First firms revealed as part of new Birmingham Fintech Hub

The first eight firms and tech communities chosen to take part in Velocity Birmingham, a new regional FinTech hub, have been unveiled by the Investment Association (IA).

Velocity Birmingham will provide a hub for FinTech innovation and development, supporting FinTechs based in the West Midlands. The selected innovators will have access to a network of existing investment management firms and 5000sqft of co-working space, to develop technology to help the UK’s savers and investors.

The facility is a collaboration between the IA’s FinTech hub and accelerator, Velocity, along with IA member firm, Wesleyan, a specialist financial services mutual headquartered in Birmingham. The eight firms are:

• Delta Financial Systems, a FinTech provider of pensions and retirement administration software for the SIPP and pension drawdown markets.
• eXate, which enables firms to share data securely, by means of a digital Ink Bomb that allows those firms to destroy or revoke access to the shared data.
• Fregnan, which use advanced machine learning techniques to support unbiased, high-quality equity research for investors and fund managers.
• GFA Exchange, which uses AI to benchmark and monitor business performance, to help B2B lenders discover new opportunities, whilst reducing financial risk.
• METCloud is a multi-award winning cybersecurity platform, harnessing sophisticated cyber defence, surveillance, AI and Machine learning technologies to protect organisations operating in the financial services sector.
• moneyinfo, a private FinTech firm specialising in account aggregation client portals and mobile apps for the wealth management industry.
• Silicon Canal, a Birmingham tech community to connect, promote and support the tech ecosystem in the West Midlands region.
• VendEx Solutions, Inc., the centralised hub for the financial services market data industry.

The first cohort was announced at the official launch of Velocity Birmingham on 27^th November at Wesleyan’s Birmingham head office, and was attended by senior executives from the investment management industry and local FinTech innovators.

Firms for Velocity Birmingham were chosen by the Velocity Advisory Panel of industry experts, overseen by Graham Kellen, Chief Digital Officer of Schroders and Chair of the Panel.

Chris Cummings, Chief Executive of the Investment Association, said:

“Just over a year after the launch of our FinTech innovation hub and accelerator, Velocity is going from strength to strength with the launch of Velocity Birmingham today.

Birmingham has one of the UK’s largest tech clusters outside of London and a hub of professional and financial services, and through Velocity Birmingham investment managers can embrace the technologies of the future to the benefit of customers and the wider economy.”