Published on 11/17/2016 | Market Sizing
The recent Westminster Business Forum brought the great and the good together at the Royal Society to discuss the future of FinTech in the UK and I was invited along by Dell.
The event featured an impressive array of speakers from the financial, political, technological and regulatory worlds and explored what the future might be for the industry.
Suffice to say, a lot of the innovations discussed at the event are moving very much towards the mainstream, whether that's Bitcoin or crowdfunding.
The industry is awash with novel innovations however, and here are a few that have peaked my own interest in recent months.
Happy Mango is a credit rating agency with a difference. Rather than using things like your credit history or residential data to determine your credit score, they aim to take a much more rounded picture of you as an individual.
They take into account things such as your education, banking records and employment history to provide you with a credit score.
What's more, 10% of your score comes via testimonials from your social network, or what the company call your Trust Bank.
They hope to work with community banks and other low-cost lenders that are happy to take a more social and humanized approach to their work.
The last few years have seen a huge disruption in the car industry, with the sharing economy making it viable, even sensible, to go without your own car in major cities such as London.
For those occasions when you need a car however, the Scottish company Cuvva may be just what you need. It allows you to secure insurance for as little as one hour, which is a marked improvement on the traditional minimum time of 24 hours.
What's more, securing this cover is straightforward and can all be done via their smartphone app.
Whilst crowdfunding has undoubtedly taken off in a big way in recent years, there remains appetite for more niche platforms to emerge.
One such is a new fashion based platform called ICON. The site offers a customer funded marketplace for designers to showcase their latest wares.
Designers are given a three week campaign window within which to promote their wares, with customers doubling up as investors in the range.
Each product is given three different price points by the designer, with the price falling as the number of orders increases.
At the end of the campaign, the garments are manufactured in New York and shipped to the customer/backer. The site plans to launch with an initial collection from award-winning designer Justin Chu.
The number of novel concepts in a marketplace is a good indicator of its general health, and after long periods of general stagnation, it's pleasing to see the FinTech sector flourishing so brightly.
As the speakers at the Westminster event noted however, there are clear regulatory issues to tackle to ensure that all parties benefit from these innovations.
Time will tell how effective this proves to be.
You can find the original article here.
