FinTech’s accelerator programme
FINTECH Wales has launched a zero-equity accelerator programme and invited global fintech companies to come and ‘scale in Wales’.
Launched today at Innovate Finance’s UK FinTech Week, FinTech Wales has announced the “FinTech Wales Foundry” – a business accelerator that pairs global fintechs with leading financial institutions to solve societal challenges and build back better.
The Foundry is a not-for-profit and non-equity accelerator programme that operates by pairing fintech companies with some of Wales’ leading organisations. Businesses that are accepted onto the 12-week virtual programme will have access to a select crowd of seasoned mentors, venture capitalists and key stakeholders in the UK and beyond.
The programme will primarily search for start-ups with solutions related to mobility, health, money management and work, although applications are encouraged from all fintech verticals, such as wealthtech, insurtech, Payments, etc, looking to establish a larger presence in the UK.
It has been designed to drive jobs, deals, and investment in the sector and is in partnership with founding partners Principality Building Society, Admiral Pioneer, and Cardiff Capital
Region. It is supported by the likes of Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Stripe, Tramshed Tech, Salesforce, EY, Deloitte, Cardiff University, Capital Law, Angels Invest Wales and the Welsh Government.
Applications are open for the first intake on the first accelerator programme, which will start in July. Fintech start-up businesses from Wales and across the globe are invited to apply until the applications close on June 7, 2021, at www.fintechwalesfoundry.org.
Sarah Williams-Gardner, CEO of FinTech Wales, said: “Since the early 90s when Admiral Insurance launched in Cardiff, Wales has quietly been starting, scaling and selling amazing fintech businesses in the Valleys and beyond.
“Our thriving ecosystem and secrets have now been rediscovered thanks to the recent Kalifa review of UK FinTech. This same report highlighted a crucial element needed for any ecosystem to be effective, an innovation hub, which is the rationale behind us launching the FinTech Wales Foundry. Our ambition is to make Wales the destination to scale your fintech.”
Ron Kalifa OBE, the chairman of Network International recently commissioned by Rishi Sunak to write an independent review of the sector, said that he was “delighted” to see FinTech Wales launching its Foundry.
“Whilst the UK currently holds a top spot on the world’s FinTech stage we can not rest on our laurels,” he said.
“Emerging FinTech clusters, of which Cardiff is amongst the largest, all share a common goal to make the UK resilient and prosperous on the global stage.”