Looking to accelerate the development of innovative ideas in the UK’s fintech ecosystem, UK bank NatWest has announced that five fintechs will be joining its new Fintech Growth Programme.
The programme will involve NatWest helping the startups scale up sustainably, using the bank’s resources, network and expertise. The five fintechs, all pre-Series A UK-based startups, are looking to develop their business ideas and provide innovative solutions addressing challenges in the payments space. These firms are:
- TunicPay
- Ask Silver
- mmob
- Aperidata
- Sprive
David Grunwald, director of NatWest Innovation, said: “We’re pleased to welcome these five fintechs onto the NatWest Fintech Growth Programme. Their solutions and remarkable potential align with our commitment to create better outcomes for our customers. Collaborating closely with such talented UK entrepreneurs not only enhances our ability to be future focussed, but reinforces our dedication to fostering the growth of the innovation community.”
Benefits of the programme
The Fintech Growth Programme allows fintechs to collaborate with NatWest’s Innovation team and senior decision-makers across the bank while benefiting from a curated scale-up curriculum and the opportunity to build a meaningful network.
The small cohort boasts opportunities to connect, learn, and build networks with fellow fintechs, coaches, and NatWest’s dedicated Innovation function. The first round of participants were selected following a rigorous process of pitches, presentations and interviews when the launch was announced in December.
Lee McNabb, head of payments strategy and partnerships at NatWest, added: “Payments is a network business and the days where big banks do everything themselves are over. To succeed in meeting customer needs and keeping them secure in their payment experiences we must embrace collaboration, partnership and learning through others. This is why I’m a huge supporter of the Fintech Growth programme.
“Working together with a talented and thought-provoking group of entrepreneurs can only bring good things for the market and our customers.”
Meet the cohort
The selected startups will participate in 10 weeks of workshops, mentoring and coaching, working with NatWest experts to support the scale-up of their businesses.
Tunic Pay
Tunic Pay is building the trust infrastructure to break the spell of scams, while also releasing good transactions. It provides payment intelligence to banks, constituting of typology-specific data fields and adaptive insights — all delivered dynamically throughout stages of the payment journey.
Nicky Goulimis, co-founder at TunicPay, comments: “We’re thrilled to deepen our collaboration with NatWest, a bank that has customer safety at its core, to transform the digital payment journey to better combat tomorrow’s fraud threats.”
mmob
mmob provides the tools for any business to import or export API services in any channel through their embedded finance toolkit.
Irfan Khan, CEO and founder of mmob, comments: “As a Founder, I am looking forward to learning from the expertise of the NatWest team – especially in understanding how technology can be applied at scale to solve their customers’ problems – as well as learning from my fellow participants as we tackle challenges together.”
Aperidata
Aperidata, a challenger credit bureau harnessing the power of open banking, is on a mission to improve financial inclusion through improved credit scoring and lending processes.
Stephen Ashworth, CEO, AperiData, comments: “This collaboration is a tremendous opportunity for us as we continue our mission of driving better outcomes for the financially vulnerable and underserved consumers. Having access to NatWest’s senior leadership and industry experts will be invaluable as we embark on our next phase of growth.”
Sprive
Sprive is on a mission to help millions of homeowners live with less debt by finding spare cash to reduce their mortgages. With smart overpayments, market monitoring and cashback from everyday shopping, Sprive helps homeowners save thousands and pay off their mortgages faster
Jinesh Vohra, co-founder and CEO, Sprive, comments: “Gaining access to expert guidance and tapping into NatWest’s valuable network presents an incredible opportunity for us as we continue our mission to help millions of homeowners pay off their mortgages faster.”
Ask Silver
Ask Silver protects people from scams with a scam checker. It allows anyone to send a screenshot of anything they aren’t sure about, like an email or text message, and receive an analysis in seconds.
Alex Somervell, co-founder and CEO of Ask Silver comments: “We’re really excited to be joining the NatWest Fintech Growth Programme to share learnings to protect more consumers from scams. Their team has already been innovating in the space, and we’re excited to work together to build the anti-scam tools of the future!”
