Barclays Eagle Labs incubate, inspire and educate UK founders, start-ups and scale-ups and help them succeed and scale. Offering state-of-the-art labs, a wide range of events and programmes, access to finance as well as access to mentors and coaches. Dorset’s Eagle Lab is based at FOUNDRY in Poole.
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The British Business Bank is 100% government owned, but independently managed. It brings expertise and government money to the smaller business finance markets. Their aim is to make finance markets work better for small businesses in the UK at all stages of their development: starting up, scaling up and staying ahead.
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FinTech West is the representative body for FinTech in the South West and part of the FinTech National Network. It operates an open community of several thousand people interested in FinTech who come from a diverse range of roles and organisations. Apart from supporting the regional community, it also represents the South West in national and international activities including work with Innovate Finance, the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), DBT and the City of London Corporation.
FinTech West has 5 core initiatives it is currently focused on partnering with key stakeholders to drive forward social and economic impact. They are:
1. Sustainable Finance
2. Financial Inclusion
3. Higher Education
4. InsurTech
5. The South Coast
The South Coast strategy is a collaboration between BCP Council, Dorset LEP and FinTech West to grow the local financial technology ecosystem within the region. “FinTech West – South Coast” is the embodiment of this strategy, supported by a regionally driven Steering Group.
Bournemouth in particular has demonstrable strength in financial services and the combination of that and the growth in digital technologies and support from key stakeholders, has enabled the region to start to be recognised nationally as a growing FinTech ecosystem. Dorset based FinTech represents a significant, and growing, part of the regional economy recently estimated (see https://www.whitecapconsulting.co.uk/publication/south-west-fintech-report-2023/) to be £165m GVA being the second largest hotspot for FinTechs in the South West.
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