OUR PROFTECH ECOSYSTEM - FINTECH

Our regional FinTech ecosystem is thriving, driven by innovation, strong academic links, investment growth, and a collaborative community supporting startups and established financial technology firms. 

A THRIVING FINTECH SCENE

FinTech is the biggest and most established ProfTech sector in the West Midlands, with a £474 million-and-growing FinTech community, the largest in the UK outside of the capital, of local founders and international investors. The West Midlands is also officially recognised by the UK government in the Kalifa Review for HM Treasury as one of only three established FinTech hubs in the United Kingdom.

Companies here benefit from the region’s deep talent pool, with a large and diverse workforce available for hiring. The West Midlands’ FinTech sector now boasts over 11,000 professionals, a 51% increase in the last two years. This sector includes established financial services firms seeking to adopt transformative technologies, alongside ambitious start-ups looking to drive disruptive change.

LATEST FINTECH NEWS

News
The West Midlands BPFS Sector: Powered for Innovation-Led Growth
The West Midlands BPFS Sector: Powered for Innovation-Led Growth

Packed house at our recent BPFS event.

The event marked a milestone for the region, as the Business, Professional and Financial Services (BPFS) sector has been confirmed as a core growth sector in both the recently-published national and soon-to-be-announced Local Growth Plan.

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Accelerating Innovation with BNP Paribas Personal Finance incubator programme
Accelerating Innovation with BNP Paribas Personal Finance incubator programme

The Innovation Lab is back! We’re delighted to announce the return of BNP Paribas Personal Finance’s FinTech Incubator programme, in collaboration with SuperTech WM, for the third year running.

The return of the Innovation Lab forms part of our renewed commitment to drive financial services innovation in the West Midlands region. As the FinTech industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace, enabling innovation through collaboration is essential to unlocking new opportunities across the financial services sector.

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SuperTech WM achieves Bronze Award status in European Cluster Management Excellence
SuperTech WM achieves Bronze Award status in European Cluster Management Excellence

We believe that SuperTech WM is the first cluster organisation in England to achieve Bronze Award status within the European Cluster Management Excellence accreditation scheme from the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA) - fantastic recognition for how we have supported our ecosystem and our innovative ambitions for the future. 

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PISCES - an innovative response to the changing UK IPO landscape
PISCES - an innovative response to the changing UK IPO landscape

A timely opinion piece from Jof Walters, WM FinTech Leader and CEO of Greater Things on the recent launch of PISCES, the FCA and LSE’s response to the new market context, where companies remain private longer and IPO activity has slowed significantly.

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Giving the WM BPS A Voice in New National Industrial Strategy
Giving the WM BPS A Voice in New National Industrial Strategy

We are at a BPFS crossroads  - further public sector support for technology-led innovation would bring even greater benefit to our region through strengthened, inclusive growth. SuperTech shared learnings from the UKs only ProfTech cluster.

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Fintech’s Awarded £250K to Accelerate Better Consumer Outcomes
Fintech’s Awarded £250K to Accelerate Better Consumer Outcomes

Five fintech firms have each been awarded £50,000 to propel developments that support financial inclusion, accelerate financial resilience and deepen consumer engagement in financial services.

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PODCASTS

Beyond The Capital
Changing Minds, Changing Audits: Armstrong Watson's Tech Journey with TiPS
Changing Minds, Changing Audits: Armstrong Watson's Tech Journey with TiPS

This is the final episode of a four-part mini-series of Beyond the Capital from SuperTech WM, in partnership with the TiPS Accelerator—a programme helping regional law and accountancy firms adopt new technology.

This episode explores how regional accountancy and audit firm Armstrong Watson navigated the cultural, technical, and client-facing challenges of adopting new audit technology through the TiPS accelerator programme.

Host Hilary Smith-Allen is joined by Steve Preston and Lucy Hughes, who share their experience implementing data analytics tools across Armstrong Watson’s offices, managing team engagement and collaborating with both clients and suppliers.

They discuss how a mindset shift—at board level and across teams—was essential to success, how change management workshops helped guide the process, and why rolling out the pilot at scale made all the difference.


Service Design, AI and Cultural Change: Inside Thorntons' TiPS Journey
Service Design, AI and Cultural Change: Inside Thorntons' TiPS Journey

This is the third episode of a four-part mini-series of Beyond the Capital from SuperTech WM, in partnership with the TiPS Accelerator—a programme helping regional law and accountancy firms adopt new technology.

This episode features leaders from Thorntons Law LLP, a full-service Scottish law firm, who speak to host Hilary Smyth-Allen about their journey through the TiPS Accelerator. 

Sarah Blair, Jane McCance, and Lewis Quinn unpack how the firm used service design thinking to drive digital transformation, build AI literacy, and surface the real human challenges behind legal tech adoption.

From co-creating solutions with colleagues to embracing “messy” innovation, they share a deeply people-first approach to change—and how that’s shaping a new internal transformation programme for the firm.

Building Trust in Legal Tech: Weightmans and the TiPS Challenge
Building Trust in Legal Tech: Weightmans and the TiPS Challenge

This is the second episode of a four-part mini-series of our Beyond the Capital podcase, in partnership with the TiPS Accelerator—a programme helping regional law and accountancy firms adopt new technology.

In this episode, host Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Dr Catriona Wolfenden, Director of Product and Innovation at Weightmans, a top-40 UK law firm. She shares insights from Weightmans’ participation in the TiPS accelerator programme, focusing on how trust plays a pivotal role in the successful adoption of legal technology, especially emerging tools like generative AI.


How the Technology in Professional Services Accelerator (TiPS) is helping law and accountancy firms adopt tech
How the Technology in Professional Services Accelerator (TiPS) is helping law and accountancy firms adopt tech

In this episode of Beyond the Capital from SuperTech WM, we find out about the TiPS Accelerator - a programme helping regional law and accountancy firms adopt new technology. Hilary Smith-Allen is joined by the research team at Oxford Brookes Business School.

How CDFIs Align With Consumer Duty And Their Role In The Financial Ecosystem
How CDFIs Align With Consumer Duty And Their Role In The Financial Ecosystem

Our host, Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Rachel McGowan, Chief Technology Officer of Moneyline, about the impact of Consumer Duty on Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs). 

Bridging The Advice Gap And The Impact Of Consumer Duty
Bridging The Advice Gap And The Impact Of Consumer Duty

This episode delves into the impact of Consumer Duty on financial advice. The regulation was introduced to improve customers’ experience of financial products and advice, but how is it impacting the advice gap?  To find out, Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Ben Hampton, CEO of Wealth Wizards, and Professor John Finch of Glasgow University. John is the Principal Investigator in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab project.

CASE STUDIES

Case Studies
Fastcheck: a fast-scaling West Midlands FinTech, supercharged by SuperTech  
Fastcheck: a fast-scaling West Midlands FinTech, supercharged by SuperTech  

Fastcheck, , founded by Amar Rana, is a platform for providing consumers with instant pre-qualified finance quotes for retail purchases.

We caught up with Amar to find out what is next for the business and how SuperTech supported the journey.

ETHICAL EQUITY
ETHICAL EQUITY

Ethical Equity is the UK’s first dedicated, ethically compliant investment platform connecting ethical start-ups/scale-ups with like-minded investors.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

USEFUL LINKS

GSLEP
West Midlands Growth Hubs for sector-specific business support, skills support and access to finance.

West Midlands Innovation Alliance
West Midlands Innovation Alliance for science and technology based innovation.

Birmingham Tech
Birmingham Tech for knowledge, insight and support for tech organisations across Birmingham and the West Midlands.