.

Has London become the global FinTech centre? According to Tech City, there are 44,000 people employed in the sector in the capital…. that’s more than any other city in the world, including New York.

There is a lot of buzz around FinTech development in London. However, is the hype warranted?

What does FinTech in 2016 mean to you?

We may be heralding in a new era of financial independence, autonomy and transparency from the UK capital; maybe not. When we asked four FinTech professionals “What does FinTech in 2016 mean to you?”, opinions from across the industry differed.

Andy Shannon, Head of Startupbootcamp Global, had this to say:

A different  opinion comes from Stockflare Founder and CEO Shane Leonard, an award-winning equity analyst.

Not all CEO’s share the same mindset. Mutaz Qubbaj, CEO and CO-Founder of Squirrel (a financial well-being platform), thinks 2016 is looking pretty positive.

Pascal Bouvier, Venture Partner with Santander InnoVentures, also gave a brief and somewhat more practical rundown on his predictions for 2016:

* the term Pascal coined for blockchain

The Who, What and Where of FinTech 2016

Kandidate’s Staff Picks: 6 FinTech Startups to watch in 2016

• Mondo – making money easy for everyone by building the UK’s first smart bank.
• Funding Tree – the UK’s first fully regulated crowd-funding and peer-to-peer lending platform.
• Ravelin – bringing machine learning intelligence to fraud prevention.
• Aire – reinventing credit scoring, enabling users to qualify for essential financial products.
• Splittable – a web, iOS and Android app helping  renters manage their shared expenses.
• Pariti – a free ‘proactive’ budgeting and finance tracking app.

Leading London- Based FinTech Accelerators

Full/Part FinTech Portfolios.

• FinTech Innovation Lab London: Run by Accenture in collaboration with a group of the UK’s leading financial service institutions, angel investors and venture capital firms. Also supported by the Mayor of London, the City of London Corporation and the Technology Strategy Boar
• Level 39:  Europe’s largest accelerator space for finance, retail and future cities technology companies.
• Startupbootcamp FinTech:  An accelerator focused on financial innovation.
• Barclays Accelerator: Powered by Techstars, the Barclays Accelerator is a 15-week programme run by a full-time, dedicated Techstars team.
• Seedcamp: (15% FinTech portfolio) a First Round Fund, investing in pre-seed and seed stage startups, backing ambitious Founders.

Events, Meetups and Resources

London FinTech Conferences

Keep your calendar clear for these FinTech events.

April

• Innovate Finance Global Summit 2016 – celebrating and promoting the latest developments in FinTech.
• FinTech Innovation Awards – held to honour global achievements from the financial and payments technology industries in 2015/2016.
• FinPitch 2016 – an exclusive pitching event, only for FinTech startups.
• Quantech Conference

July

• FinTech Week –  the largest FinTech-focused festival in the world.

November

• Finance Magnates London Summit 2016 – the largest B2B financial industry conference in Europe, focussed on trading, investing and capital markets.

Events and Meet ups

For the latest and broadest variety of FinTech events and meet ups in London, check out these ever growing communities:

• FinTech Events on Eventbrite
• FinTech Events on Meetup
• FinTechprofile.com

FinTech News

For more news and interesting developments, keep up to date with:

• DailyFinTech.com – insights & opinion
• FinTech.Finance
• Tech City News
• The FinTech Times – also available monthly in print.
• FiniCulture

 For the top 10% of sales & marketing people who want to get hired by leading startups like Uber & Rocket Internet. Find out more on www.kandidate.com 

The Future of Fintech?

Our fifth and final comment comes from from Qualcomm VC Jason Ball:

Whatever your thoughts on the state of FinTech in the capital, whether it deserves the hype or not, 2016 promises to be an exciting year for the industry in London. Especially if this spectacular video from Finovate Europe 2016 is anything to base our predictions on.

Did we miss something? Tweet us @KandidateHQ and we’ll add it where relevant.

Kandidate would like to offer a sincere thank you to all the industry leaders who assisted in the creation of this guide, and those who contributed their thoughts and comments. 

Kandidate candidates have secured interview offers from leading FinTech startups like GoCardless, Transferwise, Marketinvoice and more. Find out more and join in 5 minutes!

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