Fintech Firms Earn Cash for Bright Ideas

Article in full from The Times, October 30^th 2018

By Rosemary Gallagher

The winners of a new competition to find the next generation of financial technology entrepreneurs in Scotland have been announced after a Dragons’ Den-style pitch in Edinburgh.

The competition has a prize fund totalling £125,000 and is run by The Times, in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland, the executive search firm FWB Park Brown and Dell Technologies. Seven finalists took part in the event at the RBS headquarters at Gogarburn, where they delivered three minute pitches of their ideas or businesses to a panel of judges.

The Powerup Fintech award for companies trading for less than three years was won by Broker Insights, a Dundee-based business connecting insurers and brokers, winning £80,000. In second place was Soar, a banking technology provider for ethical financial services firms. Hatch-AI, a business using artificial intelligence in the financial services industry came third.

Keynote Speaker: Calum Paterson, Managing Partner, Scottish Equity Partners

The winner of the Blue Sky Fintech award for businesses trading for less than a year was Trade in Space, which won £10,000. The company digitises agricultural assets using satellite images, which may help farmers access finance. The runner-up was Scoop Markets, which uses artificial intelligence to find news that can move financial markets. Cyborn, which is involved in data privacy, was third, and fourth was Money Matix, a platform to help families with financial planning.

All finalists gain a place on the RBS accelerator programme for entrepreneurship. Louise Smith, head of digitisation, personal and business banking at RBS, chaired the judging panel.