In 2021 UK was larger than the top four EU countries combined and ranked 2nd in World
The UK on its own raised almost half of all the FinTech investment in the whole of Europe
Following up on my article yesterday day https://graham100200.medium.com/more-remain-lies-proved-wrong-f5820050753c
There’s further good news about the performance of UK PLC and the City in particular, as the number of deals and their volume of investment in FinTech businesses was made public.
The UK was way out in front of the EU and a clear second in the World only to the US, with more than half of the top 20 deals and more total value than the top four EU countries combined.
FinTech might sound technical, but in fact, 79% of us are now using FinTech products (see below).
$24.3bn of investment was raised for FinTech companies across the European continent, with the UK’s $11.6bn representing nearly half (47.7%) of the total.
What is FinTech and how does it affect you?
Simply put, FinTech involves emerging industries that use technology to improve activities in financial services. Eight out of 10 of us now use FinTech products in our daily lives, according to research late last year from Plaid and the Harris Poll.
Consumer adoption of FinTech products has accelerated in the UK, partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with two-thirds of us now managing our finances online across an average of 2.8 products and services. Even more of us use it to make payments, or to invest or save, or for budgeting or borrowing.
Top five European FinTech investment countries
Countries involved and investment raised ($ USD)
- UK : $11.6bn
- Germany : $4.4bn
- France : $2.3bn
- Sweden : $1.7bn
- Netherlands : $1.6bn
The UK raised 2.6 times the funding raised in Germany — our closest competitor — and outperformed the top four EU economies combined.
Government commends UK FinTech performance in 2021
Lord Grimstone, (unpaid) Minister for Investment, said:
“2021 was a first-class year for UK investment. We hosted the Global Investment Summit, which secured nearly £10bn investment into our industries of the future.
“And we proved that the UK fintech sector is more than a force to be reckoned with, maintaining our position as the number one fintech investment destination in Europe, and number two in the world, second only to the US.
“Thanks to our welcoming business environment and our world-class fintech ecosystem, we more than doubled 2020’s fintech inward investment figures, with more than 10% of deals worldwide landing on UK soil.
“A fantastic achievement with even more to come!
More mega-deals than the rest of the EU countries combined
Of the World’s mega-deals (deals worth $100m+), 32 were from the UK. This is more than the 31 from the rest of the continent. Of the top 20 FinTech mega-deals in Europe, 13 were in the UK. Germany took second place with just three.
The tremendous news about growing FinTech investment is not just good for the City but shows how the private sector can drive the ‘levelling up’ the UK Government advocates. FinTech investment outside London and the South East was $696m in 2021 compared to $206m in 2020 — a staggering 237% increase
The UK outperforms the World trend
Cynics might think the numbers just reflect a presumed economic post-Covid bounce-back but that would be wrong. There were sustained periods of lockdowns and ‘circuit breakers’ or other restrictions across Europe in 2021 and no one is out of the pandemic yet.
Yet for all those obstacles the UK outperformed World growth with 2021’s $11.6bn investment representing a growth of 217% over 2020 — against the World’s investment bringing a growth rate of ‘only’ 183%.
A leading FinTech lawyer and founder of Law Society award-winning Chronos Law,
Tom Bohills, commented
“These figures are staggering. We were told time and time again that Brexit would destroy our burgeoning tech sector. In fact, as so often, quite the opposite has occurred.
“In our first year outside the EU, despite all the continuing challenges of Covid, UK Fintech investment has skyrocketed. Not only does the UK remain an inherently fantastic place to do business but post-Brexit reforms to regulation have clearly accelerated that change, allowing us to pull away from the rest of Europe at an even faster rate.
“On a personal note, our firm has seen a large uptick in EU based Fintechs looking not just to expand to the UK market, but to set up a meaningful well-staffed hub here. If the initial inquiries of 2022 are anything to go by, the UK will smash records again next year”
We should never rest on our laurels and always strive to do better — but we should also never fail to tell the British people about our success stories because our competitors are not going to do it for us.
If the BBC and other platforms for critics of our country would rather focus on our faults and the risks we face, then I am more than happy to provide the counterbalance
The United Kingdom — a country of creativity and innovation
The UK’s unbelievable performance in raising FinTech investment for many of the companies of the future — like the railways was to the Victorians — shows what can be achieved by creativity, innovation and sheer hard work, and a helpful dash of our legal system is great for doing business.
While we can always expect the US to dominate because of its sheer size, it cannot be said often enough: the UK punches above its weight in many, many fields of commerce, culture and sport. Brexit is not always responsible for what we have achieved but we were told it would lead to our economic ruin and would damage every aspect of our economy.
Well, we can now see in the world of investment for companies coming to market (IPOs) and for investment in FinTech, we have not been held back but are in fact excelling.
With further regulatory changes to keep our best practice and processes business-friendly, we should look forward to greater prosperity…. “despite Brexit”
Sources: Innovate Finance (trade body for the FinTech industry) | Plaid/Harris poll | Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt
