Last night at the Fintech Innovation Awards, host Julia Streets addressed the “brightest and best of financial services and technology” – 400 FinTech fanatics who gathered to celebrate the achievements of the industry’s top players.
“Whoever wins in IT always wins”, said our first keynote speaker Sir Clive Woodward. While his point related to the England rugby team – whose game he had improved using data analytics and player tracking software – it resonated particularly well with the packed room.
Our first round of winners saw Bellin win best treasury management system, while Yoyo dominated in mobile banking and commerce and Handpoint won in the mobile point-of-sale category. Cashcloud came first in the mobile wallets category, Jumio won the award for anti-fraud/security initiative and Simcorp took the top gong in the asset management system category.
Inetco came top of the data solutions category, and Axetrading won an award for its contribution to trading systems on the buy and sell side.
Ratesetter founder and CEO Rhydian Lewis was named FinTech Leader of the Year.
As of last month, the peer-to-peer lender had lent half a billion since its launch in 2010. Ratesetter’s rapid growth is partially due to a number of strategic partnerships with the likes of GraduRates, GiffGaff and the British Business Bank.
The event’s second keynote speaker Dan Cobley paid tribute to the talented FinTech community in London.
“Here in 2015, the best and the brightest are choosing to go into startups and into FinTech”, the Brightbridge Ventures founder said. But while London does have plenty of talent, a fairly supportive regulatory structure and a large pool of investors, there are a few other reasons why London is becoming such a FinTech hub, Cobley said.
The UK has “variable weather and a sense of irony” – a few things unfamiliar to those on the West Coast!
Online savings and investment management service Nutmeg won the award for top FinTech Start-up and Early Stage Company. As a new, online, cheap and transparent investment management company, Nutmeg has attracted 40,000 users in three years.
The company launched its first personal pension last month in an attempt to disrupt the UK pensions sector.
Barclaycard bPay won the award for top contactless payment initiative, Panamax’s Mobifin took the gong in the emerging market’s category, and SafeCharge came first in risk management systems.
Design Studio won the FinTech Marketing/PR Campaign of the year award for Nutmeg’s “Investing without the bankers” campaign. It targeted London commuters during ‘ISA season’, and was featured across the London Underground network, rail and on billboards on roads into London.
Next, British Business Bank Investments won the award for the top alternative finance debt funder.
Funding Circle, RBS and Santander took the gong for FinTech Deal of the Year. The referral arrangement means that the banks proactively refer small business customers looking for a loan to Funding Circle, where they are placed to help. Funding Circle has lent £494m since its inception four years ago, including £40m from the Government’s British Business Bank.
Fiserv’s ANZ won the award for best project implementation team.
Finally, the award for FinTech Innovation of the Year was snatched by next-generation insurance intermediary Bought by Many, which helps communities or groups buy insurance on better terms than they could access alone.
“We’re very excited – this is completely unexpected,” said CEO and co-founder Steven Mendel. “Clearly having industry recognition in front of our peers is great for our company. There’s a roomful of influential people out there who now know who we are.”
For a full list of winners visit the FinTech Innovation Awards website.
We’ll be releasing interviews and behind the scenes footage from the awards. Here’s a sneak peak of what you can expect.
