DRIVING BRITAIN’S FINTECH FUTURE

been surpassed by only the US last year in terms of capital invested in tech, while employers had 350,000 software developers to choose from in the capital in 2019, more than any other European city.

And while Crosswell says the advent of remote working should in theory have helped ease the tight collection, London’s dominance remains.

“Somebody once called it ‘the £200 cup of coffee’ –you come down from Manchester to London to be told ‘no’. But we seem to have gone back to that again.”

The figures bear that out. London accounted for two-thirds of all the venture capital investment into the UK with over £16.4bn raised across sectors last year, while deal value into the UK regions fell by £3bn to £6.2bn, according to KPMG.

“[Investors say] I really want to have a regional portfolio, but perhaps they're not going out to proactively find it much,” she says.

More existential than the interregion troubles, however, is that the UK’s crown could be slipping. France is ramping up efforts to win Paris the title of European fintech hub, and progress in areas where the UK was fast moving like open banking are being overtaken.

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“We put together the whole playbook for fintech for international hubs, and then they come in and say ‘Great, someone’s done all the hard work. [The UK] has learned from the mistakes. What’s working? We'll take that.’” And that is why the question is less a split between UK and the regions, and more about ensuring the UK stays competitive internationally, she argues. “We need to make sure that we’re not resting on our laurels.” Rather than a battle between the capital and the rest, she argues that the growth of the sector will lift all. Now it’s on CFIT and Crosswell to help drive it.

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