Fintech milestone: The ten Scottish fintech scale-ups taking to the global stage

Ten of Scotland’s most ambitious fintech scale-ups will take centre stage at the largest conference of its kind in Europe.

The financial technology stars will be highlighted as the country hosts its first national pavilion at the Money20/20 Europe event, which takes place between June 3 and 5 in Amsterdam.

Industry leaders have described it as a “significant milestone” for Scotland’s fintech sector following its recognition as a high growth area in the Scottish Government’s national innovation strategy. They pointed to the Scottish fintech cluster’s “exceptional growth” which is seeing almost a third of its scaling-up companies exporting or ready to grow internationally.

Fintech development has accelerated as more of us embrace digital banking.

The conference initiative is being led by Scottish Enterprise and industry body FinTech Scotland.

Nicola Anderson, chief executive of FinTech Scotland, said: “We’re delighted to showcase the FinTech Scotland cluster at Money20/20 and look forward to expanding fintech growth with European partnerships.

“The strength of fintech innovation and growth in Scotland is demonstrated in the growth of the fintech SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] and the businesses attending Money20/20. It’s a testament to the strength of Scotland’s cluster and the continued collaborative environment that drives innovation and commercial outcomes.”

Lorraine Anderson, who leads Scottish Enterprise’s global trade team for fintech, added: “Scotland’s fintech sector continues to go from strength to strength, with Money20/20 providing an ideal platform for ambitious Scottish businesses to showcase their offerings. Fintech is a key area of focus at Scottish Enterprise and plays a vital role in transforming our economy through companies scaling-up, creating high value jobs and competing internationally.”

The Scottish pavilion will showcase: Aveni (behind AI-driven technology transforming financial advice compliance), BigSpark (next-generation data analytics and orchestration), CreditNature (focused on nature-positive credit risk and biodiversity), docStribute (secure digital document distribution) and Recast (blockchain-powered content distribution and monetisation).

The other five scale-ups being featured are: Encompass (global leader in automation and digital onboarding), Inicio (AI for ethical and accessible consumer finance journeys), Korelabs (dynamic product lifecycle and compliance platform), Transwap (cross-border payments and foreign exchange services) and OneBanx (banking access for underserved communities).

FinTech Scotland was founded in January 2018 as a joint initiative by the University of Edinburgh, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Scottish Enterprise. It is now supported by a broad range of global financial services, technology and professional services firms as well as major universities and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Figures released in January showed that Scotland’s fintech revolution was gathering pace and now employs well over 11,000 people. There was an 8 per cent rise in the overall headcount within the FinTech Scotland “cluster” during 2024, according to the trade body.

FinTech Scotland said the cluster growth had been underpinned by increasing technology adoption and fintech partnerships with established financial firms, highlighted by a tenfold increase in the number of Scottish SMEs operating in the arena since 2018.

Fintech development has accelerated as more of us embrace digital banking and use apps to manage a range of services such as savings, investments and pensions.

How Scotland’s fintech boom is leading innovation and creating thousands of jobs