Financial technology— also known as fintech — is one of the hottest areas of investment at the moment and Britain is at the forefront.
The UK & Ireland accounted for 2/5ths of all fintech investment in Europe last year, according to Accenture.
Startups are beating the banks by offering cheaper, quicker, online services — and both investors and users love it.
We asked some of Britain's top venture capitalists who they thought were the most exciting fintech businesses out there right now and supplemented the list with some of our own personal favourites.
17. Algomi — a social network for the bond market
Founded: 2012
Founders: Stu Taylor, Usman Khan, Robert Howes, Michael Schmidt
Headquartered: Fenchurch Street, London
Funding to date: £7.7 million ($11.8 million)
Founded by former UBS bankers, Algomi has created a social network for the bond market that connects those who want to sell with those who want to buy.
Prior to Algomi, this was done through speculative phone calls wasting a lot of time. It's service is currently used by nine banks, including some of the world's biggest.
The startup, founded in 2012, has offices in New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Chicago, and is planning a major push into the US.
16. Currency Cloud — international payment processing
Founded: 2012
Founders: Nigel Verdon
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £22.7 million ($35 million)
Currency Cloud software plugs into businesses' systems and lets them send money internationally in a simpler and cheaper way than banks do.
Many other fintech startups like TransferWise and Azimo use the service and Currency Cloud processed $10 billion (£6.32 billion) worth of payments last year alone, across 212 countries.
15. DueDil — financial information provider
Founded: 2011
Founders: Damian Kimmelman
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £14 million ($22 million)
Dubbed "Britain's answer to Bloomberg", DueDil's platform pulls together data from thousands of sources including company websites, financial filings, news reports, registry data, trademarks, and country court judgments. Then it crunches through all this and presents it in an easy to understand way, letting you see information on companies and their directors.
Customers of the 4-year-old business include Royal Mail, Dell, Stripe, Unicef, and private equity houses like HG Capital and Providence Equity. As well as due diligence, companies use it for research and lead generation.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
