BusinessCloud is proud to announce the names of its inaugural 101 FinTech Disrupters.
FinTech is changing the world of finance for consumers, from the way people bank to the way they arrange their insurance and pay for things.
The potential for the sector is huge, levelling the playing field for bootstrapped SMEs, helping users manage their finances more effectively and breathing new life into the UK’s economy.
Our list of companies shaking up the sector ranges from heavyweights to start-ups who are disrupting the industry through technology.
The industry’s top talent includes Aicura Solutions, a ‘Plug-in FinTech factory for banks’. Aicura offers banks a faster, cheaper way to quickly test ideas and take them to market, focussing on the financial services sector and offering incumbents ‘prototyping as a service’.
AI chatbot Cleo is leapfrogging a generation – as many banks bid to get in on the app scene, Cleo helps users get help without one.
The digital financial assistant advises users on their spending and of deals in the marketplace while automatically placing money into a savings account based on what they can afford. Users can send money to their Facebook Messenger contacts via Cleo while it has backing from big-name investors including Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman.
Helping fight crippling study fees is EdAid, which lets students crowdfund their education. Founded in 2015 by Tom Woolf, a former professional athlete and a Nike ambassador, the platform offers interest-free loans – with students then giving a percentage of their early career earnings to their backers – alongside a network connecting students with the best internships and jobs.
It also launched QardHasan, the Sharia-compliant version of the platform, last year, which is led by Ismail Jeilani.
Having recently received investment from Andy Murray, Landbay is proving that property is still thriving. The proptech firm has raised a total of £6.4m funding in six crowdfunding rounds on Seedrs and passed the £100m lending milestone. It seeks to optimise the opportunities presented by peer-to-peer lending.
Moneybox rounds up user purchases to the nearest pound and invests the spare change for them. Starting at £1, users can invest in companies such as Netflix, Unilever and Disney via three tracker funds. Monzo recently partnered with the site to allow its users to take advantage of the tech. With more than $23m funding to date, Moneybox says it helps customers invest the spare change from over one million transactions every week.
From innovative companies that help more people access both investing and borrowing, to ones that track their finances and others that demystify the often opaque world of financial services, the final shortlist of 101 disrupters are leading lights of the UK’s thriving FinTech scene.
BusinessCloud editor Chris Maguire said: “Our lists regularly attract millions of impressions on Twitter and I know our 101 FinTech Disrupters list will attract a similar amount of interest.
“There isn’t a more disruptive sector than FinTech and that’s why BusinessCloud has decided to recognise the companies who are shaking things up.
“As the world moves closer towards a cashless society the level of innovation and disruption is only going to speed up. Watch this space.”
People were given the opportunity for possible inclusion in the list but BusinessCloud also canvassed the opinion of industry experts before we settled on the final line-up.
With suggestions pouring in from across the country, it was a challenge to pick just 101 companies but we believe these innovative organisations are truly changing the way we spend, save and live.