With support from Mastercard, Railsbank, Association of Labour Providers, and international recruitment agencies such as Response Recruitment, Australasian Recruitment Company, and Tri Consulting, Unizest has launched a FinTech solution that allows overseas workers and students to open an e-current account before they arrive in the UK. As Matt Oldham, Unizest’s co-founder and CEO, explains, “Our aim with Unizest is to ensure that all newcomers to the UK, whether that be for work or for study, are given the best start when embarking on their new life here. We want to help smooth the transition by removing one of the biggest hurdles they face – setting up basic banking services.” The app is going to be available on both iOS and Android, and apart from managing their finances users will also receive tips on living in the UK and various discounts.

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The partnership with BNP Paribas Asset Management allows Swoop Funding to address the challenges faced by SMEs in need of straightforward debt funding. With the new offering, companies can access loans of between £500,000 and £5 million at a fixed rate, without any warrants, PGs, debentures, guarantees, or legal fees. Swoop’s unsecured loans are mainly aimed at SMEs looking to fund their fast growth. The loans expand the platform’s product offer which includes various modes of funding such as equity, business grants, and mortgage. For BNPP AM, the partnership and the new product fall in line with its SME Alternative Financing initiative.

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More good news for SMEs looking to manage their finances in a more efficient way. Tide, a financial platform offering an alternative to traditional banking, will launch a new feature called Cashflow Insights. The functionality provides SMEs with accessible insights about the state of the business’s finances, helping owners stay on top of invoices and other payments. But perhaps the more exciting part of Cashflow Insights lies in the predictions powered by open banking technology and Machine Learning. The feature will let Tide users look 30 days into the future to see how their business’s cash flow shapes up. If the outlook leaves a lot to be desired, Cashflow Insights will recommend a set of actions the user can take to improve their cash flow.

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In a new report published by findexable and powered by Mambu, London has come second out of 264 cities around the world in terms of its FinTech ecosystem. While London’s global standing doesn’t come as a surprise — with only San Francisco overtaking it in the ranking — commenters draw attention to the wider British FinTech landscape. The 2021 Global FinTech Rankings list 13 UK cities that have more than ten FinTech companies. Understandably, hubs are thriving in larger cities such as Manchester and Birmingham, but there are also a few less obvious, growing FinTech communities like Cardiff and Newcastle. This trend of growth in previously more overlooked places can be observed globally, with over 50 new cities and 20 countries entering the ranking.

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So far 2021 has been a series of successes for Mollie, a payment processor with headquarters in Amsterdam. As CEO Shane Happach observes, “In the three months since I joined the team [in March] we’ve achieved so much: making preparations for a full launch in the UK, driving 600% growth in Germany and hiring an impressive set of team members and executives.” Now the list should also include concluding an impressive €665 million Series C funding round. With around 480 employees, Mollie plans to hire 300 more people within the next nine months and add more products to its offer. It’s also considering new European markets for expansion. The company is already considered one of the fastest-growing payment service providers in Europe so it’ll be interesting to see where it goes next.

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Plans to expand its offering and potentially enter new markets are also on the radar of Smart, the global retirement savings technology platform behind the Smart Pension Master Trust. The company has just sealed a £165 million Series D funding round led by Chrysalis Investments. Smart finds itself in a good company — Chrysalis Investments’ portfolio includes such household names as Starling Bank and Klarna. Smart’s co-founders Andrew Evans and Will Wynne welcomed the news and revealed their next big milestone, saying, “With close to a million savers on our platform already, we now have straight line visibility through to well over five million savers on the platform within the next 24 months.” We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the platform’s continued success!

Read more about our collaboration with Smart Pension