one million of these positions remain unfilled.

Additionally, 56 per cent of digital leaders anticipate increasing their technology headcount this year. So, if you do plan to look for a new role this year, here are five of interest, with plenty more available on the Growth Business job board.

Enterprise Data – Data Management – Sales Representative, Bloomberg, London

Enterprise DMS is part of Bloomberg Enterprise Data; a fast-paced, innovative and expanding $1.9 billion business, where you will partner closely with clients, taking the time to understand their unique business while focusing on specific data and technology needs. As a Data Management – Sales Representative, you will be responsible for driving annual sales and revenue targets for a defined territory, be able to work in a collaborative selling environment while maximising the resources available to help you sell, and build and execute on sales strategies while collaborating with internal sales and account management groups as required. If you’re interested, you can get all the information here.

Market Manager, Northern Europe (CRM and Engagement), Airbnb, London

In the Northern Europe Market Manager – CRM and Engagement role at Airbnb, you will be responsible for the supply health and growth in the region, by managing and acquiring high quality inventory at scale. You will build Airbnb’s strong market presence by collaborating with other teams as the local in-market expert, and develop and iterate localised scalable supply management strategies, for both highly developed destinations as well as nascent and relatively untapped new markets, to ensure long-term market success. To be considered, you’ll need at least six years’ CRM experience in a consumer-facing, fast-paced ecommerce company, a solid track record of successfully managing and executing large-scale, complex, high volume B2C email campaigns and cross-functional projects. Get full details now.

Strategic Account Executive – Enterprise, Fivetran, London

Fivetran’s mission is to make data access as easy and reliable as electricity for its customers, and it is seeking a Strategic Account Executive – Enterprise in London. You’ll drive consistent activity, pipeline development and quota achievement working with a virtual team, collaborate with channel partners and develop superior solutions that exceed customer expectations and determine customer requirements and present appropriate solutions that address both technical and business requirements.

Fifteen or more years’ field sales experience selling into large enterprise organisations, preferably Global 2000 and/or Fortune 500, is required for this role, as is a track record of success in driving consistent activity, pipeline development and quota achievement. If this sounds like the job for you, you can apply here.

Business Development Manager, ClearCourse, London

ClearDebit, a part of ClearCourse, is seeking a highly motivated and results-oriented business development manager. If you have a passion for driving business growth, a knack for building strong relationships and a strategic mindset, this could be a great fit. In the job, you will generate new business from inbound leads and proactive outbound contact to an existing customer base, and achieve and exceed KPIs. You’ll take on the account management of existing customers for retention and upselling, manage the sales cycle from initial contact to close, build knowledge of ClearDebit training products and services to enable you to expertly articulate the value proposition, features, benefits and USPs and build trusted relationships with your customers. You’ll need to be sales and target-focused with a competitive drive to succeed, as well as an inquisitive, high-energy self-starter to apply. Get the full requirements here.

Pre-sales Engineer, EPSILON, London

CitrusAd is a part of Epsilon, the third largest communications group in the world. It is powering retail media with a personalised sponsored product and display ad technology platform, and is seeking a pre-sales engineer in London, where you will play a pivotal role in supporting the sales team to achieve growth objectives, managing all technical aspects of the sales process.

You’ll provide technical and functional needs assessments to prospects and clients, deliver product demos, as well as attend meetings with clients to oversee market trends and requirements, and educate them to utilise the platform in the best way. To be considered, you will need two to four years of industry experience in a presales consultant, sales engineer, or solutions architect in a business-to-business, large or strategic customer segment. Experience in ad technologies and API-based systems, DSP/DMP/ad servers, retail media, and online retail, as well as knowledge of JavaScript, SQL, HTML, XML is required. Find out more here.

Find thousands more high-paying tech jobs on the Growth Business job board.

More jobs in tech

The UK tech jobs that pay six figures – In the past year, the average salary for UK tech workers of all levels was £81,893

The post 5 sales and marketing tech jobs this week appeared first on Growth Business.

By Aisling O'Toole on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

Recent research from Deloitte paints a picture of a UK start-up scene that is growing and decentralising, especially within the fintech sector.

The Deloitte National Connectivity Chapter found that a third of all fintech start-ups are located outside the capital, as VCs focus their attention on cities that have high levels of talent and low costs of living.

The study also shows that the UK continues to create global category-defining fintechs, particularly in wealth tech and payments.

With experts predicting that the fintech industry will create up to 50,000 jobs in the next three years, those looking to get ahead of the competition are stepping into specialised areas of growth now.

These areas are similar on both sides of the pond, with the US predicting growth in demand for roles that include AI, security, UX design and data scientists. The Growth Business job board is full of opportunities across these areas, ensuring continued career success for those who continue to upskill.

Five of the most exciting UK tech jobs available this week are highlighted below, but be sure to browse the job board to find your own next steps.

#1 – Information Security Officer, AXA, Redhill

Working in the information security team, the information security officer will report directly to the senior information security manager. They will also liaise with the UK COO and AXA health and insurance project teams to manage the security portions of strategic projects and achieve goals on time and on budget.

You’ll deliver UK security projects, enhancing controls and closing new risks on time and on budget. To be considered, you’ll need experience working in an information security role implementing security controls across a range to technologies, strong customer focus and an understanding of cloud and modern IT technologies. Get all the details.

#2 – Systems Engineer, Adwanted UK, London

As a key member of the company’s TechOps team, the systems engineer will play a vital role in supporting and maintaining its web based B2B solutions and internal technical services. This role is a mix of server and network administration, with a dash of staff desktop support and an opportunity to grow your career in tech.

You will work on everything from supporting live client-facing applications to collaborating with the company’s development and operations teams on product development projects. The right candidate will thrive in troubleshooting situations and have seven-plus years’ experience supporting live B2B IT systems in an SME environment. View the full job description.

#3 – Data Center Technician Manager, Microsoft, London

As a Microsoft data center technician manager, you will lead a team of technicians, providing expert guidance on performing hardware deployments, diagnostics on equipment, and hardware decommissions. You will support technician performance, prioritising technician tasks while monitoring KPIs and service level agreements.

This opportunity will allow the right candidate to model leadership principles, provide training to technicians and accelerate career growth in the process. Find more information here.

#4 – Information Security Manager, Oracle, London

Oracle is seeking an information security manager with a critical eye for detail and who enjoys collaborating within a global organisation with a diverse set of technical disciplined teams, such as site reliability engineering, development, security analysis and security research.

You’re someone who enjoys learning diverse technologies and keeping up to date with evolving best practices. You’ll lead incident response, vulnerability management/remediation, and develop and implement new processes, best practices and runbooks. To be considered, you will need a BS degree in computer science, cybersecurity, related technical education or equivalent practical experience. See all the application criteria.

#5 – Northern Europe CRM & Engagement Manager, Airbnb, London

As a Northern Europe CRM and engagement manager, you will be responsible for the supply health and growth in Northern Europe by managing and acquiring high quality inventory at scale. Focusing on these responsibilities, you will build Airbnb’s strong market presence in your assigned region by collaborating with other teams with the ability to analyse data and utilise data-driven recommendations to identify and action strategic opportunities in your region to drive an increase in sales.

The right candidate will have at least six years of CRM experience in a consumer-facing, fast-paced ecommerce company. Apply for this job now.

Browse the Growth Business job board to find your next role.

Aisling O’Toole is a journalist who over the past 15 years has edited some of Ireland’s leading publications, contributed regularly to TV and radio and occasionally the odd podcast.

More on UK tech jobs

The UK tech jobs that pay six figures – In the past year, the average salary for UK tech workers of all levels was £81,893

The post 5 of the best UK tech job opportunities this week appeared first on Growth Business.

By Dom Walbanke on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

If you’re representing your business out on the road at events and festivals, you want to be best prepared for payment with a reliable mobile payment system that can take payment from anywhere.

There are plenty of options out there for this use, so you’ll want to be looking for a mobile payment system that has sufficient battery life, the capability of accepting as many cards as possible and, of course, favourable transaction fees and upfront costs for the terminal.

What are mobile payment systems?

A mobile payment system is a point-of-sale device that accepts payment via cards and mobile phones – through mobile wallet apps like Apple Pay – while away from your business premises.

This mobile terminal will typically be linked to a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth network, a tablet device and an app for transaction insights and analytics.

Here we cover some of the best POS systems on the market to help you become centre stage at events.

Clover Flex

The Clover Go is a credit card reader to be paired with a mobile phone. It sends digital receipts to customer-provided email addresses and tracks the status of outstanding balances.

Other features include 24/7 support and a battery life that lasts eight hours or around 130 transactions (with a charging time of one hour).

Fees: Request quote for terminal. £1 a month for the first six months, request quote for fees thereafter.

ElavonMobileMerchant

MobileMerchant is Elavon’s solution for accepting card payment using your smartphone or tablet. The funds you make out on the road will be in your bank account within 24 hours.

The MobileMerchant offering comes with a portable card reader and a POS app for a smartphone. It has features such as reporting functions, business analytics and it can issue receipts via email and SMS.

Fees: The MobileMerchantApp is free. There’s a one-off device cost of £29 and the transaction fee starts at 1.75 per cent.

Shopify

The POS Go from Shopify acts as a terminal, barcode scanner and card reader. Shopify states it has a ‘long battery life’ which isn’t very specific, but it seems once fully charged (which takes between two and three hours), the machine can last a whole day of selling. Ideal if you’re heading to an event for the day.

If you choose this reader, just be sure to have Shopify Payments for your store for it to link to.

Fees: The reader itself costs £299.

Square

With the Square reader, you can accept chip and PIN and contactless cards as well as Google Pay and Apple Pay from anywhere.

It’s a very quick set-up so you can start taking payments swiftly – great if you land an events stall at the last moment.

The money will drop into your account the next working day or but there’s an option for this to be instant with Square’s instant deposit feature, which incurs a 1 per cent fee.

Fees: 1.75 per cent + VAT per chip and PIN or contactless payment and 2.5 per cent + VAT per keyed-in transaction. The reader is £19 plus VAT and Square’s POS app is free.

SumUp Air

The Air model can take contactless, chip and PIN, Google Pay and Apple Pay. One battery charge lasts over 500 transactions – or up to 12 hours.

Money is deposited into your business bank account the next day – including on weekends and holidays, which isn’t the case with a lot of the others on this list.

Fees: You’ll pay £39 for the card reader but it has a cheaper 1.69 per cent transaction fee compared to its competitors. If you select SumUp’s business account as your payout account, you’ll pay a cheaper 1.49 per cent transaction fee for a month.

takepayments

The mobile payment unit from takepayments accepts Apple and Google Pay, with a next day settlement fee. The battery lasts all day, and, you’re spending time travelling, an in-car charger is available. Its SIM card connects to the strongest network and it’s quick to set up, like the Square reader.

This terminal is slightly different from others in this list in the sense it can print out receipts there and then, rather than issuing via email or SMS, if desired.

Fees: Bespoke – contact takepayments for a free quote.

Wireless Terminal Solutions

Wireless Terminal Solutions machines accept Apple Pay, Android Pay and UnionPay as well as credit and debit cards. Its mobile payment reader also has 24/7 connectivity without an internet connection.

You have the option to rent a card machine – either short or long-term – buy one outright or opt for a refurbished model. The battery life on these readers is typically between 60 and 70 hours.

It takes a few days to get the card machine up and running, which is slower than others on this list.

Fees: Wireless Terminal Solutions has EPOS rentals for festivals and outdoor events. Discounts are offered for multiple EPOS units.

Worldpay

The Simplicity POS mobile terminal from Worldpay connects to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for remote transactions. It has an extended battery life but there’s no note of average length per battery charge.

For businesses with an annual card turnover of less than £300,000. Otherwise, you will need custom pricing.

The package comes with next day payment settlement and no hidden fees.

Fees: The Simplicity POS package has a £17.50 card payment terminal fee (18-month minimum hire term) with a 1.5 per cent transaction fee.

Zettle Card Reader 2

Zettle’s Card Reader 2 takes a few minutes to set up to get you selling straight away. You will see payments in your bank account within one or two working days.

Battery life is on average eight hours with a transaction every five minutes or up to 100 transactions from one charge.

Fees: Zettle has a fee of 1.75 per cent per card transaction. Like some of the other offerings, the card reader is £29 and the point-of-sale app is free.

More on payments

What is a merchant cash advance? – In this article, we’ll be explaining what a merchant cash advance is, how they work and whether they’re right for your business.

The post Mobile payment systems for events and festivals appeared first on Growth Business.

By Timothy Adler on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

Fintech cannot stay out of the headlines, mostly for the wrong reasons reasons. This past year has seen the spectacular collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, while the ex-chief executive of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has pleaded guilty to money-laundering as part of a $4 billion settlement between the platform and the US Department of Justice.

No wonder investors are feeling cagey about putting their money into disruptive fintech startups.

Combined with rising interest rates and inflation, investors have held onto their cash – ending the pre-pandemic era of easy money – making it more difficult for fintech startups to raise capital.

What kind of startups are VCTs looking to invest in? – Drug testing that doesn’t involve animals, supplying clean energy directly to businesses, and businesses focused on older consumers are business ideas VCTs want to see in 2024, they tell Growth Business

According to KPMG, total UK fintech investment dropped to $5.9bn (£4.6bn) in the first half of 2023, down 57 per cent from $13.8 billion in the same period in 2022.

So, will it be the same this year?

Nick Sando, a fintech principal at Octopus Ventures, believes fintech is now entering a period of stability compared with last year.

Sando says: “The last three months have been particularly active … it’s really picked up over the last few months, as people feel that we’re through the worst of it.”

‘The biggest companies are built on the back of market downturns’

Nicholas Sando, principal Octopus Ventures

In fact, says Sando, being in the trough of a downturn can be propitious for fintech founders, as there’s less competition for investor cash and an IT labour market which has seen mass redundancies post-pandemic means you have the pick of better people.

“While it can be daunting, it’s also incredibly exciting. The biggest companies are built on the back of market downturns. Times like these are when opportunities arise,” says Sando.

If there is one overarching theme among the fintech trends in 2024, it will be consolidation in the sector, whether it’s high-street banks buying into disruptive fintech startups or bigger brands including them as part of a bundled finance offer.

Top 10 London fintech companies – Financial technology is an exciting industry ripe with innovation. We showcase the top 10 London fintech companies to watch out for

Given the fall in fintech investment, fintech founders might be grateful when a high-street bank comes a-knocking – banks have, after all, been taking stakes in fintechs for years.

The attraction of having your disruptive fintech app bundled with a larger player is that it solves the biggest problem that has faced fintechs – getting in front of customers. For example, one of the ubiquitous accounting software providers, such as a Xero or a Sage, could offer loans when they notice you’ve got a cashflow problem. This bouquet of financial products, known as “embedded finance”, is going to be one of the most exciting developments in fintech, says Sando.

Another fintech trends theme that is not going away is the importance of cyber-security and anything which protects fintechs from cyber-attack.

“There really is an increased focus on cyber-risk and operational resilience is a real problem there across the thousands of critical infrastructure and private businesses that are really impacted,” says Simon Crown, co-head of fintech practice at Clifford Chance.

Future fintech industry trends

Growth Business has identified nine future fintech trends for 2024 and beyond.

Climate fintech

One area that especially excites Sando is climate fintech, which covers carbon emission accounting, carbon offsetting and ESG compliance. “All of these solutions are being built right now while the train is going a hundred miles an hour,” enthuses Sando, whose Octopus Ventures recently invested in carbon accounting software startup Minimum.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms will go mainstream. These use blockchain technology to help cut out the middleman taking commissions, reducing the cost of money. Think how Wise has disrupted the foreign exchange market by undercutting banks. DeFi startups will move on to disrupting borrowing, lending and insurance markets, as well.

AI offering financial advice

Imagine an Alexa as your personal financial advisor – there is going to be opportunity for AI-driven personalised investment and spending advice.

The big question when it comes to AI-driven chatbots, say, offering financial advice, is going to be governance and oversight. Who in the end will be responsible if the AI advice is duff or results in losses. “The thing senior managers will be thinking about is the Frankenstein effect – what have we created?” says Crown.

Tokenisation of assets

Blockchain technology will enable small investors to own shares of hugely expensive things, whether it’s property or fine art or classic cars. Combining tokenisation with distributed ledger technology (blockchain) gives a great deal of scope to create a whole new wave of innovative products and services, one of which could be programmable money.

America embraces open banking

Open banking began as a UK government initiative to break the stranglehold of legacy providers on personal finance. High-street British banks were forced to share their customers’ data with third parties such as fintechs for the first time, enabling the launch of disruptors.

US regulators announced measures in October to allow consumers’ data to be shared as in the UK, Australia and Europe, which make it easier to switch bank accounts. The Personal Financial Data Rights rule will, for the first time, guarantee Americans access to their bank data at no charge, enabling them to share that data with third parties.

This new open banking rule will require that, as in the UK, banks provide application programming interfaces (APIs), which allow data to be easily shared.

On the face of it, the US offers a huge opportunity for UK fintech start-ups, given that Britain was for a long time the most innovative fintech market in the world (before the EU caught up).

However, Simon Crown warns that the US would be a difficult market for a UK startup to crack, given the different regulation, which would mean partnering with a US firm.

However, one key difference is that open banking had political support here in Britain, which may not be the case for either the Democrats or Republicans following next year’s election. Opening up America’s banks to foreigners would not sit well with protectionist Donald Trump.

“Everything in America is at risk of politicisation,” says Crown.

Another issue is that the huge cost of implementing open banking fell on UK banks and not on the fintechs which stood to benefit from access to their data. Given that there are more than 9,000 banks and credit unions across America, most of which would have to implement open banking, many of these mom ‘n’ pop banks could not bear the cost of opening up as did British high-street legacy banks.

Fintech consolidation

In a saturated market in terms of the number of fintech startups, it’s now cheaper to buy an existing fintech than to build one from scratch. M&A activity has risen and is expected to grow this year as fintech valuations go down. This consolidation phase, reducing the number of fresh startups, signals a more stable fintech ecosystem.

Buy Now, Pay Later for businesses

While BNPL was initially used for lower-cost fashion purchases, its application has expanded. BNPL is now being offered in corporate purchasing and non-discretionary purchases, such as healthcare, legal services, and auto repairs.

Embedded finance

Embedded finance requires technology to build into products and services the capability to move money in certain circumstances, such as paying for an Uber car directly out of your bank account after the journey. Consumers pay without consciously having to dig out their debit card. The payment is in the background and invisible to the consumer.

For example, one online travel agent has experimented with offering loans to pay for package holidays when you book a holiday. Booking your holiday and paying for it, rather than going outside to use your credit card, is one transaction.

As such, embedded payments are becoming very common for all B2B2C and B2B2B business models like platforms and marketplaces. Embedded payments are expected to scale using emerging technologies such as AI, distributed ledgers, augmented and virtual realities, 5G and IoT.

Sando predicts that bigger brands will buy disruptive fintechs, especially when it comes to offering embedded finance. A case in point might be one of the accounting software platforms, which every business now has to use, seeing that you’ve got a short-term cash flow problem and offering a loan.

The question a fintech founder has to ask, says Sando, is whether they think they would be more powerful on their own or embedded in a larger platform.

Fintechs adopt SaaS model

We’ve become used to renting monthly software subscriptions, which give us peace of mind that we’re always up to date. SaaS revenues globally were being hit $623 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate of 18 per cent. Fintechs are adopting the software-as-a-service model too.

One of the attractions of cloud-based SaaS is that it offers enhanced security when it comes to data storge and management, which fintech startups could not replicate onsite.

More on fintech

Where to find fintech investment – Despite investment in the first half of 2023 dropping to £4.6bn UK fintechs are still attracting more VC investment than all other EMEA fintechs combined

The post Future fintech industry trends appeared first on Growth Business.

By Rosaleen McMeel on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

Fintechs are arguably one of the most dynamic and exciting areas of technology. The fast-changing nature of consumer behaviour, the rapid evolution of finance technologies, cybersecurity threats and government and industry regulation are just some of the factors that contribute to this innovative industry that keeps both staff and employers on their toes.

If you’re seeking inspiration for your business, we’ve found several up-and-coming UK fintechs worthy of an introduction…

Thought Machine

Thought Machine builds the Vault platform: cloud-native core banking and payments technology. It is on a mission to create technology that can run the world’s banks according to the best designs and software practices of the modern age. In doing so, it’s planning to permanently rid the world’s banks of the problems generated by poor technology running on legacy infrastructure.

So far, the London-headquartered company has built a cloud-native, microservices and API-based platform called Vault Core: a complete core banking platform which is capable of being configured easily to suit the needs of any bank. Placing a lot of emphasis on their culture of engineering excellence, they’re determined to engineer a seismic shift in the banking industry.

Last month, it was reported that Thought Machine, which was mostly recently valued as a $3 billion unicorn, was sounding out bankers about floating on the stock exchange. 

Thought Machine is currently recruiting for a couple of positions in Singapore.

Top 10 London fintech companies – Financial technology is an exciting industry ripe with innovation. We showcase the top 10 London fintech companies to watch out for

Allica Bank

Allica Bank is the fastest-growing UK fintech in history, according to Deloitte.

Allica is focused on serving established and ambitious mid-sized SMEs – typically with 10 to 250 staff. These businesses represent over 30 per cent of all UK jobs and GDP but are underserved by traditional banks, while other neo-banks, such as Monzo, focus on micro businesses and consumers.

Milton Keynes-based Allica, lent £1.4 billion to small businesses last year and has plans to triple that by next year. Given that it only launched in March 2020, the bank even turned a profit last year – which is unusual in the cash-intensive fintech sector, which burns cash fast.

Its aim is to gain a 10 per cent market share in the next five years.

10X Banking

10x Banking (10x) is another London-based tech company building better banks with its next-generation, cloud native SaaS platform, SuperCore.

A transformational approach to data management, APIs, and a design architecture which is secure, scalable and regulatory compliant means 10x supports banks move from being product first, offering mortgages, credit cards and current accounts, rather than actually engaging with the needs of its customers. 10X creates a single customer record.

Founded in 2016 by former Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins, 10x was valued at about £600 million in 2021 when it raised £150 million. Other investors include JP Morgan and Australian bank Westpac. Institutions BlackRock and the Canada Pension Plan saw the opportunities in its business model.

Jenkins told The Times earlier this year that he wants to take the business from having a handful of clients now to somewhere between 15 and 20 clients by the end of 2025.

GoCardless

GoCardless aims to “take the pain out of getting paid” for businesses that receive automatic, repeating payments from customers. Each year, GoCardless processes more than $35 billion of payments across more than 30 countries. The Alphabet-backed company’s software integrates with the applications that businesses use, giving them more visibility over payments and saving time on tasks such as payment reconciliation.

It has deals with more than 300 billing and subscription software partners globally, including QuickBooks, Sage and Salesforce.

Its services are used by 76,000 businesses including TripAdvisor and DocuSign, and it employs 850 people. In February 2022, GoCardless announced a Series G funding round of £254m ($312m), making it the latest European and UK tech unicorn with a valuation of £1.7bn ($2.1bn).

Teya

Teya is a payments services provider, led by Brazilian chief executive Eduardo Pontes, serving small and medium-sized businesses with payment acceptance, inventory and order management and customer loyalty products.

Founded in 2019, its goal is to create affordable, fast and secure payment solutions which can help over 300,000 SMEs manage and grow their operations better.

Where Stripe, Adyen and Square have built a modern payment stack from scratch, London-based Teya is doing the same through buying the individual pieces as separate business acquisitions.

But it’s not just payments. Teya offers a bundled fintech solution for small businesses, including cash advances, a digital loyalty platform, website builder, advanced electronic point-of-sale (ePOS) system and merchant account features.

If you’re interested in exploring more open roles in the fintech space, discover even more job opportunities over on the GrowthBusiness job board.

Rosaleen McMeel is the director of publishing at our job board partner, Jobbio, and is based in Dublin

More on fintechs

Future fintech industry trends – Consolidation as bigger brands incorporate fintech startups and opportunities in America as the US finally embraces open banking are just two trends fintech founders need to watch out for this year

You can find your next career move over at the Growth Business Job Board

The post Five up-and-coming UK fintechs worth putting on your radar appeared first on Growth Business.

By Rosaleen McMeel on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

As the UK fintech industry continues to transform, so do its hiring needs. From AI playing a greater role in round-the-clock customer support, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) becoming increasingly mainstream to the rise of neobanks like Kroo, further disruption is expected well into 2024.

AI, machine learning and blockchain are amongst the chief catalysts, reshaping the future of this industry, enhancing efficiency and bolstering security. And while these developments signal significant growth for fintech, they also herald the emergence of a talent gap.

Looking at technology trends across 3.5 million job postings in growth areas, a 2023 report from consultancy company McKinsey found that “many of the skills in greatest demand have less than half as many qualified practitioners per posting as the global average”. AI was noted as the fastest growing in job postings.

For AI-skilled employees this is good news, as the market is most definitely tipped in your favour right now and there are countless opportunities for you to explore.

For those with less confidence or experience, now is the time to highlight your knowledge, no matter how small, to recruiters and start futureproofing your career.

3 great UK fintech jobs available now

#1 – Sales Manager – Fintech/Payment, Guardian Professional, London

Based in London, Guardian Professional Corporate Services is hiring for a rapidly-growing, progressive business in a fast-paced, collegial working environment. It is currently recruiting a talented sales manager to work for an award-winning client in the fintech and payment industry.

You’ll need a bachelor’s degree in business administration, marketing, sales, or a similar area and a proven track record in the sales industry as a sales manager. Experience in finance, fintech and payment industries is desirable. For more information, see the full requirements here.

#2 – Threat and Vulnerability Manager, Noir Consulting, London/Hybrid

Noir Consulting is recruiting for a threat and vulnerability manager to join an ambitious fintech start-up. This is your chance to work with the sharpest minds in private wealth management and financial software development.

If you’ve experience in applications deployment, DNS, PKI, OS (Windows, MAC, *NIX), SDN, encryption, security solutions, ‘attack and defensive’ methods, threat hunting, threat modelling, reverse engineering, vulnerability management, data modelling and cloud technologies (Azure, AWS, GCP, Alibaba), this is the role for you. The client is willing to provide training for technologies such as forensics authentication, Python, Shell, Ansible, Jenkins, Azure architecture, threat intelligence and more. This hybrid role offers a performance bonus (up to 20 per cent), pension scheme (10per cent and private healthcare. For more information or to apply, click here.

#3 – C# Software Engineer Fintech, client server, London

Are you a technologist C# software engineer who enjoys working on complex low-latency, real-time systems? You could be progressing your career, in a senior, hands-on role at a hugely-successful fintech / FX brokerage whilst enjoying a range of perks and benefits.

The successful candidate will be an integral part of an agile development team, with a focus on backend development of inhouse trade processing systems that have real-time, low latency capabilities. The successful candidate will earn a competitive salary, up to £110,000 plus bonus, medical insurance, flexible working and a personalised career development. Discover more about the role and its benefits here.

Browse the Growth Business job board to find your next role.

More on UK fintech jobs

10 best-funded UK fintechs to work at right now – For those who have found themselves in an environment of shifting sands, a job move to a fintech with a good cushion of funding can be a holy grail career goal, says Jobbio’s Kirstie McDermott.

The post 3 great UK fintech jobs available this week appeared first on Growth Business.

By Kirstie McDermott on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

Despite layoffs across the wider tech sector, the UK’s technology industry is in good shape, and is one of only three countries globally with a tech economy valued at over $1 trillion.

In 2022, Britain’s tech industry was worth more than double that of Germany’s – and was almost five times larger than France and Sweden. During 2020 and 2021, the sector saw growth of 42% and forecasts estimate that the industry’s value could be worth £2 trillion by 2032.

Additionally, you can expect to earn 55% more than the average wage, and with a skills shortage still in evidence, top tech talent is in a great position. Roles in areas such as software engineering, AI and machine learning, cybersecurity and data analytics are in demand.

If you have the right skills, there are job opportunities out there that are waiting to be filled. Below, we are highlighting five senior tech jobs available now, but you can find many more on the Growth Business job board.

Top 5 senior tech jobs available this week

#1 – Portfolio Director Oracle E-Business Suite for Aspire Managed Services, Version 1, London

Version 1’s market leading enterprise applications practice specialises in finance, supply chain, HR, and payroll solutions with over 650 Oracle specialists across the UK, Ireland, US, Australia, India and Slovenia.

As the portfolio director for Oracle’s e-business suite, you’ll lead a team of over 80 consultants and support over 30 customers to deliver a portfolio of circa £8 million, and will lead a team to deliver ASPIRE managed services. This is a senior role in Version 1, with opportunity for the right individual to further progress into senior practice leadership roles across the company. To apply, you should have experience in leading a team, in managing and growing a portfolio of projects/customers, and you will be passionate about defining and developing solutions which meet customer challenges. Get all the requirements.

#2 – Creative Director (Growth), Flo Health, London

If you have five or more years’ in creative leadership roles, preferably in a scale-up where team management and scaling were a must, then you may be interested in this creative director (growth) role at Flo Health. Here, you’ll be improving Flo’s lifecycle marketing campaigns with improved creative for each campaign, scaling more than 15% of user acquisition concepts into business as usual campaigns through insights, conceptual development and messaging work, and developing best-in-class creative reporting and briefing with the production team.

You’ll require experience of the leadership and ownership of creative for paid user acquisition and lifecycle marketing within a tech company, an understanding of the metrics that drive success, a proven track record of scaling output and effectiveness of creative work in a fast-growing company, as well as proven experience designing full-funnel campaigns and communications. If this sounds like you, apply here.

#3 – Cloud Migration Director, Oracle, United Kingdom

As the cloud migration director, you will leverage your extensive technical knowledge across both modern cloud architectures, as well as your experience with legacy design patterns and best practices involved in transforming these in enterprise environments.

You will apply transformation and database migration technologies to solve clients’ transformation needs, and will be responsible for identifying, documenting and demonstrating the best architectural target solution for each customer situation. You should have the ability to develop and execute a comprehensive cloud migration strategy for enterprise class customers that aligns with the risk, cost and agility attributes of the client, and regularly provide oversight and review of these implementation engagements to ensure the best outcome. See what else is involved.

#4 – Senior DevOps Engineer, Version 1, Bristol

Version 1 is one of a handful of AWS premier consulting partners, which is the highest tier of AWS partnership available. As senior DevOps engineer, you will be working for the AWS practice with architects, DevOps engineers and consultants. The role is varied in scope and technology and can entail the development of innovative solutions in the cloud, delivering cloud migration projects, and helping development teams with DevOps technologies (CI/CD pipelines, config management). You will be developing the AWS platform using Terraform, building CI/CD pipelines, working with AWS best practices and ultimately helping Version 1 to build its reputation with the customer. You can get more details here.

#5 – Lead Software Development Engineer in Test (PHP), Global Relay, UK

For over 20 years, Global Relay has set the standard in enterprise information archiving with industry-leading cloud archiving, surveillance, eDiscovery, and analytics solutions. As a lead software development engineer in test (SDET) you will oversee testing resources on a small, highly focused team responsible for moving two public-facing content managed websites on-premise, and bringing the engineering standards to professional levels. You’ll be responsible for ensuring appropriate and efficient testing strategies are applied in your areas of responsibility, with a focus on shift-left testing principles. Want more information? Get that here.

Browse the Growth Business job board to find more senior tech jobs and land your next role

Kirstie McDermott works for our job board partner, Jobbio. Based in Dublin, she has been a writer and editor across print and digital platforms for over 15 years.

More on UK tech

10 hottest insurtech startups in the UK – Insurtech is growing as a sector in the UK and boasts some of the country’s newest unicorns

The post 5 senior UK tech jobs available this week appeared first on Growth Business.

By Dom Walbanke on Growth Business - Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

Is artificial intelligence good or bad? Either way, it’s growing. Whether it is JPMorgan’s AI cashflow model that claims to cut manual banking work by 90 per cent, AI therapists or AI-powered security cameras, AI is making its mark on society and the workplace.

With so many resources being dedicated to its development and no real obstacles predicted, its rapid development is set to continue. In many ways, this is a good thing that will help the pharmaceutical industry detect and understand disease. On the other hand, there are concerns AI will aid cyber attacks, spread fake news and decrease job security.

What AI is doing for us now

AI is already able to drive vehicles and negotiate obstacles. This has applications for military operations and space exploration.

Serious success is being seen in the trials of new machinery designed to identify tumours on CT scans and X-rays, and AI is being used to predict kidney failure and help doctors assess lung cancer.

AI algorithms are helping drones identify targets in warfare, companies like Amazon to reduce packaging and architects make their projects more efficient.

Mining and managing big data, as well as discovering important correlations within it, is possible with e-discovery software. This technology is also being used to get through huge mountains of legal documents more effectively and efficiently than human paralegals can. Some journalism jobs like sports summaries and market reports are also already within the scope of AI, as are certain middle management tasks.

As AI continues to develop, it’s not only capable of making tasks easier for humans. There is growing concern that AI may become more intelligent than humans, with AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton sounding the alarm in 2023.

Just 7% of UK startups actively involved with AI – Despite the UK pushing for global leadership in artificial intelligence, the number of startups actually capitalising on or developing AI is sparse

Potential risks of AI

Several studies have shown that AI may displace huge sectors of the workforce, and not only in traditionally blue-collar jobs. There are also concerns that algorithms might start to deny people certain opportunities, such as bank loans or college admissions, based on racial profiling. The technology could also be used by governing forces to detect and suppress any kind of dissent, helping to create very autocratic societies.

As virtual assistants become more able to accurately predict what kind of news stories a person will be interested in, there is also the potential for shaping and polarising a society’s opinions. And of course, the idea of weapons that are able to act autonomously is alarming to many people.

There is also the worry of the impact of AI when in the wrong hands. AI can be used by fraudsters to make their frauds even more convincing, cyber attacks harder to defend against and put data privacy at risk.

It also has the potential to have an adverse effect on the environment. AI – and in particular, data centres – consume vast amounts of electricity and water to function.

Is AI good or bad?

Our response now to artificial intelligence is very important. The technology is a tool that could enhance our lives in many ways, but we need to continue to discuss its possibilities for subjective experiences and human emotions, its job displacement potential and other important issues, and to manage them responsibly.

The United States National Science and Technology’s subcommittee on machine learning and artificial intelligence delivered a report to the White House on AI and employment back in 2016, acknowledging job loss but also emphasising potential new careers and opportunities.

Economists, anthropologists and other experts are also teaming up with AI scientists to explore its impact more at conferences. Such active awareness and engagement with the issues will remain essential as we move into the future.

In essence, many of its benefits come down to training and regulation. Businesses need to understand that without proper use, AI can be biased, discriminative and in its earliest stages, unreliable. With proper regulation, its use can be ringfenced, risks of bias and discrimination are minimised and criminals can be held accountable for wrongdoing.

This article was originally written and published by Praseeda Nair on 2 August 2017.

More on AI

AI could add $500bn to value of SMEs globally – SMEs either creating AI for enterprise organisations or embedding AI in their own businesses will add billions of dollars in value, says boutique tech bank DAI Magister

The post Artificial intelligence: is it good or bad for society? appeared first on Growth Business.