Launched at a FinTech North event hosted by Bruntwood SciTech in Manchester, the report is the result of a collaborative research project over recent months, conducted with support from organisations including Bruntwood SciTech, GFT, MIDAS, Slalom, Vialto Partners, University of Manchester, Rise, created by Barclays, pro-manchester, and FinTech North.
With growth of 67% over the last 3 years, the report finds Greater Manchester to be an international hub and the largest regional ecosystem outside London. The sector is expected to contribute £1 billion to the local economy in 2023, with an estimated 10,000 people working in FinTech roles, across approximately 240 firms operating in the FinTech sector in financial services, technology and FinTech firms. Within this, Greater Manchester is now home to approximately 150 FinTech firms, the vast majority of which are startups and scaleups, a segment which has trebled in number over the last 3 years. The region has core strengths in Payments, Lending, WealthTech and Accounting.
Highlighting the increasing level of national connectivity in the FinTech sector, the report includes a foreword from Charlotte Crosswell, the inaugural Chair of CFIT, while Alderman Nicholas Lyons, the 694th Lord Mayor of the City of London, was guest speaker at a launch event at Bruntwood SciTech’s 1 Circle Square on the morning of 31st March.
In 2021 a strategic review of the UK FinTech sector was published (the Kalifa Review), which highlighted the growth of FinTech across the UK. The Kalifa Review identified 10 key FinTech clusters in the UK, with the Manchester-Leeds cluster being cited as one of three ‘established’ clusters outside London. The Review also recommended the creation of the Centre for Financial Innovation and Technology (CFIT), which was launched at the end of February.
The report is the second review of Greater Manchester’s FinTech ecosystem to be published by Whitecap Consulting, which over recent years has published reports on 7 pf the UK’s regional FinTech ecosystems. Since the publication of the first Manchester report in 2020, the sector has seen strong growth on across multiple measures, including GVA (67%), the number of FinTech firms (133%), FinTech startups and scaleups (218%), and the estimated FinTech workforce (36.6%). Whitecap’s data analysis was conducted using a variety of publicly available and subscription-based third party databases and platforms, including its primary data partner The Data City.
The report can be downloaded here and a high res version is available via the link at the top of this page.
