London has become a global colossus for financial startups: the UK and Ireland accounted for more than half of Europe's Fintech deals in 2013, with the capital taking the lion's share of that. There are other pockets of Europe where financial startups also seem to thrive.
Many of these companies are working at the intersection of tech and finance. Some are aiming to market a product to everyone, some just to businesses, and some to the biggest banks and financial institutions.
What's common among all the companies is that they're actively making their own markets, fulfilling demand where there previously might have been none - especially since the financial crisis in 2008. But they're all offering something new, exciting, and financially promising.
15. iZettle: Has a head start on Square in Europe
iZettle is one of Square's major competitors outside of the US. The Sweden-based service, which launched in 2011, markets low-fee mobile payments technology.
While Square had a year's head start on iZettle, the difference in card payments in the US and Europe gave iZettle an "in" before Square launched in Europe: card payments in the EU are almost all done by chip-and-pin; the US has yet to adopt the tech.
The firm has received $108.5 million in four funding rounds, and launched in the Netherlands late last year.
14. Eris Industries: All about data
There are now a bundle of startups eager to try and capitalise on the cryptocurrency market. Eris is one of a number of companies, like Blockstream in the US, which aren't so interested in the cryptocurrencies as the ledger their transactions are recorded on: Blockchains. As Chief Operating Officer Preston Byrne puts it, "Blockchain 2.0 has nothing to do with money and everything to do with data".
Eris plans to market that Blockchain technology for businesses with a "Distributed Application Software Stack". The key point is that this could be a huge cost-saver in terms of corporate infrastructure. For a more in-depth look, check this from the company itself.
They received an undisclosed amount of seed funding in October 2014.
13. Derivitec: Back-end derivatives software for the little guy
Based in Canary Wharf, Derivitec is another startup that doesn't have to worry about reaching a mass market: It's only aiming to reach people who work with derivatives.
The firm was set up in 2011 and provides cloud-based systems that help financial firms to manage their portfolio risk. It's set up by a team of quantitative and IT experts, several of whom have experience on derivatives desks at major banks. Here are the things they prioritise, in their own words
1.) Nothing to download.
2.) Agile updates. No need to wait months for your vendor to add new functionality.
3.) A host of machines at your disposal. A small fund now has ready access to the compute power of a tier one bank.
4.) How much you use just depends on what you need to run. You get billed for only as much compute as you need.
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