Encompass appoints Steve Hadaway as Chief Revenue Officer
Encompass, the leading KYC automation platform, just announced it had appointed Steve Hadaway as its Chief Revenue Officer.
Hadaway joins Encompass after over 15 years in senior management positions at FICO. More recently, he was Vice President & Managing Director, EMEA, and drove the regional strategy, leading a team of 200 employees and serving more than 50 markets worldwide.
Steve Hadaway is taking on a very important role for the firm as he will head up its revenue-focused functions, including Direct Sales, Strategic Alliances and Marketing.
The news follows twelve months of significant growth in revenue and new accounts, including global banks, as well as the addition of specialist industry experts to the business across the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the US.
Encompass also recently announced a capital raise of £25m. This will be used to accelerate its international expansion plans, which have included office openings in New York and Amsterdam.
Wayne Johnson, CEO and co-founder, Encompass, said:
“We are delighted to welcome Steve to Encompass. His vast experience of working with major financial institutions and steering impressive business growth will be invaluable as we continue to expand at a rapid rate.
“This will be a crucial year for us as we work to enhance our impact across all regions, developing our product and business to bring on new customers and better meet the needs of those existing to us, and we are pleased to have someone of Steve’s calibre join in this capacity at what is an incredibly exciting stage.”
Steve Hadaway added:
“It is such a thrill to be joining Encompass at this exciting stage of their evolution. They have built an extraordinary platform to help banks fight financial crime, ensure compliance and deliver enhanced customer experience through automated and digitised customer journeys.
“The numerous client successes to date have been impressive and I see a great deal of potential still for the business, and for our clients. It is also rewarding to be joining a company where growth is built on a positive culture of customer-led innovation, employee collaboration and empowerment. I am so excited to get started.”
Sainsbury’s Bank partners with FinTech Scotland to deliver better customer outcomes through collaboration
Today, FinTech Scotland announced Sainsbury’’s Bank is joining its group of strategic partners.
The strategic collaboration with Fintech Scotland will enable the supermarket bank to collaborate with innovative leaders in technology, helping to shape future customer propositions. This builds on the strategic digital emphasis of Sainbury’s Bank in recent years, including the transformation of operational systems and platform to best serve its customers.
The new Sainsbury’s Bank operating model has been developed to advance nimble and agile ways of working, creating the right environment for its technology team to innovate and integrate new fintech solutions.
The strategic partnership with FinTech Scotland will serve as a catalyst to accelerate change, deliver better outcomes for customers, and learn from the thriving Scottish fintech cluster.
Sainsbury’s Bank will also get involved in the work to progress the actions from the FinTech Research & Innovation Roadmap published by FinTech Scotland in March 2022. More specifically they will participate in projects around the theme of Everyday Personal Banking and SME Banking.
Commenting on this partnership, Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said:
“Sainsbury’s Bank is an important and valuable contributor for the Scottish FinTech Cluster, and I am delighted it has joined the Fintech Scotland strategic partners. We’re looking forward to working with the team, learning from their experiences in building a digital bank and innovative mindsets, while supporting their future banking ambitions through fintech partnerships and actionable research.”
Simon Jacobs, Chief Operating Officer, Sainsbury’s Bank said:
“As we continue to look at how technology helps to take our business forward, and to deliver great propositions and products, for loyal Sainsbury’s and Argos customers, we’re delighted to be joining the FinTech Scotland cluster to play our part in ensuring Scotland seizes the fintech opportunity in terms of economic growth and job creation.”
Interview with a fintech that pitched in the Den
Following her appearance on Dragons’ Den, Fintech Scotland member Sheila Hogan, founder and CEO of digital legacy vault, Biscuit Tin, shares her experience of her time in the Den and what it was like pitching to such a high profile and successful group of entrepreneurs
Sheila, well done for your appearance on Dragons’ Den. Can you tell us what drove you to apply for the show?
I had originally applied to take part in Dragons’ Den in 2020 and was approached about being in the show in 2021. The process for getting in front of the Dragons is a lengthy one, involving an application, video pitch and interviews with a researcher who then presents your case to the executive team. Just getting to be on the show felt like an enormous achievement.
I applied for the show because I wanted to propel awareness of Biscuit Tin, it’s purpose and mission to a global audience, whilst hopefully securing investment from one of the Dragons’. I had my hopes pinned on Deborah Meaden. Given her own personal experience I knew Biscuit Tin would resonate, and she holds a strong belief in businesses with purpose and as a force for good. I knew getting on Dragons’ Den would be the chance of a lifetime and would help me to achieve my vision of establishing Biscuit Tin as a leading global household brand for end-of-life planning and digital legacy within the next five years.
Despite a great pitch, you didn’t manage to get a dragon on board. What do you feel was the main reason?
At the time of filming, I was a pre-revenue tech company with a business profile that simply did not align with the Dragons’ individual investment strategies.
Is pitching in the den very different from pitching anywhere else?
Knowing my pitch was going to be aired to potentially millions of people on prime-time TV, meant that my Dragons’ Den experience was always going to be quite unlike any other pitch or speaking engagement that I’d ever had to do over my forty-year career in IT, change and project management. And so, it proved to be. Stepping out of the lift and into the studio where the Dragons were sat was one of the most nerve-wracking, but exhilarating times of my life. In the Den, there was an intensity to my pitch that I’d not experienced before. Knowing the pitch could be edited in any way the producers chose, which I had no control over, meant that I was more nervous on the night the episode aired than I was before the pitch! The one thing it did have in common with pitching to others, is that with any set of potential investors the key thing is to make a meaningful connection with them. In the Den I knew I had to give the performance a lifetime and I did everything within my control to be ready and prepared for filming on the day.
What learnings do you take away from your appearance on the BBC show? Would you do it again?
I would absolutely do it again. I wouldn’t want to miss such a golden opportunity. On my journey to the Den, I learnt so much. All the preparation was invaluable and has stood me in good stead for pitches to other investors. Since filming I have secured £330,000 investment from Velocity Capital, Scottish Enterprise, and a private investor. In fact, some of the feedback I received from the Dragons’ made me even more determined to succeed!
Whilst no money came from the dragons, you recently announced a successful £330,000 raise. What did you investors see that the dragons didn’t?
The investors we pitched to were specialist tech investors, who understand the financial profiles of tech startups. They saw the potential of Biscuit Tin and were not phased by the losses we experienced in the first couple of years of the business, as this is standard for a tech start-up. Biscuit Tin was simply better aligned to their experience and strategies.
What will this fresh investment allow you to do?
This investment will allow the business to gain significant traction through key hires and product development. I am more than equipped and determined to take the business to the next level. We are moving ever closer to achieving my dream of making Biscuit Tin a global household brand, to live in a world where planning for end of life is the norm, and where we all have virtual’ biscuit tins containing digital legacies to hand down the generations.
What are the next big milestones for Biscuit Tin?
The next big milestones are to engage with as many users as possible, coupled with valuable partnerships, so we can empower as many people as possible to get organised. We will be working to develop Biscuit Tin further, to provide product features that reflect the needs of our customers.
I am delighted to have been selected as part of the cohort of Scotland’s top twenty up and coming tech companies travelling to Silicon Valley with StartUp Grind in April. Funded by the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Fund, the trip will bring together Scotland’s top startups and scale ups with more than 3,000 of the world’s best.
Transforming the Everyday Life of People and Business Through Pioneering FinTech Innovation in Banking
Fintech Scotland announces new strategic partnership with NCR Corporation
FinTech Scotland, the cluster management body, has announced a new strategic partnership with NCR Corporation, a leading enterprise technology provider to further advance innovation for financial institutions.
The partnership builds on NCR’s strong innovation track record as a software and services provider with a long-established heritage of applying new technology developed through its Dundee Discovery Centre.
The announcement follows the recent release of FinTech Scotland’s ground-breaking Research and Innovation (R&I) Roadmap which, developed in conjunction with key players in the financial industry, includes a key focus on the future of payments and transactions and financial regulation.
Spanning more than 130 years, NCR has a rich history of delivering innovative solutions for consumers and businesses. With expertise in payments, transactions, digital banking and strategic advisory services, NCR will join FinTech Scotland and its other thirty strategic partners, including fourteen of the largest financial services firms, to drive forward a customer- and digital-led financial innovation transforming how people, communities and businesses engage with money and finance.
FinTech Scotland, the cluster management body for strategic partnerships within the country, will work closely with NCR, a major employer in Dundee, and its 600-strong financial experts in the region to develop innovation opportunities with fintech firms and financial institutions, plus the wider cluster stakeholders such as universities and innovation centres.
Nicola Anderson, Chief Executive, FinTech Scotland, said,
“We are hugely excited to about the strategic partnership with NCR and their dynamics and pioneering approach to developing technology will further accelerate innovation with fintech SMEs and large financial firms in the cluster. Our industry-driven, action-orientated R&I Roadmap will provide the ideal framework to advance new financial services innovations with NCR and we look forward to the collaboration with the NCR team in Dundee as well as the USA and across the globe”.
Colin Payne, corporate vice president, NCR Professional Services said
“In my experience the value of regional fintech powerhouses is undeniable, bringing raw talent and passion into the space and guiding the development of next-generation financial businesses. In Scotland, this is particularly true given the rich engineering heritage, innovative mindset and history of outstanding customer-focused financial services ”“ this unique combination brings us a new generation of powerful fintechs. We are delighted to partner with Fintech Scotland to support the scaling of these amazing new solutions.“
Forex Expo 2022
The flagship event of this spring Forex Expo 2022 is supported by the best companies of the industry. MetaQuotes, the leading developer of trading platforms for brokerages, banks and exchanges has become a Grand Sponsor whilst NAGA, a social investment platform with over 950 tradable assets booked a Gold Sponsor spot. Interestingly, Forex Expo draws the leading forces to meet under one roof on March 31, 2022 in Limassol’s Parklane Hotel. Here, the larger part of the European B2B community of the FX industry will be joined by companies from other parts of the world to meet top experts, network, learn and grow.
Forex Expo is a true hub for a purposeful matter – industry network and development where every member can both uplevel his own skills, improve his business flow and help the industry to make a new step towards the future. Networking spaces, expo zone, conference hall and workshop rooms create an opportunity for visitors to both learn and connect.
Traditionally topics for keynote speeches and workshop presentations include regulatory details, new trends and developments, law, regulations and licensing, new trends in IT and software for brokers whilst the panel discussions will cover topic of Cyprus as a friendly environment for financial markets, question of the future of payments ecosystem, matter of crypto integration in the Forex and financial markets and even affiliates, IBs, HR and marketing in the FX industry.
The conference part will include speeches from two leading experts of MetaQuotes: Head of Global Business, Christoforos Theodoulou and Head of Operations, Tony Spyrou. They will discuss regulatory issues, new trends and developments, legislation and licensing, customer profit preservation, as well as promising areas in IT and broker software. Furthermore, Christoforos and Tony will talk about other developments, including the upcoming integration with Payment Service Providers and web services and a lot more.
Gold Sponsor NAGA has also prepared some exciting content as its Founder and CEO Benjamin Bilski has prepared a workshop presentation to share how NAGA has raised more than $100M in funding from star investors, transacted more than $250 billion in volume and saw a successful launch of its mobile payments and investing app and is also ready to join the conference chat about social media influence and how to finally take it over.
Seamless networking environment formed by the exhibition floor filled with booths from leading companies and dedicated networking spaces for meetings accessible by Business and VIP ticket holders is complemented by an infamous night party with unforgettable shows and an informal atmosphere of fun and success.
Not to mention that the Forex Expo organizing committee follows all the necessary preventive COVID measures to make the experience for attendees as safe as possible. Visitors are invited to safely attend the best workshops and panel discussions, network and discover the industry from a different perspective.
You can explore the opportunities to participate in this amazing upcoming event at https://forexexpo.com/ Tickets are already available on the website with an early bird discount until the end of February and include standard, business and VIP packages.
Clearwater to Drive Growth for Athora Holding Ltd.
Scottish fintech Clearwater Analytics just announced that Athora Holding Ltd., a leading insurance and reinsurance group, had selected them to support their growth strategy, streamline the operating model and provide a consolidated view of accounting, regulatory, and operational reporting across all entities.
Shamira Mohammed, Group Chief Accounting Officer, Athora said:
“Athora is a fast growing, acquisitive insurer and reinsurer. We wanted a solution that could help us on-board acquisitions and portfolios quickly, manage increasing regulatory requirements, and enable a quick view of our investment portfolio across multiple markets. Clearwater’s SaaS solution met our needs perfectly. Clearwater brings industry best practices through their single instance platform and an impressive operations team that understand the needs of the insurance market. Clearwater has the technology, processes, and innovative thinking to support our vision for the future.”
Gayatri Raman, President, Europe and Asia, Clearwater Analytics said:
“We are seeing significant consolidation across the insurance and investment management industries. With that comes the need to be able to quickly aggregate data from multiple sources and then turn that data into information that can be used to drive decision making. Clearwater brings best-in-class technology and managed services to Athora so they can fully focus their efforts on growth. We are delighted to partner with Athora.”
Lloyds Banking Group and FinTech Scotland Announce New Innovation Programme
Lloyds Banking Group has announced 3 new strategic innovation challenges as it opens its cohort 2 of its Launch Innovation Programme. Working in collaboration with FinTech Scotland the group is inviting fintech’s from all around the world to take part.
This follows the success of the first Programme that saw 12 fintech firms selected, from Scotland and Europe. This year the group is hoping for many more continuing to show the continued commitment of Lloyds Banking Group to partner with fintech businesses.
The bank is seeking fintech partners to help them achieve their sustainability goals, improve customers’ financial lives and support their colleagues in a post-Covid pandemic world.
Successful fintech applicants will have 10 weeks to refine and test their innovative solutions, working in collaboration with colleagues across the bank. This will include direct access to challenge sponsors and mentors in the bank, as well as business development support, clinics and external business masterclasses.
The Launch Innovation Programme is an initiative that aims to create collaboration opportunities between the banking group and fintech SMEs to enable faster innovation and deliver for customers.
Interested firms can learn more and apply by visiting fintech.union-dev2.net/launch before the 1st of April. Lloyds Banking Group are committed to enabling greater diversity and will actively target, welcome and support applications from women and businesses founded by people of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritage
Commenting on the launch, Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said:
“Lloyds Banking Group Launch Innovation Programme is a perfect example of how collaboration can deliver innovation and better outcomes for all. Amongst other things I was delighted to see three innovation themes this year which demonstrate how fintech can help with financial matters, well-being and sustainability. I’m looking forward to reading the applications.”
David McLeay, Innovation Product Owner for Insurance & Wealth Transformation at Lloyds Banking Group added:
“We are super excited to open our Launch 2022 programme as it’s a key part of our strategy to improve collaboration with fintechs and harness the power of Innovation. The 12 companies from the initial 2021 cohort delivered amazing ideas and experiments for our colleagues and customers. This year we are looking to build on that with additional investment and scale to identify up to 24 partner companies across a broader range of business challenges.”
White-Box code generator launched by Pace
In order to provide a high level of sensitive data protection and application attack resistance, the US-born fintech located in Scotland Pace Anti-Piracy, launched its White-Box Works, a next-generation EMVCo-evaluated White-Box code generator.
This level of in-house control also promises to increase operational efficiency for Banks, payment service providers (PSPs), schemes, and other financial institutions, since they can develop their application in accordance with their internal schedules. They can also use, replace and update their deployed encryption keys and algorithms at will, with no need to re-engage PACE Anti-Piracy, or any other third-party vendor, to do so.
White-Box Works offers a great way to avoid sophisticated attacks such as reverse engineering, fault injection, and advanced statistical analysis.
Allen Cronce, CEO of PACE Anti-Piracy, Inc said:
“Statistical Analysis attacks are the bane of all white-box encryption protection solutions. We are very proud to be equipping the financial services industry with a solution capable of addressing these and other vulnerabilities. White-Box Works represents a significant step forward in the encryption protection space, and will give banks, PSPs, schemes, and other financial sector users greater confidence in the security of their sensitive data. We’re also delighted to accompany the launch with news of White-Box Works’ EMVCo SBMP evaluation certificate and are grateful to Riscure’s talented penetration testers. The entire Riscure team has been a pleasure to work with throughout the rigorous EMVCo evaluation process.”
Being a woman entrepreneur in the fintech industry
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2022, we met with Lynne Darcey Quigley, founder and CEO at Scottish fintech Know-it.
Lynne, when did you decide to become an entrepreneur and why?
From a young age I knew I wanted to run my own business.
I’ve always been hardworking and was a skilled credit management consultant so understood that I could build something great by helping businesses in need of recovering unpaid invoices and increasing their cashflow.
I founded Darcey Quigley & Co in 2007 offering commercial debt recovery and sales ledger management that has grown to be one of the UK’s leading commercial debt recovery specialists.
What led you to launch Know-it?
Working in the credit industry for over 25 years and running one of the UK’s leading commercial debt recovery specialists for 15 years I seen businesses make the same credit management mistakes time and time again.
The businesses I help day to day could avoid the need to use a debt recovery partner if they had implemented a robust credit control process. However, there’s a perceived barrier to this, mainly time and cost.
But the problem of late payments is massive, SMEs in the UK are currently chasing £61 billion in late payments, an increase of 22% since 2020!
Realising the size of the issue with late payments I founded Know-it to give business owners a complete automated end-to-end credit management process that is cost effective. Our automation will save businesses valuable time and help them get paid quicker and boost their cashflow.
How will Know-it help businesses avoid problems associated with late payments and improve their cashflow?”
Know-it provides businesses with all the tools and intelligence needed for a watertight credit control process all in one easy to use platform. Know-it brings together the 3 key elements of the credit control process, we like to call the 3 C’s, Check- it, Chase-it, Collect-it.
Check-it gives businesses the facility to credit check and automatically monitor companies from across the UK with real-time data from independent and reliable sources in just one click. This intelligence will allow businesses to make more informed credit decisions and mitigate credit risk.
Chase-it automatically chases unpaid invoices when they’re due through email, letter and SMS. Our smart integration with leading accountancy packages means Chase-it knows which invoices are due when and how much is owed.
Collect-it offers a much needed safety net by providing the services of leading commercial debt recovery specialists Darcey Quigley & Co to Know-it users with problematic late payers.
What is it like to be a woman entrepreneur in the fintech industry?
It’s been fantastic so far! The Scottish fintech community is so vibrant I feel women are very well represented.
I feel very supported in the Scottish fintech space. Schemes such as AccelerateHER and Business Women Scotland are helping female entrepreneurs thrive.
Do you feel like investors, potential clients or other stakeholders approach female entrepreneurs differently?
No, it’s never been something I’ve experienced during my fintech journey so far, certainly not with potential clients, partners or other stakeholders.
We’re just getting started with our big push for investment but so far I haven’t experienced any feelings of being treated differently so far.
According to you, what should be done to ensure more gender diversity in tech?
I believe there’s a lack of awareness of the variety of careers available to women within the IT industry.
It’s not just about coding. There are so many other exciting jobs in the tech sector such as Project Management, Business Analysis, Solutions Architects, as well as a myriad of roles in supporting business functions. We are in tech and big advocates for our industry, so we need to educate girls and women to the variety of careers now available to them.
What does the future look like for Know-it? Any exciting developments you can share with us?
Having launched our beta late last year we have aggressive growth plans for 2022.
We’re actively seeking investment now to help us fund these plans.
Our goal is to make Know-it the best credit management platform possible so we’re taking feedback from our users onboard and are always developing our product to meet the needs of our users.
FinTech Innovation Roadmap Aims to Drive a Threefold Increase in Economic Growth and Job Creation
FinTech Scotland has published a ground-breaking Research and Innovation (R&I) Roadmap with the objective of boosting economic recovery, driving growth and creating jobs over the next ten years.
Over the ten-year period, the ambition will be to deliver in Scotland an additional 20,000 plus fintech related jobs as well as produce an increase in economic gross value add (GVA) through fintech innovation from £0.5bn GVA today to £2.1bn GVA by 2031.
The industry led Fintech R&I Roadmap, the first of its kind in the UK, has been pulled together by the cluster body FinTech Scotland in collaboration with fintech entrepreneurs, the financial services sector, academia, regulators, Government bodies and consumer groups.
The cross industry led collaboration has resulted in four key strategic innovation themes which provide the foundation for the Roadmap, these are open finance data, climate finance, financial regulation and payments and transactions.
The Roadmap is published on the anniversary of the HM Treasury commissioned Review of Fintech led by Ron Kalifa OBE which set out a number of recommendations, including the opportunity for research and innovation to accelerate the development of cluster excellence.
The full Fintech Research and Innovation Roadmap is available here.
Nicola Anderson, Chief Executive, who co-authored the Roadmap with Executive Chairman Stephen Ingledew, said,
“The R&I Roadmap demonstrates how collaborative fintech innovation can drive positive economic and social outcomes. I would like to thank industry, academia and all participants for their enthusiastic engagement and contributions in producing this action orientated Roadmap. As a dynamic tool, work is already underway with partners across the FinTech Scotland cluster and the UK”.
Ron Kalifa OBE, said
“This Roadmap aligns with the recommendations I set out in the Review of UK Fintech and supports our national ambition to encourage growth by creating the right conditions for innovation. I believe the Roadmap can act as a stimulus for purposeful UK wide fintech collaboration and I am excited to see the positive impact of this work.”
John Glen, Economic Secretary to the HM Treasury and City Minister said
“Our fintech sector is a global success story, with record levels of investment over the last year. The Government is committed to supporting UK fintech as it goes from strength to strength, including by ensuring we draw on the huge amounts of knowledge and expertise across all of the UK. So, it is great to see the initiative taken by FinTech Scotland in developing this new industry-led tool, and I look forward to seeing how the Roadmap develops”
Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said
“Scotland is one of the best places in Europe to start and grow a fintech firm and I am delighted to see the industry focusing on research and innovation as we move forward with Scotland’s economic, social and environmental transformation. This Roadmap sets ambitious targets for sectoral growth and job creation, building on the wealth of talent and innovation that exists across the wider tech ecosystem in Scotland.”
Catherine McGuinness, Policy Chair at City of London Corporation said
“Nurturing research and innovation are integral to the success of the UK as a global financial hub. FinTech Scotland’s R&I Roadmap highlights the undercurrent of support for the ecosystem and the transformative power that cultivating this sector can have across society. The dynamism of the Roadmap will act as a pioneer and The City of London Corporation welcomes the progress made and we look forward to seeing Scotland yield the benefits of these to drive growth.”
Janine Hirt, Chief Executive of Innovate Finance commented on the climate finance theme
“We will need to innovate and evolve business models to finance and enable a greener future. We look forward to further collaboration with FinTech Scotland as this R&I Roadmap contributes to industry working with government and regulators to maintain the UK position as a global leader of fintech innovation and green finance.”
Peter Mathieson, Principal and Vice Chancellor of University of Edinburgh commented
“As one of the founding members of FinTech Scotland, the University is committed to supporting Scotland and the UK achieve the ambition to be a global fintech leader. We have academic excellence across many disciplines and this Roadmap invites us to harness data-driven innovation and build purposeful collaboration across sectors to meet the challenges of Open Finance, financial inclusion and the transition to Net-Zero.”
Adrian Gillespie, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise said,
“The FinTech R&I Roadmap sets out an ambitious path establishing Scotland as a global digital economy leader. It creates the foundations for us to explore transformational opportunities, building on the wealth of talent and innovation that exists across the wider tech ecosystem.”
Kevin Colins, the interim Chief Executive of the Smart Data Foundry, who sponsored the development of the Roadmap said
“Traditionally, financial services has seen universities as a source of graduate talent, rather than supporting their Research & Innovation needs. I’m proud to partner with Fintech Scotland to help deliver these recommendations and work with universities to meet the increasing demands from the sector.”
The full Fintech Research and Innovation Roadmap is available here.