Inside Manchester, the UK’s fastest growing fintech sector

Manchester, residence of six tech unicorns and the UK’s third largest metropolis, is without doubt one of the high startup hubs within the UK. Now, it has the quickest rising fintech sector within the nation, which contributes greater than £1bn to the regional economic system. This sector is made up of just about 250 startups and scaleups, in addition to bigger gamers akin to Starling Financial institution and OakNorth Financial institution, accelerating developments in cryptocurrency, blockchain, AI and inexperienced finance. 

“Manchester’s tech scene may be very vibrant,” Carlton Hopper, managing director of tech service supplier GFT, tells Sifted. “Within the retail banking and capital markets house, we’re seeing a number of shoppers eager to make funding choices to maneuver right here. That helps Manchester as a result of it breeds an surroundings for them turning into prospects of among the newer fintechs.”

This newer fintech ecosystem is prospering. Lou Cordwell, chair of the Better Manchester Enterprise Board, says the sector has tripled in measurement over the previous three years alone. 

“In addition to the expansion of the broader tech sector, this progress [for fintech] is fuelled by the ecommerce and cyber organisations, and capabilities that exist within the metropolis area,” says Cordwell.

Nevertheless it isn’t all about fintech. Manchester boasts a top quality of life that has seen it constantly ranked the UK’s most habitable metropolis by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and its dedication to a greener, fairer mannequin of progress sits on the coronary heart of its financial technique, engaging to folks and organisations that share the identical values. On high of this, in response to MIDAS knowledge, working prices in Manchester are 20% decrease than London. 

“There’s been some massive bulletins of organisations making investments within the area, and success breeds success,” says Hopper. “The extra [businesses] that be a part of, the extra that appear to wish to be a part of, creating an upward spiral.”

Right here, Sifted dives inside Manchester’s tech sector, asking why it’s rising. 

What has pushed Manchester’s tech increase? 

Cordwell says that Manchester’s tech increase is pushed partly by the size of the area’s tightly-knit collaboration between the general public, non-public and tutorial sectors.

“This creates the right stability of scale — [a population of] 2.8m folks and the biggest college inhabitants in Europe — and connectivity, therefore the previous adage that everybody you ever want to succeed in is only one handshake away,” she says.

That college inhabitants consists of over 120k college students from 5 universities (nearly 30k of these finding out STEM topics) — and Hopper was as soon as a kind of college students on the College of Manchester.

“There’s an excellent expertise pool right here,” he says. “The entire college space is completely remodeled and is large by way of the excitement. I feel that issues by way of grassroots expertise.”

That is notably true on the subject of AI. The College of Manchester is an instructional accomplice with the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s nationwide institute for knowledge science and AI — prompting a rising variety of AI corporations in Manchester together with Dream Agility, Digital Bridge, Futurecorn and Peak. 

The town can also be happy with its multiculturalism — almost 200 languages are spoken within the metropolis and the broader city-region, its Chinatown is the second largest within the UK and the College of Manchester welcomes college students from 160 nations.

When first hiring, Hopper was even accused of ‘constructive discrimination’ because of the range of his workforce — however he notes that’s merely a mirrored image of Manchester.

“The variety that we employed in Manchester definitely wasn’t pre-described — traditionally it is a very various metropolis and this continues to outline the place we are actually, which is a extremely, actually good factor,” he says.

Cordwell agrees: “You’ll be able to see this in our progress ambitions, our insurance policies, our success measures and the people who find themselves attracted to come back and keep right here,” she says. “More and more, that is additionally an enormous asset for us in attracting tech organisations who place an actual worth on having a various workforce. GCHQ’s presence in Manchester is a good instance of this.”

Will Manchester’s tech ecosystem proceed to develop? 

A burgeoning networking scene is on the coronary heart of any metropolis’s thriving enterprise ecosystem. The Better Manchester Mayor’s Charity, MIDAS (Better Manchester’s inward funding promotion company), FinTech North and Manchester Digital are simply among the organisations connecting folks in Manchester. 

“Organisations akin to MIDAS have facilitated an perspective the place organisations beginning up are keen to be open and converse to different companies,” says Hopper. “By way of these occasions, you construct robust relationships, pace up the training curve for folks and construct goodwill. I do know that enterprise will come from that as a result of one or two of them will assume, ‘Hey, you helped me so I will enable you.’”

In Manchester, collaboration doesn’t simply occur, it’s inspired and facilitated past the expansion of coworking areas. Startup accelerators like Better Manchester Digital Safety Hub (DiSH) ZEBOX complement plans to construct a North-West Cyber Hall, whereas occasions within the metropolis — akin to Digital Metropolis Competition and Manchester Tech Competition — and commerce our bodies — together with Better Manchester Chamber of Commerce Professional-Manchester, Fintech North and Elevate — encourage fixed collaboration with the remainder of the UK and past. 

Cordwell provides that the town’s scaling tech and fintech neighborhood signifies that the encompassing ecosystem can also be rising quick and notes improved entry to capital with funds like Northern Gritstone, which was launched by the schools of Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield with £312m fund, targeted on college spinouts and IP wealthy companies throughout the north, headquartered in Manchester.

“[There is] higher entry to specialist expertise — not simply by the schools, but additionally the work of Manchester-based organisations akin to Ada [the national college for digital skills],” says Cordwell. “There are additionally higher collaboration alternatives like our not too long ago launched partnership with Cambridge, becoming a member of up the 2 science and tech ecosystems of the 2 cities throughout key alternative areas, together with fintech.”

Hopper emphasises the significance of getting a workforce bodily based mostly within the metropolis — and in case you are a enterprise headquartered within the south, to not make Manchester the ‘annexe up north’.

“Become involved and make investments time to go to the occasions and meet folks,” he says. “My largest bit of recommendation is to get entangled in a area people. The extra you set in, the extra you get out.”