Fintech is a huge industry, and that’s no different in Scotland. According to FinTech Scotland, over 175 fintech firms call the region home in 2021. This is a 50% growth from 2020.
To narrow down that massive scale, we’ll be looking at the capital Edinburgh and its rich fintech scene.
Notably, all the companies covered today are relatively young, with the oldest being founded within the last five years. As usual, these firms are just a small sampling of a larger marketplace filled with high-quality services. With that out of the way, let’s get started.
Aveni
Utilising the power of artificial intelligence (AI), Aveni aims to aid companies in their pursuit to make more customer conversions than ever. It was previously called Hatch AI but rebranded last year.
It provides its clients with speech analytics that allow them to, essentially, select the most effective words and phrases to achieve whatever goal a business has in a particular conversation.
Aveni is not limited to financial services as it also works in the utilities and contact centre sectors.
Investors certainly believe in Aveni’s prospects. In July 2021, it received £1.1 million in funding.
Level E Research
Spinning out of the University of Edinburgh, Level E Research’s SaaS platform offers portfolio recommendations through its AI-Signal Engine, executed in the client’s own account with brokers integrated in the platform, coupled with order, portfolio and risk management systems, compliance and reporting.
Its ‘E-platform’ combines machine learning, data science and behavioural economics, enabling firms to develop, test and implement investment strategies.
Level E Research believes financial markets are “better understood through evolutionary adaptation rather than the traditional lens of market equilibrium”. It reckons the most up-to-date information about a security is embedded in its current price rather than in fundamental information such as financial statements.
The startup managed to net £1.2 million in seed funding in April 2021.
Open Banking Reporting
Risks can be a necessary poison for banks and lenders to swallow. However, Open Banking Reporting’s (OBR) cloud-based platform OpenRep hopes to help challenger banks, specialist lenders and retail banks both in the UK and around the world better navigate the unsteady waters of lending while at the same time improving their end users’ relationships with subject matter experts.
OpenRep uses machine learning and AI to monitor financial trends and patterns to identify and trigger timely interventions and management actions.
How effective the platform turns out to be is largely unknown due to the youth of the company, but it has already made believers out of some.
One such believer is London-based financial integration firm Codat who announced a partnership with OBR in October 2021.
Sticklr
Platforms are complex beasts. Between the technical jargon and the myriad systems interacting in, out, and through them, it can be difficult for companies to invest the necessary time and resources to make sure the platforms they use are functioning as efficiently as possible.
By collecting the data put out and taken in by these platforms, Sticklr hopes to provide businesses with easy-to-understand documentation that will help them use their platforms better than ever.
Though incredibly young, the small team of 10 boasts decades of experience between them to accomplish this goal. The company has spent the majority of its very short lifespan getting set up, but hopefully, it’ll make a big splash in 2022.
Sticklr is the trading name for Wealth Platform Solutions Limited.
Sustainably
Kindness and charity are not always easy things to give, but Techstars alumni Sustainably purports to aim to make that kindness easier to give than ever.
Using Stripe to process donations, Sustainably’s app will track transactions throughout a day, round them up to the nearest pound, and donate the rounded up amount to charities of a person’s choice when the total hits a certain threshold. There are dozens of charities to choose from, most of them based in the UK or for UK-specific causes.
It works with businesses by offering plug in and play technology. This allows companies to give to causes that matter to their employees and customers.
The firm has received some notable plaudits – such as Richard Branson’s Startup of the Year 2019.
Visible Capital
One of the most important aspects of the 21st-century financial sector is data. Gathering and analysing data then acting off the results can mean the difference between success and failure for a firm, and few stages of data gathering are important than when someone is onboarding a new client.
Visible Capital seeks to automate and streamline the process via its use of PSD2 and open banking data. The company offers an open API to integrate its services with a business’s existing platform.
The three co-founders have plenty of relevant experience between them. Such as working at Deloitte and Standard Life – and even investing in Zumo (see below to read about that firm).
Recently, Visible Capital was highly commended by the Awards for Innovation 2021 in the Best Use of Data and Analytics category.
WhisperClaims
This one is for the accountants in the audience, as WhisperClaims’ software is designed to make the process of preparing R&D tax credit claims more efficient.
In October 2021, the firm was voted into the Tech Nation Fintech 4.0 programme. It will be supported by this government-backed programme through networking events with stakeholders, peer-to-peer meetups, and insights sessions delivered by fintech entrepreneurs, investors and partners.
According to the fintech startup, its software has been used to deliver over 1,400 claims and in excess of £25 million tax benefits to SMEs since late 2018.
WhisperClaims’ legal name is Wobbegong Technology.
Zumo
A common criticism of cryptocurrency is its impact on the environment, with how much electricity mining rigs need to make the blockchain’s required calculations, but cryptocurrency wallet app developer Zumo hopes to help fix that.
In September 2021, Zumo published a state of play report dedicated to figuring out how crypto can be decarbonised. Its environmental consultant has also recently stated that the crypto sector should aim for full decarbonisation by 2030.
The company’s other stated mission is dedicated to making banking more accessible to those who remain without modern financial services.
In 2020, Zumo received £1.66 million in seed funding. In August 2021, it reported that its app’s user base had grown from 500 to 50,000 within a year.
Have a look at the previous features on Scottish firms in the cybersecurity and data sectors.
