The fintech revolution was born out of the dramatic impact the credit crunch had on consumers — and the UK has rapidly emerged as a global hub for fintech as a result. In fact, more than £6 billion has already been invested in UK fintech this year so far.
But investment and progress has, to date, been focused on the consumer financial experience and not the underlying financial tech and payments infrastructure, argues Louisa Murray, COO for the UK and EU at Railsr, a London-headquartered fintech company and driving force behind the next stage of the industry’s growth: Fintech 2.0.
‘We are focused on the next fintech evolution — beyond open banking, open finance, BaaS and embedded finance,’ Murray says. ‘Seamless embedded finance experiences - banking, wallets, cards, credit, rewards - are going to become the norm.’
Want to read more about the next developments in this fast-moving world? We’ve rounded up some of fintech’s key influencers.
Susanne Chishti
Susanne Chishti is CEO of Fintech Circle in London. She also holds roles as non-executive director of FTSE 250 CMC Markets, as well as Crown Agents Bank, and is the chair of Lenderwize. Chishti has co-edited no less than seven books on fintech and her social following is equally impressive, with 35,000 followers on LinkedIn and 19,000 followers on Twitter via @SusanneChishti.
Theodora Lau
Theodora Lau is the founder of Unconventional Ventures, based in Washington DC, where she focuses on developing and growing financial institutions, corporations, startups, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, with a particular focus on women and underrepresented founders. Author of Beyond Good: How Technology is Leading a Purpose-driven Business Revolution, Lau regularly mentors and advises startups and individuals in both financial services and the healthcare/caregiving space and tweets often to her 59,000 followers via @psb_dc.
Anne Boden
Anne Boden is CEO of Starling Bank based in London. She founded Starling back in 2014 after a 30-year career in banking to ‘offer people a fairer, smarter and more human alternative to the banks of the past’. She also sits on the board of UK Finance and is an adviser to the Board of Trade. In 2018, Boden was awarded an MBE for services to fintech and she now boasts 32,000 followers on Twitter via @AnneBoden.
Charlotte Crosswell
Charlotte Crosswell is chair of Open Banking, based in London. Formerly CEO of fintech industry body Innovate Finance, she has held a number of high-profile market infrastructure roles, with previous management positions at Nasdaq and London Stock Exchange. She also sits on the board of UK Finance and advises other government-led groups. Crosswell regularly shares her thoughts and views on fintech, innovation and capital markets over on Twitter via @ccrosswell.
Spiros Margaris
Spiros Margaris is a venture capitalist and founder of Margaris Ventures, for which he is currently advising in the capacity as board member. Margaris has been recognised a number of times for his influence in fintech, most recently being named Top Global Neobanking Influencer in 2021 by Commetric and ranked number one Global Finance Influencer by Refinitv (Thomson Reuters). His Twitter following via @SpirosMargaris is impressive, too, with over 123,000 followers.
April Rudin
April Rudin is founder and CEO of The Rudin Group in New York. In 2019, she was named the number one online influencer in wealth management by Onalytica and is an annual contributor to the Capgemini World Wealth Report. Rudin is deeply passionate about tech and fintech, and regularly posts about the industry to her more than 40,000 combined followers on LinkedIn and Twitter via @TheRudinGroup.
Paolo Sironi
Paolo Sironi is the global research leader for financial markets at IBM based in Frankfurt. He is also an author, and his latest title Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies explores how platform theory is radically transforming the way firms do business. He has over 34,000 followers on LinkedIn and also shares regularly to Twitter via @thepsironi.
Leda Glyptis
Dr Leda Glyptis is chief client officer at 10X Banking in London and a non-executive director at Flagstone. A former banker and founding CEO of 11:FS Foundry, Glyptis was also previously chief innovation officer at Qatar National Bank. She writes weekly blogs on trends for Fintech Futures and regularly posts to social media, with 11,600 LinkedIn followers and 9,200 on Twitter via @LedaGlyptis.
Scarlett Sieber
Scarlett Sieber is chief strategy and growth officer for Money 20/20 in New York, where she leads global product strategy. Sieber is also co-author of Embedded Finance and co-founder of data visualisation tech startup, Infamous; with clients including The London Olympics, Super Bowl XLVII, NFL Films, The Economist, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian and USA TODAY. She is a contributor to the Huffington Post, Forbes, and WeWork and a NYC fellow of the Startup Leadership Program, with an impressive 21,400 followers on LinkedIn.
Sabine VanderLinden
Sabine VanderLinden is the CEO of Alchemy Crew in London. Through over 25 years of growth hacking experience, she has supported numerous start-ups and managed a portfolio of over 100 young ventures. VanderLindenhe is co-author of best-selling title Insurtech Book, a board member of the Women to Watch Foundation, Tech Ambassador for Invest Tokyo and visiting fellow at Bayes Business School. She regularly shares her thoughts on developments in the industry to her more than 43,000 combined followers on LinkedIn and Twitter via @SabineVdL.
Dr Efi Pylarinou
Dr Efi Pylarinou is CEO of fintech and blockchain specialist Efi Pylarinou Advisory. She has been recognised for her influence in the industry a number of times, having been named number one female global finance influencer by Refinitiv twice and included in the Onalytica Top 100 fintech and wealth management influencer rankings multiple times, among other notable power lists. She is the co-founder and author of the Daily Fintech, which provides the industry with fintech, crypto and Insurtech trends and analysis, and boasts a huge 192,000 followers on LinkedIn and further 9,000 on Twitter via @efipm.
Sam Edge
Sam Edge is head of Fintech EMEA at Amazon Web Services, where he leads fintech strategy for startups and venture capital funds. An active speaker at industry events on new trends such as Open and Embedded Finance, he also holds mentoring positions at Startup BootCamp Fintech, Plug & Play Fintech, among other programmes.
