The golden semester of FinTech in the UK

Revolut confirmed last week that it raised an additional $ 800 million from large investors, including the Softbank Vision Fund, bringing the overall valuation to $ 33 billion. A few weeks earlier, Wise, a platform specializing in currency transfers, was listed on the London Stock Exchange for nearly 9 billion pounds. Meanwhile, as The Guardian also recounts, the UK government has set up a £ 375 million fund for UK tech companies that “” change the rules of the game. “This is a time when UK fintech companies are attracting huge amount of international investment, second only to the United States. Regions? London’s strength as a financial center, access to top-tier universities and strong support for fintech from regulators and the government. Even before the Revolut’s funding round was announced, UK FinTech firms had attracted some $ 5.7 billion in venture capital investments in the first half of the year alone through 317 deals in the first half of the year. of the 4.3 billion dollars raised throughout 2020, well over 26% the record of 4.6 billion dollars set in 2019. In the footsteps of Wise and Revolut, they are, in addition, by moving online payment company Checkout.com and Rapyd, a service provider for the cross-border payments industry. While Brexit has undoubtedly made it more difficult for entrepreneurs to relocate to the UK, regulators, including the Bank of England’s Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, have encouraged competition between financial services in the wake of the 2008 bank crash, in an effort to counter the wave of mergers and acquisitions that focused risk on a handful of lenders. This has resulted in a more collaborative relationship with startups and the creation of the fintech sandbox, which allows early stage companies to test their products for a limited number of customers before companies are licensed, all under the supervision of the regulator. Meanwhile, the government has sought to drive reforms to convince startups to go public on the London Stock Exchange and ensure that growing companies do not leave the UK through direct access to international markets, especially one linked to an EU. post-Brexit, in a way that allows them to continue growing.