celebrating diversity in fintech

Spotlight on Innovate Finance Members Closing the Diversity Gap in FinTech

CELEBRATING DIVERSITY IN FINTECH

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Event Partner

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3 Celebrating Diversity in FinTech

ABOUT INNOVATE FINANCE

CONTENTSWELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Diversity at Innovate Finance 5

DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

A MESSAGE FROM HOGAN LOVELLS

A MESSAGE FROM RBS

7

8

MAKING DIVERSITY WORK 10

11

12

16

Lloyds Banking Group

Neyber

20

23

WorldRemit

Bankable

27

31

Scalable Capital

Azimo

35

38

WealthKernel

Opportunity Network

42

45

Homestrings

Landbay

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? 48

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4


WELCOMEMESSAGE

FROM CEODiversity makes good business sense and is vital for the future of the FinTech sector. It helps companies of all sizes to compete more effectively in a global world and attract more customers by creating products and services that better reflect the real needs of different people.

At Innovate Finance we are proud of our teamstructure, which reflects and supports inclusion and diversity across all aspects of our business. We are also proud of our members who continue to champion diverse initiatives and are leading theway within their FinTech verticals.

The startup environment in the UK has a mix of the best global talent with a third of startup entrepreneurs from abroad and more than ten percent of women taking up startup leadership roles. Our institutional members are champions of diversity and inclusion with many seeking to deploy FinTech solutions to achieve these goals globally.

We will continue to champion diversity initiatives in FinTech through Innovate Finance’s Women in FinTech powerlist and our recent strategicpartnerships with Campaign for Science & Engineering (CaSE) and The Makers Academy, both helping to close the skills gap by teaching a new generation to study technology and coding.

Diversity is a reality and we look forward to working with all of you into the future.

Lawrence WintermeyerCEOInnovate Finance


DIVERSITY AT INNOVATE FINANCEGender Balance

41% Male 59% Female

5WORKINGPARENTS

Inclusive Workforce

Flexible Working

22 FULL TIME3 PART TIME22 OPTIONALFLEX WORKING3 DEDICATEDFLEX WORKING

6HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS

HEAD OF COMMUNITY

HEAD OF PARTNER RELATIONS

HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL DEV

HEAD OF PROGRAMMES

HEAD OF EVENTS

WOMEN IN KEYLEADERSHIPPOSITIONS

Female Leadership


North America

Canada

United States of America

Africa

Democratic Republic of

the Congo

South Africa

Europe

Bulgaria

Germany

Greece

Australasia

New Zealand

Asia

Bahrain

India

Pakistan

Switzerland

United Kingdom

RussiaUganda

Thailand

Nationality Breakdown of Innovate Finance Staff

Nigeria


Diversity is at the core of who we are and how we do business. We are a high performing global team with people from different backgrounds, perspectives and life experiences. We are at our best when we can be ourselves – working together and delivering for our clients. Our Global Diversity and Inclusion Committee, a senior group of executive management, board members, and partners, is responsible for ensuring diversity and inclusion are embedded into everything we do. We recognise the need to take a multi-faceted approach, devolving responsibility to regional and practice management to develop plans to embed diversity and inclusion into existing and traditional structures and to embrace fundamental change. We embrace inclusivity. Educate on differences. Celebrate value. Our network and affinity groups give traditionally underrepresented groups in the legal profession a chance to network and foster relationships to help them grow professionally. We partner with clients and other outside organisations to deepen our understanding of diversity issues across the regions in which we operate.

Embracing diversity is good for business. The UK FinTech sector will only truly prosper if its make-up represents the diverse customer base that it sells to. We are proud to be partnering with Innovate Finance to promote diversity and inclusion for FinTech.

Rachel KentPartner, Head of Financial Institutions GroupHogan Lovells

A MESSAGE FROM HOGAN LOVELLS


RBS’s ambition is to become the number one bank for customer service, trust and advocacy, in every one of our chosen business areas, by 2020. Being an inclusive bank is therefore essential to achieve this goal.

Normalising difference helps to promote diversity of thought, which, in turn, improves contribution, performance and results. By creating products and services that remove the need to treat people differently, we can be inclusive from the outset, ensuring a level playing field for all our customers and colleagues. This takes time and we’re not fully there yet. However, by encouraging our leaders to be curious and accepting of difference we are making good progress.

It’s diversity of thought that really matters…

Organisations require leaders from diverse backgrounds that can foster innovation, engage employees and make the most of their potential; leaders who maximise the performance of their people maximise the performance of their business. By encouraging diversity of thought

and accepting that ‘their way’ is not the only way, inclusive leaders drive inclusive cultures. The highest performing organisations recognise this as a business imperative.

Research has shown that companies ranking in the top quartile of Executive Board diversity1:

• have on average 53% higher ROE• have 14% higher EBIT margins• are 45% more likely to have expanded market

share in the previous year• are 70% more likely to have captured a new

market• demonstrate as high as 80% improved

business performance

Putting it into practice can be hard… At RBS we have been very lucky that our Bank Executive Committee ‘get’ the agenda. There have been no big debates on the value of being an inclusive organisation- rather, lots of productive discussion and delivery of change across the organisation. We’ve worked very hard to ensure

AMESSAGE

FROMRBS

http://www.rbs.co.uk/corporate.ashx


inclusion is positioned as a business imperative; not something driven by HR from a dark room, somewhere. But we’ve learned some lessons along the way which might be useful for others progressing on the same journey. First of all:

• Keep it simple (two or things done well will deliver more change that lots of well intended effort that doesn’t achieve results)

• Have a clear business led narrative which…• …Illustrates the tangible commercial benefits

of an inclusive organisation• Obtain commitment• Agree priorities and measureable outcomes • Make it part of the mainstream, i.e. not stand

alone (purpose, vision, values, etc.)• Be clear on accountability

This is where FinTech has a massive advantage over larger, clunkier organisations. By making inclusion about leveraging everyone, regardless of their background, you can make a big difference quickly. Building inclusive organisations from the get go as opposed to undoing problems built up over time, presents an unprecedented opportunity

to leverage the best mind sets right from the start. Be deliberate and build it that way.

Marjorie Strachan Head of InclusionRoyal Bank of Scotland (RBS)

References

1. Source:McKinsey : Is there a pay off from top team diversityCenter for Talent Innovation, The Business Case for DiversityDeloitte Global report 2012


EDITOR’S NOTE

FinTech promises to create a better and more inclusive financial services sector for everyone. Nevertheless, when it comes to diversity, many are failing to live up to expectations. Less than one in ten of the UK’s Top 50 FinTech businesses include female representation at the board level and people from different social, economic and ethnic groups are under-represented in leadership roles. This is despite workplace equality being front-of-mind for many businesses.

Why is diversity still an issue?

FinTech companies and entrepreneurs complain of a limited pool of skills and talent. At Innovate Finance, we believe making STEM learning compulsory for students and introducing mentorship programmes at schools and the workplace would increase our chances of creatingdiverse and qualified candidates for the FinTech sector. More also needs to be done to tackle unconscious bias and the tendency for companies to hire in their own image, which can give the false impression that the ‘right’ talent isn’t out there to grow your business.

At Innovate Finance we cast the net as wide as possible when recruiting by hiring through LinkedIn job posts. Not only is this a cheaper method of recruitment for startups it also ensures an equal opportunity for all applicants to get their CVs seen by a hiring manager instead of a recruitment agency, which removes any filtering biases in that process. We operate a partnership model of recruiting which means that all team heads have to interview and sign off on a candidate to prevent hiring managers from recruiting in their own image.

This allows for the best candidate to rise to the top, ensuring staff is hired on the basis of competence and cultural fit. Instead of focusing on the value candidates bring to a specific role we look closely at what they can add to the team.

Initiatives such as online and flexible working would help students and parents manage work life balance and incentivise them to apply and stay in careers– while the introduction of ‘returnship’ schemes for women wishing to re-enter the workforce would help close the gender divide. These are initiatives we’ve adopted at Innovate Finance, to recruit more men, women and graduates from different backgrounds.

It’s important to celebrate the companies that are leading the way in creating a diverse workforce that truly reflects our society. We commend the firms spotlighted in this diversity book and hope they will inspire more startups to follow their lead and give more people a chance to have equal access to work opportunities and to help deliver a better future for financial services.

Georgia Hanias Head of Global Communications and Diversity Lead Innovate Finance

MAKING DIVERSITY WORK


Innovate Finance is an independent membership based industry organisation that aims to advance the UK’s standing as a leader in financial technology (FinTech) innovation both domestically and abroad.

Founded in 2014, Innovate Finance has attracted more than 250 members ranging from seed startups to major global financial institutions.

As the industry body for the FinTech community, Innovate Finance serves as a single access point to the full financial services and technology ecosystem and – through our curated innovation programmes and partnerships with other organisations we seek to address some of the key issues affecting the growth of the sector.

INNOVATE FINANCE

THE FUTURE OF FINANCE

Lead Sponsor Founding Sponsor


What do you do?

We are a financial services group with millions of UK customers with a presence in nearly every community; we are familiar on the high street and with over 1 million businesses through our portfolio of brands.

Our business is focused on retail and commercial financial services. We thrive based on how well we serve our customers; on our relationships within the communities we serve; and on helping Britain prosper.

Why diversity is important to Lloyds Banking Group As one of the UK’s biggest banks we’re committed to recognising and supporting the needs of our customers and communities, as well as the needs of our colleagues. Only by delivering on these commitments can we become the best bank for customers and achieve our purpose of helping Britain prosper.

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company?

Our 25 million customers are as diverse as UK society itself. By reflecting this in our workforce and in the products and services we provide we can become the best bank for them all.

As a result, inclusion and diversity plays a key role in how we are going to achieve that vision and purpose and we have a variety of established networks within the Group to support colleagues in that, including:

• Breakthrough - Network for Women• Access - Disability Network• GEM - Group Ethnic Minority Network• Rainbow - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and

Transgender (LGBT) Network

We’ve publicly committed to better represent the diversity of our customer base and communities at all levels of the Group. Our most well-known goal is to increase the number of women in senior management to 40% by 2020. But we also have goals to increase the engagement of LGBT, disabled and ethnic minority colleagues and are making great strides towards this ambition.

We want to hear the founder’s journey - why did they set up the company, what is his/her background and what kind of team did they put together to help them lead?

When Lloyds Banking Group was formed in 2009, it brought together many well-known brands, including Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows.

https://www.lloydsbank.com/


Our combined history stretches back more than 300 years, and encompasses a diverse range of businesses. Each company has its own story to tell. Together they present a truly extraordinary heritage, of which we are justifiably proud.Looking ahead our focus will be to adapt to the changes in financial services brought about by shifts in technology, changing customer behaviour as well as the evolving competitive and regulatory environment. Our strategy through to 2017 has three priorities; creating the best customer experience, becoming simpler and more efficient, and delivering sustainable growth.

What can FinTech firms learn from institutions like Lloyds Banking Group?

At Lloyds Banking Group inclusion and diversity is central to our business success. We have a diverse culture with a scale that creates a vast range of roles and opportunities, far wider than banking, with a wealth of options for continual personal growth in an organisation that reflects 21st century Britain in the diversity of talent, skills andthinking of our team. Similarly we believe that FinTech is at the forefront of digital innovation and we are committed to leveraging our diverse and experienced workforce to collaborate and work in partnership with the FinTech ecosystem. We do this in a number of ways through collaborations, sponsorship, events, mentoring relationships, membership and championing of the ecosystem.

What FinTech firms can learn from institutions like Lloyds Banking Group?

At Lloyds Banking Group we have made traction with encouraging diversity in FinTech by hosting two FemTech Leaders Meet Up sessions in our Chiswell Street office this year. These sessions are an opportunity to celebrate the women working in our sector and provide an opportunity for them to

share experience, best practice and ideas as well as enhancing their network. We are also proud sponsors of Fin4Fem, supporting female founders to secure funding, and have collaborated with Girls in Tech and London Girl Geek Dinners as part of our Digital Breakthrough network. These commitments are testament to our determination to play a large role in the FinTech ecosystem, to engage in the FinTech debate, whilst simultaneously encouraging diversity.

What structural problems has Lloyds Banking Group had to tackle to deliver diversity initiatives?

As an organisation we are constantly learning and evolving but these are the tips we have learnt on our journey: set goals and be visible.


Set goals Defined goals might not be right for every organisation, but they are undoubtedly a catalyst for change. This goal means that we are genuinely treating diversity in the same way as we would any other business issue. What gets measured gets done and we are confident we can meet all of our diversity goals with the right focus and determination. Be visible

Never underestimate the need for visibility. No matter how many internal policies a company can introduce, the mark of real change is in the culture of an organisation. In an evolving economic environment,businesses must be able to adapt to remain relevant. Having the right culture, that advocates diversity, empowerment of colleagues and increased accountability, should be the cornerstone of the strategy to allow businesses to survive and compete. We will only achieve this if we can effectively communicate that our company values reflect a modern and diverse society. We then need to trust ourselves in setting visible, ambitious goals and then mobilise the organisation to achieve them.

How has diversity impacted your overall working experience at this company?

Andy Clarke, who works at Lloyds Banking Group as Business Unit Control Function Director and Executive Sponsor for Inclusion and Diversity In Group Digital, says:

“As the UK’s biggest bank we’re committed to recognising and supporting the needs of our customers and communities, as well as the needs of our colleagues. Inclusion and diversity play a key role in how we are going to achieve that vision and

purpose. We’ve made some great progress in this space – In Digital I’m proud to sponsor our progressive programme focusing on sexual orientation, cultural and religious differences, female progression and disability additionally we support agile working, mental Health and we celebrate differences in behavioural and thinking styles. Our colleagues value the emphasis Lloyds Banking Group puts on topics which affect their everyday life. Personally, I’m delighted that my team and co-workers are actively encouraged to bring their ‘whole selves’ to work. It is no good having a diverse workforce if you don’t also have an inclusive culture where individuals feel welcome, can be themselves and contribute fully. I’ve seen first-hand the benefits of this as colleagues who feel included perform better, make better decisions, and are more engaged - that’s good at every level. I’ve also benefited from the bank’s approach, agreeing a working pattern which allows me to balance my family needs in Yorkshire with my work commitments in London. Everyone has a role to play in this and I’m excited to see these cultural changes taking place.”

Sarah Barthram, who works at Lloyds Banking Group as Senior Digital Propositions Manager and Digital Breakthrough Women’s Network Lead in Group Digital, says:

“I’m proud to work for a company that is so focused on creating and embedding an inclusive environment, enabling all colleagues to feel comfortable to be themselves when they walk into the office. I’ve worked for Lloyds Banking Group for nine years now and have personally benefitted from the wealth of support and events delivered by our Diversity Networks, which are all run by colleagues, for colleagues. Within Group Digital, you can visibly see the passion from colleagues wanting to make a difference and I’m delighted to lead the Digital Breakthrough women’s network. I really appreciate the support I have gained from the Group’s networks, especially in the early stages of my career when I met some inspirational female role models, and I’m thrilled that I am now able


to lead a network to give something back. Digital Breakthrough provides a range of events and activities to support all colleagues to build their digital careers while inspiring the success of female colleagues and we actively encourage male colleagues to join too. I really enjoy working in a team that is focused onensuring that everyone feels included and our activities

cover all elements of diversity, not just the visible differences you can see. We have fantastic support from senior leaders across Group Digital to embed a fully inclusive culture and this creates a fantastic opportunity for colleagues to develop their careers in their own individual way.”

Nationality Breakdown of Lloyds Banking Group Staff

DIVERSITY AT LLOYDS BANKING GROUP

Gender Balance

41% Male 59% Female

Our workforce encompasses a huge range of nationalities drawn from every community in the UK. We do not typically report a breakdown of employees by nationality due to the large number of nationalities represented.

Diverse Workforce


Background

Neyber was founded by former Goldman Sachs investment bankers Martin ljaha and Monica Kalia along with financial technology expert Ezechi Britton. The founders joined together to deliver a genuine alternative to the solutions offered by financial service providers whose high borrowing rates and low returns on savings have helped to create an unprecedented era of financial stress.

What do you do?

Neyber is a provider of financial employee benefits. We enable employees to reduce borrowing costs with access to affordable loans integrated with payroll - all at no cost to the employer.

Our mission is to pioneer the creation of workplace communities that will enable employees to borrow and save together at fairer rates and to cut credit costs. As Neyber’s technology integrates with payroll, employers can offer an easy-to-implement workplace financial solution that acts as a key driver for employee engagement, productivity and to reduce stress-related absenteeism. Over half a million people already have access to the Neyber community.

Through our affordable rates, we have delivered an effective 5% pay rise to our existing borrowers

saving them 20% on monthly debt repayments and successfully reducing their outstanding debts.

How many people work here?

We have 54 members of staff.

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company? We live in an increasingly diverse society and need to develop products that meet the needs of people from across the social spectrum. Companies can only achieve this if they have a workforce that is diverse and representative of the communities that they wish to serve. At Neyber we have embraced this approach and, as a consequence, have been able to create products that are right for the UK workforce today. Our success today and in the future will depend upon this and that is why diversity matters so much.

What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech?

Rosie Hewat, who works at Neyber as Senior HR Business Partner Associate CIPD, says:

“FinTech, in the UK especially, can and must be more diverse. The sector needs to continue to champion and trail-blaze diversity and inclusion through visible actions like more women in leadership positions; and operating

https://www.neyber.co.uk/?gclid=CMyhv7Psts0CFYdAGwoddsEFog


“At Neyber we’ve developed a model that puts diversity at the heart of our business. Our board, founding team and senior leaders are multi-ethnic and have women included. Our recruitment process is focused on diversity too. We know that our success today and in the future will depend upon getting our approach to diversity right. Greater diversity in the FinTech sector will only become a reality if businesses adopt a similarly proactive approach. Failing to do this will deny them access to the massive pool of human talent that exists across our increasingly diverse nation and that’s a loss that no business can take.”

Ezechi Britton Co Founder and Chief Technology Officer

a more transparent equality approach to recruitment. At Neyber we are also about to have our first apprentice through the government apprentice scheme and encourage other FinTechs to follow suit and give opportunities to those who may not get them otherwise.

We don’t just talk about being inclusive or diverse - we are actively inclusive and promote diversity which feeds into the heart of what we are striving to do - creating better communities.”

Whats it like working at Neyber?

Click to hear the full story...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6rQbX8iOk0





DIVERSITY AT NEYBERGender Balance

65% Male 35% Female

Religious Variety

... & MORE

ARE PRACTICED RELIGIONS

BUDDHISM

CHRISTIANITY

SIKHISM

JUDAISM


North America

Guadeloupe

Mauritius

Mexico

South America

Argentina

Africa

Kenya

Nigeria

Europe

Cyprus

England

Former Yugoslavia

Australasia

Australia

Asia

Bangladesh

China

India

United States of America Germany

Holland

Ireland

Italy

Scotland

Sweden

Ukraine

Wales

Malaysia

Sri Lanka

Vietnam

Nationality Breakdown of Neyber Staff


Background

WorldRemit Founder and CEO Ismail Ahmed has always upheld the highest of standards even in times of sheer adversity. This is evident in his younger years when he left his home of Somaliland to study a postgraduate degree in the UK, continuing this streak of determination when he went on to work as an advisor to the UN. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, remittance businesses were struggling to comply with the strict new anti-money laundering regulations, but his experience as an advisor made him a valuable asset both amongst organisations as well as within the industry. However, it was during his employment with the UN that he faced his biggest obstacle – quitting after he became a whistleblower to irregular activity. In 2010 he decided that he wanted to shake-up the remittance services market by starting his own business – launching an online money transfer service that would make sending funds abroad both safe and as simple as sending an instant message.

Drawing upon his experience of sending money to his family while studying in London, he was frustrated with the slow and inconvenient money transfer process. Many high street agents charge extortionate fees, while the process was often protracted due to paperwork. But thanks to the advancement of

technology, he wanted to modernise the traditional process – bringing money transfers online so the service would be available via smartphones as well as desktop computers. WorldRemit today is available in over 50 countries allowing customers to send to over 125+ countries worldwide.

What do you do?

WorldRemit is a digital money transfer service. With the WorldRemit app, people can send money to their friends and family in more than 125 different countries.


Across more than 230 staff worldwide, WorldRemit currently employs people from more than 30 different nationalities, hailing from Algeria to Zimbabwe. There is a near-even split of women and men (46-54%) across the company.

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company? Canadian-born Gabriella Poczo, who joined WorldRemit as CTO after leading Skype’s transition from desktop to mobile, says:

“At WorldRemit, we want to set an example by consistently hiring the best person for the job. Nobody cares whether you’re a male engineer or a female engineer, what we really want are engineers. It is precisely for that reason that I find an abundance of female leadership and talent on the CTO staff, including our heads of Product, Mobile and Web Development, Cloud Reliability, and Security.”

https://www.worldremit.com/


“Our customers come from literally all over the world from the widest variety of circumstances. It seems only right that our workforce reflects the diversity of people who use WorldRemit. Tech firms are missing a trick if they do not hire people from diverse backgrounds. Fostering an inclusive working environment is not only the right thing to do, it leads to greater creativity and the means to better meet the needs of our customers.”

Ismail AhmedFounder and CEO

What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech?

Alice Newton, WorldRemit’s Head of Product, is responsible for leading the team of engineers and UX-designers behind the look and feel of WorldRemit. She believes that tech firms needs to be doing more to get women into management roles:

“Getting women coding in schools and universities is not enough. It’s in the best interest of management teams to hire more talented women for senior roles. Tech firms miss out on talent by consistently hiring men. A diverse workforce has improved not only our company culture but the quality of our product.”

DIVERSITY AT WORLDREMITGender Balance

54% Male 46% Female

Whats diversity like at WorldRemit?


Equality Senior Representation

SENIORPOSITIONS4WOMEN IN

COO CTO CPOAND VP OF MARKETING

Nationality Breakdown of World Remit Staff

Our workforce is made up of talent from around the world with employees from every continent.


Background

Eric Mouilleron is the Founder and CEO of Bankable, a global architect of white-label and API-based payment solutions. He previously co-founded Valtech, an IT project-based consultancy, and spearheaded its transformation into a Euronext listed multinational with 12 offices in 8 countries, 1,500 staff and a peak market cap of USD 1.5+ billion, all within 6 years. He started Bankable with the vision of displacing payment inefficiencies – to democratise real-time, affordable, and scalable electronic payment solutions for everyone.

What do you do?

Bankable is a global architect of innovative payment solutions providing “Banking as a Service”. Our core virtual account management platform is available in white-label or via APIs enabling any regulated and non-regulated entity to deploy payment solutions – including virtual account services, e-ledgers, virtual & plastic card programmes, and e-wallet and light banking solutions.


22 in total. 10 in London, 12 in Paris.

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company? A multicultural environment is encouraged at Bankable – as along with creating a vibrant atmosphere within the company, it actually holds a lot of business benefits. Diversity stimulates creativity, encourages different point-of-views and exploring different ways to solve complex problems. As most team members at Bankable speak an additional language to English, it kindles relationship-building with our clients outside the United Kingdom. We believe in fostering long-term relationships with our clients and partners globally, and sponsoring diversity in the company aids our efforts in providing a local interface and perspective to projects.

What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech? A survey by Telefonica’s Warya on startups shed light on the fact that ‘men are 86% more likely to get VC funding than women.’ According to Astbury Marsden, ‘women sit on 9% of boards at the top 35 UK FinTech companies.’

Based on these statistics, we believe VCs should set up stronger internal diversity targets. Therefore they will be more likely to fund start-ups led by women CEOs. I believe women CEOs are likely to promote parity and equality alongside their male counterparts committed to encourage diversity to further foster a prosperous business environment.

http://www.bnkbl.com/


“As a Co-Founder of Valtech and leading the company for twelve years, I had always encouraged a multicultural and diverse environment with 40 nationalities. I applied the same values to Bankable as well, and employed people who brought in specialised skillsets and were experts in their respective fields – from consultancy and law, to defence and the telecommunications industry. I wanted to build a team of brilliant minds who brought in fresh ideas and did not hesitate to speak their mind as they were all new to the payments industry. My experience had taught me that putting such people in the room together generated ingenious ideas and solutions. Today at Bankable, 6 nationalities are represented and 10 languages are spoken.”

Eric MouilleronFounder and CEO

Why is diversity important to Bankable?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftb2t5ZENNU





DIVERSITY AT BANKABLEGender Balance

82% Male 18% Female

Diverse Roles

SOFTWARE ARCHITECT

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

LEGAL AND HR MANAGER

WOMEN ARE IN POWER ROLES


North America

Canada


Europe

France

Italy

Asia

Nepal

Thailand

United Kingdom

Nationality Breakdown of Bankable Staff


Background

When we started Scalable Capital, our goal was not to create a multicultural workplace. We only had one objective in mind: create an investment product that we could recommend to our friends and family. Our goal was not to foster a culture of diversity, but a culture of innovation.

When we hired our latest team member in the London office, our UK Co-Founder’s first question was “So, how many nationalities do we have here?”. Only then, we realised that our team is composed of 13 nationalities: British, German, French, Spanish, Austrian, Portuguese, American, Bulgarian, Indian, Jamaican, Slovak, Italian and Indonesian.

What do you do?

Scalable Capital is one of the leading digital investment managers in Europe. We have built a technology, that automatically creates and manages bespoke ETF portfolios for long-term wealth creation. We monitor and manage each client portfolio continuously with our proprietary risk management technology.

This state-of-the-art technology enables the company

to offer a first class investment service, previously only available to the very wealthy and to institutional investors, to private investors at a fraction of the cost.


35 in the workplace

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company? This may seem counter-intuitive but a kinship developed thanks to our different backgrounds. It’s energizing. The mix of people and the professional friendships we form are a product of people being culturally-curious and wanting to get to know their colleagues. We are constantly challenged to think outside of our normal mode of analysis. It fosters an atmosphere of social responsibility and higher purpose.

The team we have created functions around the genuine belief that our sum can be better than our individual parts. We all aim toward the same goal: make intelligent investing accessible to everyone.

What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech? FinTech sits at the juncture between finance and technology, two sectors where there is a real lack of women. As a result, the number of female entrepreneurs in the financial technology sector reaches only 17% each year.

To encourage more gender diversity, we believe it’s

https://uk.scalable.capital/


“In the workplace as in life, differences challenge assumptions. In this sense, diversity is critical to innovation. As a manager, I enjoy being challenged by my team members as it allows me to have a different perspective on the decisions I make. We aspire to make Scalable Capital a company which fosters diversity and innovation, and I believe we’re on the right track.”

Dr. Ella Rabener, UK Founder and CMO

“Diversity at Scalable Capital has created a really positive working environment where we have a lot of different personalities to match a broad set of professional experiences. The broad set of backgrounds of our team coming together to focus on the collective goals of the company l keeps everyone really motivated.”

Simon Miller, UK Co-Founder

important to get more female voices talking about the industry. Moreover, our engineering team supports programmes to bring women to code, such as as womenwhocode.com or girlswhocode.com which help remove the taboo about only men working in technology that most women have.

What has the impact of diversity made on Scalable Capital?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TMd011ktec

https://www.womenwhocode.com/

https://girlswhocode.com/





DIVERSITY AT SCALABLE CAPITALGender Balance

74% Male 26% Female

Management Level Representation

2WOMENGL BAL

MANAGEMENT

TEAM

ARE WITHIN THE


North America

Jamaica


Asia

India

Indonesia

Europe

Bulgaria

France

Germany

Australasia

Australia

Italy

Portugal

Slovakia

Spain

United Kingdom

Nationality Breakdown of Scalable Capital Staff


What do you do?

Azimo is a digital money transfer company that allows hard-working migrants living across Europe to send money to their family and friends around the world. Fast, simple and safe, Azimo has the largest digital network in the world, enabling customers to send money to over 190 countries from any internet-connected device.


90 staff split between London and Krakow, Poland.

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company? It’s the main reason why we thrive. 77% of our London-based workforce is not British born, and our staff speaks over 20 languages. Having a diverse workforce means we’re able to serve every customer that comes through our door.

Our Co-Founder, Marta Krupinska at Azimo, says:

“When you do something that’s never been done before, how can you hire people who are experienced in it?”

So the approach Azimo has taken to all its hiring is: regardless of where you work now, if you’re extremely smart, driven and hungry, and believe that remittances are one of the most important issues to resolve globally, then join us!

This hiring process has brought some of Azimo’s best people in from all over the globe, who lived in multiple countries and always pursue something extraordinary.

What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech? Businesses need to stop looking at diversity as a way to fill a quota and recognise that it’s just good for your business. Migrants for example, have started 1 in 7 companies in the UK, employing over a million people. Diversity at the top usually results in a multicultural workforce and much more successful businesses.

https://azimo.com/en/


“A big part of my role is getting closer to and connecting with the communities we serve. The ability to interact with people from different ethnic backgrounds has given me the opportunity to know their religion, culture, manners, work ethic and even taste their cuisine (a bonus!).

It’s also taught me to be much more tolerant and respectful of others. I have a much richer understanding of others, their lives, their motives for moving abroad. Everyday is enlightening in and outside the office. Working in such a diverse company like Azimo has made it easier to accomplish our goals, it’s boosted team morale and keeps people motivated and our marketing projects honest.”

Wojtek KogutChannel Marketing Manager

“On a personal level, it makes the day-to-day much more interesting than what I would normally expect. Cultural differences are a constant source of amusement and valuable knowledge. No day is the same at Azimo, and I’ve learnt a huge amount of things about other cultures, both through working with people from all over the place and from communicating directly to our customers. Plus, when you’re a newbie, working in a mostly migrant environment makes your adaptation phase go at lightspeed - you’re never a stranger or the odd one out because we’re all in it together.”

Andrea KrndijaSocial Media Executive

Whats it like working at Azimo?


DIVERSITY AT AZIMOGender Balance

62% Male 38% Female

Multi-National Workforce

77%OF THE LONDON

OFFICENON-BRITISHBORN


North America

Canada

Mexico


South America

Colombia

Africa

South Africa

Europe

Belgium

France

Germany

Australasia

Australia

Greece

Hungary

Italy

Poland

Romania

Russia

Serbia

Spain

Slovakia

Ukraine

Sweden

New Zealand

Nationality Breakdown of Azimo Staff


Background

WealthKernel was set up by Karan Shanmugarajah to solve the problem of financial advice for the mass market. Karan was previously a Portfolio Manager at Barclays Wealth where he oversaw $500 million in client assets. He was born in Sri Lanka but migrated to Canada as a refugee at a young age. Co-Founders Yannick Brunner is French-American and has a background in trading and Joe Campbell is British of Irish decent and has a background in technology.

What do you do?

WealthKernel is a provider of automated wealth management solutions to institutional clients (B2B). The platform revolutionises how smaller clients receive financial advice by reducing the cost of service and limiting compliance risk while providing the reassurance of personal service. WealthKernel is a member of the FCA Project innovate and is backed by Seedcamp.


Six full-time, two part-time and one intern.

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company? Diversity has allowed the company to create and find our unique company culture. We think without diversity our company culture would have been a function or closely resembled the personality traits of the dominant group of people within the organisation.

We believe it also allows us to benefit from different ideas and attract the best talent. We draw parallels between Harry Markowitz's theory of portfolio management and the workforce, the best way to optimise the value of our company portfolio is to diversify.

What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech? Improve UK immigration policy for non-European entrepreneurs and skilled workers. As a non-European that has set up a business in the UK in the past 18 months, I can say the process is ridiculously frustrating, time-consuming and expensive.

http://wealthkernel.com/


“We draw parallels between Markowitz’s theories on investment portfolios and the workforce, the best way to optimise the value of a company like a portfolio is to diversify.”

Karan ShanmugarajahCEO and Co-Founder

DIVERSITY AT WEALTHKERNELGender Balance

67% Male 33% Female

ALL THE

ARE FROM THE

NORTH BRITS

60%OF EMPLOYEESARE NONBRITISH

Multi-National Workforce

Whats it like working at WealthKernel?


North America

Canada


Africa

Egypt

Europe

Denmark

France

Ireland

Asia

Hong Kong

India

Sri Lanka

Netherlands

United Kingdom

Nationality Breakdown of WealthKernel Staff


Background

Brian Pallas started Opportunity Network as an email newsletter for the members of the Family Business Club of Columbia MBA that he was attending. The Club included some of the next generations of top global companies who could have done business together, but clearly didn’t talk too much about business in the festive MBA environment. Mr. Pallas saw the opportunity of doing business among the members of the Club and engaged them in sharing anonymously a few lines about what they were looking for and/or offering. Each opportunity had to be 1 million dollars worth and could span from M&A to commercial trade agreement. This year Brian was selected by Forbes as judge for the first European edition of Forbes’ 30 Under 30.

What do you do?

Opportunity Network is the business matchmaking platform that partners with financial institutions to allow their corporate and private clients to find their next business partner for deals above $1M at a global level. We currently have over 5,000 members in 78 countries with an overall volume of active opportunities valued at around $30B.

Opportunity Network was founded around 24 months ago and we’re now valued at $145M.


We have 46 employees representing 19 different nationalities operating from 8 different locations (London, New York, Barcelona, San Francisco, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich, and soon Toronto).

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company? We are a “glocal” company: we operate locally but we serve the world having members from 78 countries. Our diversity in terms of nationalities, background, ethnicities is one of our core elements of strength of our team, which has determined our growth and success so far.

Our key challenge is leveraging on everyone’s “unicity” in order to achieve our unique company goals. We try to have as many moments as possible where we get together, both physically or virtually, to share our experiences and learn from each other. . What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech? 1. Start from education:

favour the establishment of scholarships for STEM and Finance programs devoted to women and people with diverse background.

2. Promote mentorship and thought leadership:identify members of the FinTech industry with diverse background who can be thought leaders and mentors to motivate other people with diverse background to engage in the industry

https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/


“Diversity brings more creative solutions to challenges we face at the company every day; professionally and personally I have also benefited tremendously from the variety of culture experiences and perspectives within our team. I believe that diversity is the key factor that has supported our company’s success inside out.”

Ann WongHead of Strategy

“The diversity in my company means we have the luxury of having different sounding boards or points of view to challenge and improve our solutions for any critical challenge we face. This is invaluable for my role leading the growth strategy for a rapidly growing young company. However, diversity can come with different management challenges, so it is important to have diversity that is constructive and complementary, as opposed to diversity just for the sake of diversity.”

Prasad GanesanVP Strategy

Whats it like working at Opportunity Network?


DIVERSITY AT OPPORTUNITY NETWORKGender Balance

63% Male 37% Female

75%MANAGEMENT

TEAMARE WOMEN

CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER

CHIEF PEOPLE AND COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

OF

Management Level Representation


South America

Bolivia

Colombia

Europe

Belarus

Croatia

England

Asia

Azerbaijan

Jordan

Singapore

France

Germany

Italy

Poland

Scotland

Spain

Switzerland

Ukraine

India

Hong Kong

Nationality Breakdown of Opportunity Network Staff


Background

Eric Guichard, CEO and Founder of Homestrings, started the company in his ‘virtual garage’ to solve a problem that he and others like him faced. Eric grew up in Guinea, West Africa but moved to the USA in his 20s where he attended Harvard Business School, worked at the World Bank and eventually founded his own asset management business, Gravitas Capital (which celebrated its 20th anniversary in March 2016). Eric, like most in the diaspora, sends money back to Africa regularly to support family, however, like many middle-class diasporans, Eric was also very keen to invest in rapid transformation and growth across Africa.

What do you do?

Homestrings is a crowdfunding platform that is currently focused on facilitating investment from the diaspora (Africans and other expats living abroad) back home to fund entrepreneurs and businesses who need funding. The plan now is to scale up from Africa in to the rest of emerging markets.


There are 8 employees, based mostly in London but a couple in Washington, DC.

How has a diverse workforce benefited your company? At Homestrings, we have a range ethnic backgrounds and therefore a range of experience andperspectives. This mix has helped us develop new ideas, innovative strategies and of course has been critical as we operate in a wide range of countries across Africa and Emerging Markets. We are better connected to our clients and able to more effectively deliver the service they want and will pay for.

What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech? FinTech is evolving and changing very quickly. New challenges and new structures require a much wider range of skills and perspectives, so traditional forms of recruiting need to also evolve very quickly.

https://www.homestrings.com/en


DIVERSITY AT HOMESTRINGSGender Balance

63% Male 37% Female

WOMEN INPOSITIONS

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER

SENIOR3HEAD OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA

Diverse Senior Roles


North America

Canada

Jamica


Africa

Guinea

Europe

Romania

Nationality Breakdown of Homestrings Staff


Background

Landbay was co-founded by John Goodall and Gray Stern. John, originally from Norfolk, England started off his entrepreneurial journey by founding an executive search business and so is somewhat of a team building expert! John has also worked in a senior executive role in stockbroking, completed an MBA at Imperial College (Distinction) and taught Economics in Westminster.

Meanwhile Gray was born in Canada and raised in New Zealand. Gray has been working in property finance since the age of 16, and in some of the largest banks in New Zealand and Australia. Before moving to London to set up Landbay, Gray established his own property consultancy for non-dom investors. The team they have put together includes employees from a wide range of experience from traditional mortgage lending, payments and banking, to fashion, lifestyle and ecommerce. With such a diverse skillset within the team, Landbay’s marketing and product strategies comprise a valuable mix of creativity and operational know-how, the key to its strong, steady growth to date.

What do you do?

Landbay is the UK’s leading peer-to-peer lending platform for residential mortgages.


18 in the workplace

What can be done to encourage more diversity in FinTech? As FinTech solutions become more and more engrained in everyday financial transactions, we hope that an increasing number of job seekers will look at the sector. Additionally, schools, universities, careers advisors and recruiters need to be educated on the sector so that they can understand the broad range of skills and backgrounds needed in growing innovative businesses. As Landbay has demonstrated, employing staff from a wide range of backgrounds and expertise is what helps a business to retain its creativity and consumer focus, whilst getting the job done efficiently from a technical and regulatory perspective. FinTech platforms like Landbay are all about simplifying the investment process for everyday people, and levelling the playing field between individuals and institutions. As a peer-to-peer lending platform, our mission is to bridge the gap between investors and borrowers, allowing anyone to access the lucrative returns of the residential mortgage lending market. We hope that with increased awareness of the sector and with a greater level of education, a wide range of people will want to work in an organisation which places the consumer at the heart of its mission.

https://landbay.co.uk/


“When you’re building a company from scratch you need a broad range of skills and experiences. Taking an open approach to recruitment ensures that you hire the best people for the job, whilst managing to build a welcoming and positive environment. At Landbay we have built a team from a variety of backgrounds and as a result there is no shortage of creativity in our team and innovation in the work they produce”

John GoodallCEO and Co-Founder

DIVERSITY AT LANDBAYGender Balance

78% Male 22% Female

4 WOMENIN

SENIOR UI DESIGNER

QUALITY ASSURANCE ENGINEER

COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

HEAD OF MARKETING

ROLESKEY

Diverse Roles

Whats it like working at Landbay?


South America

Brazil

Colombia

Asia

India

Europe

Belgium

England

France

Australasia

Australia

Poland

New Zealand

Nationality Breakdown of Landbay Staff

48 Diversity Trends in the Workplace

Although deep-seated issues such as skill shortages and unconscious bias will not disappear overnight we’ve seen positive advancements that will have a meaningful impact on inclusiveness of our sector.

The world’s biggest banks have hired diversity leads, set gender-diversity targets and introduced mentoring programmes. Remote working is also becoming more acceptable while more access to childcare and dedicated father leave is helping to change perceptions about parents taking time off to look after children – eroding the view that raising a family is a ‘woman’s issue.’

Professional services firms like Hogan Lovells have established women’s, pride (LGBT), working families, disability and wellbeing and multicultural networks that support its diversity strategy while global accountancy leaders Deloitte and PwC are publishing gender pay gap data to drive better business and close gender gaps.

New FinTech firms have an advantage over banks since they can build a diverse team from scratch. Many support diversity but often complain of talent shortages. Organisations such as Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) are trying to fill this gap by lobbying policy makers to shape legislation that encourages and back STEM roles while also pushing to ensure students learn about technology and science in school.

The Maker’s Academy – the UK’s premier coding school- is attracting people from different social and ethnic backgrounds to learn to code in three months. It offers an in-house training programme as well as remote learning options, which reach different demographic groups, such as stay at home mums and new grads that can’t afford to study in London.

New technologies are also helping employers make better hiring decisions such as the Blendoor app, which hides applicant’s

names, ages, gender, and ethnicity so their qualifications and skills are prioritised.

Innovate Finance is proud to represent members that embrace good diversity practises and regularly celebrates their work. We’ve also launched a global women in FinTech power list to highlight the amazing talent in the workforce today while pushing our vision for UK FinTech 2020. Nurturing, attracting and retaining talent remains a long-term priority to ensure the vitality of the sector for generations to come. We look forward to continuing our work with the FinTech community to create a better and more inclusive financial services sector for everyone.

AT INNOVATE FINANCE WE CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR GREATER DIVERSITY BY ENCOURAGING MORE STARTUPS AND INSTITUTIONS TO CREATE A MORE EQUITABLE WORKFORCE IN FINANCIAL SERVICES

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

IN FINTECHWOMEN

Women play a vital role in helping us to achieve our vision for UK FinTech. We need to nurture, attract and retain more female talent to make this happen. Innovate Finance believes the

future of finance relies on a diverse talent pool

HELP US TO CREATE A FINANCIAL SECTOR THAT REFLECTS THE SOCIETY WE LIVE IN

#WIF ^ @InnFin

• Support programmes that encourage female entrepreneurship • Make STEM learning compulsory in schools and pair up female students with mentors• Legislate flexible working in business to promote better life balance for working mothers• Invest in women by backing female entrepreneurs and their ideas• Praise diversity in the workplace to inspire other businesses - until it becomes the normal

What can be done?

www.womeninfintech.co.uk

Support our Women in FinTech community

WOMEN IN FINTECH POWER LIST 2016

Nominate the women inspiring you today,and help inspire the women of tomorrow

Level39, One Canada Sqaure, London, E14 5AB, UK

www.innovatefinance.com

[email protected] +44 (0) 20 3668 3691

THE FUTURE OF FINANCE

http://www.innovatefinance.com

celebrating diversity in fintech

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