Every Wednesday, we delve into the latest fintech updates from across the UK. This week brings updates from Stubben Edge Group, Aviva, Revolut, atomic, and [email protected].
Stubben Edge launch supporting UK business growth
UK fintech company Stubben Edge Group has launched its new capital arm, ‘Stubben Edge Capital’. It hopes the move will foster “sector wide” innovation while providing a range of financial tools and services that will support established and emerging ventures as well as UK enterprises more broadly.
Chris Kenning, CEO of Stubben Edge Group, said: “Stubben Edge Capital presents an exciting opportunity for the sector. We are helping insurance brokers, MGAs and insurers grow their businesses. We provide them with the technology, data, analytics, regulatory licensing and now capital solutions.
“Our AUM business has grown from a standing start in 2021 to £400million and is on track to get to £2billion of AUM by end of 2023. As a leading fintech, we are looking to provide equity, debt and reinsurance solutions to our partners”.
Aviva backs UK saltmarsh restoration
UK insurer Aviva has partnered with Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) to support saltmarsh research and restoration in the UK.
The move supports Aviva’s ambition to make the UK the most climate-ready large economy by 2030. Aviva will also donate £21million to WWT to restore up to 250 hectares of saltmarsh.
Claudine Blamey, group sustainability director at Aviva, said: “Saltmarshes are precious habitats that have a significant role to play in fighting the climate emergency and improving the UK’s climate resilience. Not only do they remove carbon from the atmosphere and support biodiversity, but they also deliver flood mitigation benefits for nearby communities.
“This project will help to protect more than 90,000 properties and more than £2billion of assets. We are delighted to fund leading research that will make a genuine contribution to the wider understanding of how saltmarshes can help move Aviva and the UK towards our net zero ambitions”.
Revolut set to launch new ‘super app’ features
Revolut is continuing its ‘super app’ rollout with a new push into e-commerce and advertising as it prepares to launch new advertising formats for brands including widgets, banners and carousels, alongside sponsored search listings, in the coming months.
The new advertising solutions come as Revolut appoints Inam Mahmood as head of global lifestyle solutions, the commercial arm of Lifestyle.
“I am thrilled to be joining Revolut and honoured to be working alongside some of the smartest people across fintech, travel and lifestyle,” Mahmood explained. “I’ve been a longtime fan of Revolut and I am looking forward to working with the team to expand our Global Lifestyle Solutions business, and bringing new and innovative solutions to our customers.”
UK tech firms struggle to live up to last year’s funding successes
Investment firm Atomico has revealed new data showing that during the first half of 2023, UK technology companies felt the sharpest funding decline of any country across Europe.
UK technology companies raised £5.9billion in the first half of this year, a 57 per cent year-over-year decrease. In the first half of 2022, UK tech firms secured $13.7billion – the most across Europe.
Steven Mooney, founder and CEO of FundMyPitch, said: “Getting access to funding is critical to enable ambitious businesses to hire fresh talent, expand, develop their product offering and grow.
“Entrepreneurs are already feeling the heat from stubborn interest rates and the cost-of-living crisis, all of which ultimately hits the UK GDP. With forecasts suggesting a decrease in technology investment, the time has come to look again at how we support the next generation of business owners to achieve their full potential”.
[email protected] secures institutional investor
[email protected], a fintech enabling businesses to generate cash flow by monetising their existing stock, has secured an institutional investor to invest in the first UK Inventory Monetisation transaction deal.
The investment will monetise up to £1.8million of warehoused goods of a UK business which provides technology and parts to the global marine industry.
Alessandro Zamboni, CEO of [email protected], said: “[email protected]’s innovative platform solves a longstanding problem for UK businesses and enables them to unlock capital trapped in unsold inventory. Financial institutions have, typically, been reluctant to lend against only inventory. This has also meant that the funding available to manufacturing and wholesale businesses has been limited, comes with excessive covenants or is often costly to obtain and linked to an overall working capital facility”.
Image and article originally from thefintechtimes.com. Read the original article here.