The value of FinTech in Bristol & Bath is becoming increasingly clear as the sector rapidly grows.
We're home to a thriving FinTech ecosystem, with 93 regional FinTech businesses which contribute £398.7 million to the UK economy (Source: Bristol & Bath, SW FinTech Ecosystem Report 2023). Our region is highly collaborative - R&D, academia, industry and the public sector work together across multiple sectors, an approach which has also made us the home to the UK’s most productive tech cluster. We are one of the UK’s ten leading FinTech clusters identified by the Government’s recently published strategic review of UK FinTech (the Kalifa Review).
Ethical finance has a growing presence within the sector, with homegrown successes such as LOQBOX, Seccl and Tumelo. London-based businesses such as Clearbank and Curve are also expanding into the region.
67% of the UK’s fastest growing FinTechs consider talent to be a high priority, and there is a rich pool of FinTech talent in Bristol & Bath, supported by world class universities and an existing workforce of around 61,000 people employed by the financial services and FinTech sectors. The University of the West of England (UWE) offers a FinTech MSc, developed in consultation with the regional FinTech community, while 28,195 students across the four regional universities were enrolled in either Mathematical Science, Computer Science, Engineering and Technology, or Business Studies undergraduate courses in 2020/21 (HESA).
We’re really positive about the region, and it has the benefit of being close to London. People seem to have time for you here whereas in London you feel like a tiny fish in a big pond.
