Top 10 influencers in Fintech #Tech500

The Tyto Tech 500 Power List went live at the end of 2018, and for the first time, we can reveal the 10 most influential people in UK Fintech, as we dive into the data sector-by-sector.

It’s been quite a year for Fintech, as Monzo joined Europe’s Fintech ‘unicorns’ and Blockchain continue to be applied across everything from bonds to securitisation. As for 2019, the year is poised to see a continued focus on regulation– and, unsurprisingly, an increase in RegTech– as Fintech continues to mature and become more embedded in the established financial system. Trends around operational resilience and ensuring competition and fairness within the industry look setto be key in 2019 as well.

Which brings us back to this list of 10 people in the UK helping to drive and influence this space and what trends are we seeing in the shape and content of this list of influencers.

Influence in this sector is divvied up between business leaders, two venture capitalists and Sky News journalist Faisal Islam. Challenger consultancy 11FS holds the two top spots of influence.

Tyto Tech 500: Top 10 Influencers in FinTech

1 Chris Skinner Male 11FS
4 Simon Taylor Male 11FS
8 Anne Boden Female Starling Bank
10 Jamie Burke Male Outlier Ventures
11 Lex Sokolin Male Autonomous Research
16 Megan Caywood Female Starling Bank
18 Faisal Islam Male Sky News
26 Goncalo de Vasconcelos Male SyndicateRoom
28 Eileen Burbidge Female Passion Capital
46 Jaidev Janardana Male Zopa

FinTech continues to dominate UK tech scene, with a mixture of old and new faces

The Tyto Tech 500 Power List is out for 2018 and, for the second year running, it has found FinTech to be by far the most prolific subsector.

Aside from those falling into the ‘general tech’ subsector (28%), no other subsector comes near to FinTech concerning the number of people who made this year’s list. Key opinion-formers in FinTech make up 19% of this year’s list, while no other subsector comprises more than 6% of the overall 500. Not only does the sector continue to dominate others such as AI, SecureTech and RetailTech, but numbers are growing. Last year FinTech also proved to be the largest subsector in the ranking, with 74 entrants. This year, that number has risen to 95.

In a year which has seen Brexit cause considerable concern over the future of the UK as a key Financial Services and FinTech hub, it’s reassuring to see that, for now at least, there seems to be no sign of interest in the FinTech sector slowing.

If we dig a little deeper, the make-up of the ranking, which is based on earned media coverage, social media activity and conference circuit profile, makes for interesting reading.

Forty-nine of this year’s 95 are new entrants to the list. These include Megan Caywood, Chief Platform Officer at Starling Bank, Jaidev Janardana, CEO of Zopa, and Anil Stocker, Co-Founder and CEO of MarketInvoice. What this shows is just how possible it is, with some concerted effort across many platforms, to become one of the key opinion formers in one of the UK’s most prolific industries, in only a short space of time.

It’s also interesting to note that 79 of those in this year’s FinTech list are business leaders. While journalists will always be a crucial and fundamental part of any PR campaign aiming to raise awareness of a brand and enhance its reputation, the importance of engaging with those outside of the media shouldn’t be underestimated. Read more on business leaders’ growing influence in Connor’s blog here.

Before announcing this year’s FinTech Power 10, it would be remiss not to highlight the stubborn gender imbalance that remains in the sector, with only 25% of this year’s 95 FinTech influencers being women. Sadly, the number of women in the top 50 FinTech entrants has declined, with just nine women in the top 50 compared to last year’s 15. Read more on women in tech in Rebecca’s blog here.

So, without further ado, congratulations to the following key opinion formers, who top this year’s FinTech Power 10.

  1. Chris Skinner – Blogger, thefinanser.com
  2. Simon Taylor – 11FS
  3. Anne Boden – Starling Bank
  4. Jamie Burke – Outlier Ventures
  5. Lex Sokolin – Autonomous Research
  6. Megan Caywood – Starling Bank
  7. Faisal Islam – Sky News
  8. Goncalo de Vasconcelos – SyndicateRoom
  9. Eileen Burbidge – Passion Capital
  10. Jaidev Janardana – Zopa

Download the Tyto Tech 500 Power List to read the full report.

Fintech Power 10

Tyto Fintech Power 10

Fintech is the largest, most influential sub-sector of technology in the UK. This is according to our Tyto Tech 500 Power List that we launched late last year.

This is perhaps no surprise given the UK’s rich heritage in the worlds of banking and finance, but its dominance shows when compared to the other sectors on our list.

Of the top 500 influencers, 74 are in Fintech. The next largest category is Madtech (marketing and advertising technology) with 42 influencers, followed by AI with 32.

So what characteristics did those influencers share?

The Tyto Tech 500 Power List was created using a proprietary methodology that combined influencers’ media activity, social media reach, conference participation and owned platforms to create a ranking. Influence is more than just LinkedIn followers, and we were genuinely curious to learn who had the most impact both online and off. What the Fintech influencers share, then, is influence in the roundest sense of the word.

Also striking in the list is the low amount of women. Only three of the Fintech top ten are women, and there are only 15 in the top 50. This presents an opportunity, as there are many, many women out there doing great things in Fintech (such as Anne Boden of Starling Bank, the first woman in the Tyto Fintech Power 10). The next step is for more women to start championing the work they do.

Something else that struck us was the lack of journalists on the list. We categorised the entrants as either business leaders, journalists, VCs or members of trade associations. From 74 Fintech influencers, only two were journalists. Given the rapid growth of this sector, it’s not surprising the vast majority of the sector’s most influential people are business leaders, but it certainly raises some interesting questions about what that means for Fintech PR and media relations.

That’s something I’ll be looking into in more detail shortly, but for now – and drum roll please – let us reveal who are the top ten most influential people in Fintech today or, as we’re calling them, the Tyto Fintech Power 10.

Tyto Fintech Power 10

Rank

Fintech influencer

Role

Organisation

1 Anne Boden CEO Starling Bank
2 Goncalo de Vasconcelos CEO SyndicateRoom
3 Imran Gulamhuseinwala Global Head of FinTech EY
4 Eileen Burbidge Partner Passion Capital
5 Andrew Darley Blockchain Leader IBM
6 Taavet Hinrikus CEO Transferwise
7 Gemma Godfrey  CEO Moola
8 Samir Desai CEO Funding Circle
9 Simon Taylor Blockchain Practice Lead 11FS
10 Jeff Lynn Executive Chairman Seedrs

 

Tyto’s financial services and fintech practice offers breadth and depth of sector expertise. The team has worked with small start-ups, industry stalwarts and everything in between. Find out more.

A Fintech case study

Launching bitFlyer in Europe

When Japanese virtual currency exchange bitFlyer approached Tyto, they’d been working for two years to gain regulatory approval to operate in Europe. They were almost ready commercially and were looking for a European PR team that could successfully plan and deliver all communications aspects of their launch in this market, from messaging development and media training to event delivery and media activation. With business targets driving the desired launch date of just four weeks after our first meeting, we knew we had to work fast to deliver results.

What’s more, by this time the surge in price that bitcoin had experienced in late 2017 had well and truly subsided. The tables had turned; the price was plummeting, and scepticism was growing.

The target audience for the launch was sophisticated, and high-volume traders and the European team had challenging targets to meet on the number of signs ups expected in the first week. They tasked us to match or better the exposure bitFlyer had achieved in the US when they launched there the previous quarter.

We developed a campaign called Trading Up, which was about elevating bitFlyer from a company operating in two geographies to a recognised global leader. The concept of Trading Up also strongly reflected the emphasis bitFlyer places on regulation and gaining regulatory status, in an industry which is becoming littered with companies who choose to operate without a license.

Going from zero to hero

We decided to use London Blockchain Week as the hook for bitFlyer’s launch. We secured a keynote speaker slot and arranged an evening celebration at the event on launch day, but bitFlyer were clear that their key target for us was on media coverage.

Working from scratch, the Tyto team quickly drew out the key storylines and messages that would make this launch a success.

Through our research, it became clear that in gaining a license to operate in Europe, bitFlyer had become the only exchange licensed across Japan, the US and Europe – an excellent supplementary message to support their launch news. As well as working with bitFlyer’s team, we also worked closely with the regulatory bodies who’d given bitFlyer their license, agreeing on wording and media plans.

We knew bitFlyer’s announcement was going to attract a lot of attention. Not only would journalists have all sorts of questions, but bitFlyer would have the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions with the world. You only get to launch once, and we wanted to ensure that bitFlyer were clear on what they wanted to say, were aware of any pitfalls created by the industry climate, and to find a spokesperson who could successfully carry off being the face of the European launch.

Thankfully bitFlyer’s European COO, Andy Bryant, was up for the challenge, supported by bitFlyer’s CEO who arrived from Japan on the morning of launch day. We put Andy through his paces in a full day of messaging and point of view development; media and presentation training; and interview rehearsal.

Working together, we established the areas on which bitFlyer would like to be vocal, the areas they were happy to talk on if asked and how to steer away from the areas they did not want to be drawn into. We supplemented all of this with a couple of hours spent with our Tyto photographer. In the space of eight hours, the transformation was complete.

Working hard to make the media stars align

We knew we had a strong story; that wasn’t the challenge. The challenge was maximising results and ensuring that although bitFlyer had chosen London Blockchain Week as their launch platform, that the launch was seen as European and not UK-only.

On social media, we set up European channels, drafted content, engaged with influencers and worked with partners to help share our message. Without any paid advertising, the top tweet that day gained 455,850 impressions. The news went viral in Japan.

For the media sell-in, we drew on media relations skills across the Tyto team and used the contacts we have across broadcast, national, international and trade media to gain maximum results for coverage and meetings between journalists and bitFlyer’s spokespeople.

On launch day, we gained 65 pieces of unique coverage (without syndications) across 12 countries, in publications ranging from the FT and Bloomberg to Bitcoin News and Tech Crunch. Over the following week, the number increased to over 290 pieces of coverage, thanks to working closely with the journalists we met on launch day.

The ultimate aim of the media and social profile for bitFlyer was not only to raise awareness but to drive new sign-ups to their platform. And bitFlyer has since informed us they over-achieved on the target they had set in Europe and saw a knock-on benefit in the US, too, as a result of what effectively became a global media campaign.


Tyto’s financial services and fintech practice offers breadth and depth of sector expertise. The team has worked with small start-ups, industry stalwarts and everything in between. Find out more.

Fintech PR

What does the lack of media in the Tyto Fintech Power 10 mean for Fintech PR?

In looking at the fintech subset of our Tyto Tech 500 Power List, what struck me was the number of business leaders who made the fintech list and the relative lack of journalists. Such a deficiency, in fact, that not one journalist made it into the top 50 fintech influencers.

What does the lack of journalists in our list of the most influential people in fintech mean for fintech PR?

It doesn’t mean that journalists in this sector aren’t important

Sector-specific media are, as their title suggests, focused on one specific industry. That means their audience, whether via an online platform, print magazine or its social channels, is very specific. Hit the right title, and you know you’ll be reaching the right audience.

Trade media provide a brilliant platform for organisations with a niche technology and a strong opinion on a specific issue to get their voice heard. Given the specific nature of the subjects they cover, it is often through these publications and online platforms that trends emerge and where companies start making a name for themselves versus their competition.

The trick is knowing which ones are most relevant and influential than others, as new ones often spring up.

It does mean that the world of fintech PR is getting harder to navigate

No longer is it clear-cut and obvious which people you as a client should be speaking to. Your targets might be journalists; they might be business leaders; they might be members of trade associations.

In that sense, fintech PR is going back to its roots. Not in a ‘dark art’ kind of way, but in the sense that you need to know the people who have the power to persuade your audience, and those people can no longer be put into clear-cut buckets of ‘journalists’, ‘social influencers’ etc.

They are all just ‘people’, and you need to know the right ones.

Given the above, specificity and relevance are paramount

If you’re in fintech, being known by those who are considered to be the most influential in that sector is essential, but it’s not the only thing that’s important. It doesn’t remove the need to be laser-focused on who the most relevant people are specifically within your niche sub-sector.

In other words, it’s all very well knowing who is ‘the most influential’ but what’s more important is to know who are the most influential to you.

If you operate in the field of cryptocurrencies, for example, it might be useful for you to know who the top ten fintech influencers are overall.  But just as important (and possibly more so) is having a bespoke list created only for you, based on your specific niche sector, your business goals, and the audience you are trying to reach.

Ignoring this aspect in favour of chasing ‘the top ten’ is something you do at your peril.


Tyto’s financial services and fintech practice offers breadth and depth of sector expertise. The team has worked with small start-ups, industry stalwarts and everything in between. Find out more.