From cryptocurrency and digital assistants to AI and cybersecurity, hundreds of Scottish fintech firms have found a home here.

Our country has nurtured an environment of innovation and opportunity, and Scottish fintech has been accelerating to provide services in every sector imaginable.

Scottish fintech is going from strength to strength, with the pandemic accentuating the need to have access to digital finances to shop online during nationwide lockdowns.

As a result, fintech companies of all sizes in Scotland are flourishing, and the sector shows no signs of slowing down as we enter the latter stages of 2021 and into 2022.

In signs of growing interest and faith in Scottish fintech, the University of Edinburgh, the Financial Data and Technology Association, and Fintech Scotland have been awarded £22.5m in UK Government funding to boost the use of financial data in Britain.

The move towards financial technology adoption and a drop in physical currency is likely to be our future. In this article, we look at seven young fintechs making waves across Scotland.

Soar – Glasgow

Exciting news! In the coming weeks, you will be able to initiate direct debit collections from Soar’s hub as well as pay money out via Faster payments or Bacs.

Read more: https://t.co/AXMHfiXy4p#fintech #UK pic.twitter.com/hPKLkeCfxa

— Soar (@bankonsoar) June 17, 2021

Glasgow-based fintech Soar is a financial institutional fintech platform that says it focuses on “social impact”.

The young ethical fintech company provides banking tech to credit unions and not-for-profit banking organisations.

Soar was founded in 2017 by Andrew Duncan, who initially led the company’s sister firm Swarm Online. Duncan noticed he was being approached by several credit unions about app development, and so decided to take a deeper look at the market.

“That’s when we discovered that the community banking market has been largely underserved in terms of technology and we learned even more about those who are financially vulnerable in the UK,” Soar says, commenting on the growth of its business.

“Our customers exist for social impact and on the whole, are owned by their members and run to the benefit of their communities. By using Soar, ethical institutions are able to compete with retail banks, loan sharks and payday lenders.”

In July this year, Soar secured a partnership with Experian, which provides firms with decision analytics software.

The partnership saw Soar utilise Experian’s SaaS PowerCurve Customer Acquisition platform to help automate lending decisions, transforming their digital onboarding and customer application journey.

OneBanks – Glasgow

We believe that there’s nothing better than talking to a person, in-person. Whether it’s just a passing “hello”, or an in-depth analysis of last night’s game, people are brilliant.

That’s why we’re bringing them back.

Pop into your local kiosk today#OneBanks #EverydayBanking pic.twitter.com/q2RlnEqYCz

— OneBanks (@OneBanks3) August 18, 2021

OneBanks is a bank-agnostic platform which helps users with everyday banking, but aims to keep the “human interaction” lost during the pandemic.

Covid-19 has been both a blessing and a curse for businesses, but Scottish fintech has thrived as people stopped travelling to high-streets to do their banking.

OneBanks is nestled between what it calls the ‘future of banking’ such as contactless payments and online, and the current “decline” in physical banking services.

According to OneBanks, it is able to continue to supply communities with “face to face” banking services where “traditional brick and mortar branches” are no longer available on the high street.

The Glasgow-based company was founded by entrepreneur Duncan Cockburn and has been trading for less than two years, having making a start in January 2020, right before the beginning of the pandemic.

Coastr – Edinburgh

The life of a #rental operator is full of tedious and time-consuming tasks however it doesn’t have to be this way. If you’re interested in saving #time, #money and taking your operations to the next level, book a free demo today: https://t.co/YYj2dVXRLn pic.twitter.com/d6WC9WgDtD

— Coastr (@CoastrOfficial) August 18, 2021

Renting a vehicle can be time consuming process; having to deal with not only getting the best deal and car for your needs but dealing with insurance as well.

Scottish car rental fintech Coastr is a digital platform designed to make the process of renting cars and vans easier and less stressful.

Coastr’s Digital Vehicle Rental Management Software is a connected web-based platform powered by Telematics and AI to manage car rental operations ranging from booking, maintenance and pricing, to reporting and verifications.

The Edinburgh-based firm, which was established in 2018, says it aims to “revolutionise” the vehicle rental market through its technology.

Coastr was founded by Biswajit Kundu Roy, who has previous experience in project management and consultancy.

“We are determined to solve a stagnant industry monopolised by the Big 5, change transportation trends sustainably and help small businesses make sense of big data,” the firm says.

Coastr was chosen in June as part of ten “fast-growth” Scottish tech firms selected from almost 200 UK entries in KPMG’s search for the next global tech giant.

Exizent – Glasgow

In an attempt to make the bereavement process more manageable and help alleviate stress, Exizent has stepped in to provide an industry platform.

Exizent’s tech connects the data and services used by legal teams, institutions and executors to help manage each aspect of the journey and aid the bereaved.

The young, Glasgow-based firm was founded in 2018 by Nick Cousins and Aleks Tomczyk, who both have years of experience within the financial services sector and in leadership roles.

Exizent has now raised £3.6 million in funding, which is believed to be the largest investment in a Scottish tech business since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, from several investors, including the global platform-as-a-service firm FNZ.

Commenting on their vision for the firm, Cousins and Tomczyk say: “Our personal experiences are what led to us to establish Exizent.

“We believe the administrative tasks facing families after the death of a loved one should be far easier, and that modern technology solutions and services can make this a reality”.

BR-DGE  – Edinburgh

Welcome to the future of payments.
*
*#payments #ecommerce #paymentorchestration #customerjourney #onlineselling #finance #fintech #paymentsolutions #technology #innovation #bridgeto pic.twitter.com/JP6a7CN1tO

— BR-DGE (@bridgeorch) July 14, 2020

BR-DGE describes itself as a fintech “designed to put you in control,” helping users to introduce new payment providers or switch with minimum effort.

It also acts “as a central point” for other business applications such as financial reconciliations, enterprise fraud management and foreign exchange to automate business processes, the firm says.

The company was founded in 2018 by Brian Coburn, who comments that BR-DGE is “on the side of the merchant”.

“We deliver new levels of flexibility and agility, helping them navigate and manage their engagement with payment providers and the rapidly evolving payments landscape,” Coburn says.

The company’s technology helps financial advisers to report digital payments more easily, and offers insight into the experience of the customer.

BR-DGE says: “We recognise the evolution of digital payments is still in its infancy, and set about creating the technologies that merchants need to retain flexibility, stay in control and stay ahead.”

The platform received £2.5m from Gloag Investment Group in September last year to scale up its growing presence in the UK eCommerce and ePayments space and “continue advancement” of its technology.

Aveni– Edinburgh

We are delighted to win Best #AI-Driven Detection & Prevention Solution at the 2021 FinTech Awards 🙌🤩🎉@wandfmagazine #fintech #artificialintelligence #InnovationForEveryone

Read here 👇https://t.co/6QLCUiNdWC

— Aveni (@Aveni_AI) August 17, 2021

Aveni, formerly known as Hatch AI, is Scottish fintech that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to design digital client services to help those working in the sector to give customer advice.

The firm says its aim is to “make adviser-client interaction more efficient, not to eliminate humans from the process”.

Aveni was founded in 2018 by Joseph Twigg and Moray Martin, and has seen continued growth over the last three years and through the pandemic.

In June this year, the fintech firm secured £1.1 million to launch its ‘ground-breaking’ Aveni Detect AI tool which will help support vulnerable customers across the country.

Commenting on the investment, Twigg says: “By using AI to help automate processes like quality assurance and risk monitoring, material cost reductions can be achieved.

“At the same time, companies gain targeted insights on customer experience and training opportunities for customer-facing staff.”

Nude – Glasgow

Nude is a savings account and financial ‘friend’ for first-time home buyers. The tech allows home-buyers to see how long it will take to save their home deposit, and then work to “knock time off your goal”.

The Scottish fintech has a small team which has been working to boost first-time buyers after being founded by entrepreneur Crawford Taylor, a Senior Owning Partner at Hymans Robertson.

Nude went live in July after raising around £3.3 million on Seedrs, just shy of its £3.5 million target.

The company says it has an objective in mind: “We aim to make the financial industry a fairer place, starting with home ownership. Our approach is to make the home buying process easier and a more accessible experience.

“With Nude, you don’t need to know anything about finance, government saving schemes or the steps involved in buying a home; you just need to decide where you’d like to live and the kind of home and we’ll help you get it.

“Even more, we’ll explain all the things you need to know when you need to know it.”

In February, Nude announced its commitment to the FinTech For All pledge, which aims to create a fintech a sector where diversity is encouraged and businesses continue to build inclusive cultures.

The firm signed the pledge and committed alongside FinTech Scotland and a host of 23 Scotland-based fintech companies.

Join the conversation: Fintech Summit 2021

Now in its eighth year, the Fintech Summit is the largest annual gathering of technology leaders in Scottish fintech.

Following one of the most turbulent periods in modern history, the 2021 Summit will consider the role of financial innovation in socio-economic recovery, featuring talks from a range of industry leaders.

For more details and information on how to register for the 2021 Fintech Summit, please visit: www.fintech-summit.co.uk