Rob Morgan

Today we're at the FinTech North Leeds Conference, where Whitecap played a prominent role in the event including helping chair some of the sessions, as part of the opening session Director Julian Wells, presented the launch of the SuperTech WM Professional Services Technology (ProfTech) Research and Innovation Roadmap, standing in for Hilary Smyth-Allen. The roadmap, created from over 150 hours of consultation with industry leaders, academia, and ProfTech stakeholders, is the UK's first unified multi-year plan. It outlines coordinated initiatives across FinTech, PropTech, LegalTech, and InsurTech, setting the stage for future innovation and collaboration. Later in the agenda we shared our recent regional FinTech scaleup research findings, the unique study, born from the collective expertise of three organisations deeply embedded in the UK’s FinTech ecosystem, provides valuable insights into accelerating the growth of regional scaleups. View the reports here: https://lnkd.in/e8Uj3TFT If you couldn't make the conference, you can still catch the last session live from FinTech North LinkedIn page. #proptech #fintech #legaltech #insurtech #proftech

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Do you struggle with late payments for your business? To combat late payments harming businesses, especially SMEs, the Government has expanded on the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations. Find out more: https://bit.ly/3y23z2k #UKbusiness #BusinessOwner

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Struggling with payment delays and costly transactions? You're not alone. Here's how we're helping SMEs save significant time and money👇: A recent Pay.UK survey showed that only 15% of SMEs don’t struggle with cross-border transactions. Among their top issues are payment errors, high transaction fees, and lengthy manual reconciliation. Using Privalgo, you can minimise operational disruptions, streamline your financial management and invest the time and money saved into business growth. 📈 Visit our website to explore our international payment and FX solutions, today: https://www.privalgo.co.uk #SME #internationalpayments #fintech #FX Sources: Pay.UK and Levvel Research (formerly PayStream Advisors)

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Scaling UK business at pace Yesterday, Dr Lisa Hazelden, CPO of Innovate UK, joined Irene Graham OBE, CEO of the ScaleUp Institute, Louis Taylor, CEO of British Business Bank, Darko Hajdukovic, Head of New Primary Markets at LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) and others, at the 'ScaleUp Britain' Summit in Glasgow. The Summit brought together spinout, start-up and scaling businesses, funders, and advisors to explore funding options for 2024 and beyond. In her keynote speech, Lisa highlighted: ▶ The importance of innovative investment strategies for long-term planning and early-stage capital, and de-risking businesses for investor appeal. ▶ Innovate UK’s portfolio of products and services including Investor Partnerships and Innovation Loans. ▶ Innovate UK Investor Connect; a safe, secure, regulated digital marketplace where innovative Innovate UK-backed businesses can come together with investors at the right point in their funding journey and secure the capital they need to grow through innovation. Through strategic partnerships with organisations including ScaleUp Institute, British Business Bank, London Stock Exchange Group, and Scottish Enterprise, Innovate UK is delivering these products and services to create a better-connected innovation finance ecosystem, with clearer pathways for scaling businesses to access the finance and support they need. Lisa also announced a step change in how Innovate UK supports innovators to access public sector opportunities, through ‘Contracts for Innovation’; matching innovators with public sector opportunities to support innovative business opportunity, business support and business growth. As the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK is committed to supporting scaling businesses locally, regionally and nationally. For more information on our products and services and more, visit: https://lnkd.in/djGFXr47 University of Strathclyde | Innovate UK Contracts for Innovation #BusinessInnovation #ScalingAtPace #InnovationPathways #Innovation

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**SME Scale Up Funding Opportunity** Innovate UK are promoting a really interesting programme where they partner SMEs with potential investor partners. The investor partners have capacity and appetite to invest in innovative, technology-led businesses that align with Innovate UK programmes and focus on the future economy. The future economy investor partnership programme brings together Innovate UK’s expertise and investor partners’ that can provide extra investment finance. To be successful, projects must be independently assessed by Innovate UK as fundable and receive aligned investment directly, led or catalysed by the investor partner identified in the application. Project costs will depend on the research category and must be between £50,000 and £300,000 for feasibility studies, £100,000 and £1 million for industrial research, £250,000 and £2 million for experimental development. More detail here: https://lnkd.in/eVv-RAf9 #Innovation #ScaleUp

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This article in City AM reports on new Treasury plans to “embrace” the UK’s fintech sector by embracing smart data, a form of data portability that allows companies to more easily transfer information. You can read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dSY5P7Zi

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At FinTech Scotland, we share the belief that fintech is a force for good, creating meaningful, positive change across the financial landscape. Today, we are proud to support our collaborative partners at Innovate Finance as they host the FinTech as a Force for Good Forum, an event showcasing how innovation can drive solutions to global challenges like financial inclusion, climate impact, and economic empowerment. As a hub for fintech innovation in Scotland, we are deeply committed to harnessing the power of collaboration to transform consumer outcomes. Our mission is to foster an ecosystem where fintechs can innovate, #scale, and make a lasting impact on society. This is why we’re calling on fintechs to join us in shaping the future of financial services through the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab's Consumer Duty Innovation Call. 💡 The Consumer Duty represents a pivotal regulatory shift, and we believe it’s a tremendous opportunity for #fintechs to create products and services that truly improve the financial #wellbeing of consumers. By focusing on transparency, accountability, and delivering better outcomes, fintechs can be a key driver in this new era of customer-centric innovation. Applications are still open to join the Consumer Duty program – https://lnkd.in/eAYeMwT6

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