London has become the world’s biggest centre for Fintech investment, overtaking San Francisco and New York according to a report from Dealroom. 

The UK capital attracted $9.5bn (£7.8bn) in Fintech venture capital funding from the start of last year until the beginning of December, ahead of New York’s $7.8bn and San Francisco’s $7.4bn.  

This is a great achievement for London which has combined its strengths in financial services and technology to become a world powerhouse in fast-growing areas such as payment processing and online banking.  

The report revealed that most London Fintechs continue to expand and have begun fresh recruitment drives. 

Laura Citron, CEO of London & Partners said, “Unlike many hubs across the world, London provides Fintechs with access to one of the world’s leading financial centres, alongside Europe’s largest tech ecosystem. This combination is a recipe for innovation, while also providing companies with access to policymakers, regulators and the financial institutions – all in one city.”  

She added, “Despite a challenging VC funding landscape globally . . . we are seeing a strong appetite from international companies looking to set up and grow their Fintech businesses in London.”  

Russ Shaw, Co-founder of London Tech Week, said, “It’s an encouraging sign that investors are saying to their businesses ‘keep going’ whereas businesses in Silicon Valley have been in significant retrenchment mode . . . Our macroeconomic climate here has been very challenging for a while – you’ve had the pandemic and the challenges associated with that – but investors will be thinking, ‘if you’ve made it through those big impacts then you’re pretty resilient, so you can withstand further headwinds.’” 

It is worth mentioning, that the UK tech sector has retained its crown as the biggest in Europe with a combined market value of £820bn ($1trn), according to figures from data provider Dealroom for the Digital Economy Council, which is part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Digital minister Paul Scully said, “UK tech has remained resilient in the face of global challenges and we have ended the year as one of the world’s leading destinations for digital businesses.”

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