Manchester’s position as a key city for financial technology (FinTech) companies has been highlighted in a new report.
The city remains the leading destination outside of London for FinTech investment over the last 2 years. However, there’s a warning that Manchester needs to do more to ensure that these companies stay in the North West and don’t relocate to the capital.
The FinTech Global report shows that Manchester had 13 FinTech deals between 2014 and 2016. That’s one ahead of Cambridge and 6 more than third placed Edinburgh.
The city’s most notable deals were Market Invoice, which raised over £23.5m from Northzone, MCI Capital and the British Business Bank over the last three years; Due Course, which raised over £6m from Global Founders Fund and angel investors in 2016; and Beyond Comparison, a provider of white-label comparison software, which raised £200,000 from Maven Capital Partners in 2016.
This is set against a trend of falling investments over the last year – overall they decreased 15% year-on-year. This figure has been blamed on Brexit.
FinTech Global says the outlook for the UK regions is strong, with increasing numbers of start-ups looking outside of London at the initial stages of development. However, unless there’s a strong FinTech infrastructure in place, many do migrate to London when they feel the need to grow.
