OakNorth Bank, an Indian origin entrepreneur’s London-headquartered start-up is leading the United Kingdom capital’s financial technology boom as it gets ahead of New York in the sector, according to a report released on Monday.
The data shows that Rishi Khosla’s OakNorth, a scale-up business lender which uses an artificial intelligence model to give loans for small and medium-sized companies to be able to grow their businesses, brought in USD 440 million into London, making it the third-largest fintech investment deal in Europe after Berlin and Stockholm.
The data was released by London & Partners – the Mayor of London’s promotional agency in a report titled ‘A Fine Year for Fintech: Global Trends from a UK Perspective.’
As per the report, among fintech investment deals, London has taken top spot in 2019 with a total of 114 deals while New York secured second place with 101 deals. The third spot was secured by San Francisco with 80 deals, Beijing with 24 deals, and Singapore with 23 competing for fourth and fifth respectively. In the first eight months of 2019, more than USD 2 billion has been invested in London-based businesses across 114 deals, surpassing total seen in any previous year.
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Laura Citron, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of London & Partners said London is the capital of capital. And, as per the numbers, London is innovating to stay ahead, with more FinTech deals than anywhere else in the world.
She also said London is the natural home for FinTech as it combines the power of global financial markets with a deep technology pool, supportive regulation, and an early-adopting customer base.
“FinTech entrepreneurs in London can meet the regulator in the morning, have lunch with a global bank, hire a top engineer in the afternoon, and enjoy world-class culture in the evening. That convergence is pretty unique,” Citron added.
In overall fintech investment in Europe, London is leading with USD 2.11 billion investment, followed by Berlin (USD 881 million), Stockholm (USD 734 million), Paris (USD 330 million) and Milan (USD 49 million).
According to the analysis, London turned out to be having the most number of international investors, with 54 percent of total venture capitalist (VC) investment involving an investor from outside the United Kingdom. Also, London pulls in a wider global variety of investors than other European hubs, with 39 percent of investors coming from outside Europe, compared to 32 percent in Berlin and Paris with 24 percent.
A country-wise comparison of global fintech investment by deal value reveals the United States in top place with USD 9.37 billion, the UK second place with USD 2.29 billion, followed by Germany with USD 998.8 million, China with USD 770.8 million, and Sweden with USD 736.7 million.
London & Partners and Innovative Finance’ latest research is based on data from financial data and software company Pitchbook.
