Celebrating Diversity in FinTech

Spotlight on Innovate Finance Members
Closing the Diversity Gap in FinTech
CELEBRATING
DIVERSITY IN
FINTECH

www.hoganlovells.comwww.freuds.com
Strategic Partners Media Partner
Sponsors
Event Partner
www.deloitte.com www.businessinsider.com

3Celebrating Diversity in FinTech
ABOUT INNOVATE FINANCE
CONTENTS
WELCOME 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
-
4

4 Celebrating Diversity in FinTech
WELCOME
MESSAGE
FROM CEO
Diversity 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 team
structure, 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 the
way 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 strategic
partnerships 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 Wintermeyer
CEO
Innovate Finance

DIVERSITY AT
INNOVATE FINANCE
Gender Balance
41% Male 59% Female
5WORKING
PARENTS
Inclusive Workforce
Flexible Working
22 FULL TIME
3 PART TIME
22 OPTIONAL
FLEX WORKING
3 DEDICATED
FLEX WORKING
6HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS
HEAD OF COMMUNITY
HEAD OF PARTNER RELATIONS
HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL DEV
HEAD OF PROGRAMMES
HEAD OF EVENTS
WOMEN IN KEY
LEADERSHIP
POSITIONS
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 Kent
Partner, Head of Financial Institutions Group
Hogan 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
A
MESSAGE
FROM
RBS

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 Inclusion
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)
References
1. Source:
McKinsey : Is there a pay off from top team
diversity
Center for Talent Innovation, The Business Case
for Diversity
Deloitte 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 creating
diverse 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.

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 and
thinking 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 on
ensuring 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.
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

“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...

DIVERSITY AT
NEYBER
Gender 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.
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.”

“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 Ahmed
Founder and CEO
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
WORLDREMIT
Gender Balance
54% Male 46% Female
Whats diversity like at WorldRemit?

Equality Senior Representation
SENIOR
POSITIONS
4
WOMEN IN
COO CTO CPO
AND 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.
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.
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.

“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 Mouilleron
Founder and CEO
Why is diversity important to Bankable?

DIVERSITY AT
BANKABLE
Gender Balance
82% Male 18% Female
Diverse Roles
SOFTWARE ARCHITECT
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
LEGAL AND HR MANAGER
WOMEN ARE IN POWERROLES

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
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.
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

“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?

DIVERSITY AT
SCALABLE CAPITAL
Gender Balance
74% Male 26% Female
Management Level Representation
2WOMEN
GL BALMANAGEMENT
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.
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.
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.

“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 Kogut
Channel 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 Krndija
Social Media Executive
Whats it like working at Azimo?

DIVERSITY AT
AZIMO
Gender Balance
62% Male 38% Female
Multi-National Workforce
77%
OF THE LONDON
OFFICE
NON-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.
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.
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.

“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 Shanmugarajah
CEO and Co-Founder
DIVERSITY AT
WEALTHKERNEL
Gender Balance
67% Male 33% Female
ALL THE
ARE FROM THE
NORTH
BRITS
60%OF EMPLOYEES
ARE NON
BRITISH
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).
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.
.
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

“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 Wong
Head 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 Ganesan
VP Strategy
Whats it like working at Opportunity Network?

DIVERSITY AT
OPPORTUNITY NETWORK
Gender 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.
At Homestrings, we have a range ethnic backgrounds
and therefore a range of experience and
perspectives. 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.
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.

DIVERSITY AT
HOMESTRINGS
Gender Balance
63% Male 37% Female
WOMEN IN
POSITIONS
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
SENIOR3
HEAD 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
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.

“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 Goodall
CEO and Co-Founder
DIVERSITY AT
LANDBAY
Gender Balance
78% Male 22% Female
4 WOMEN
IN
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 FINTECH
WOMEN
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
connect@innovatefinance.com +44 (0) 20 3668 3691
THE FUTURE OF FINANCE

Celebrating Diversity in FinTech

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Celebrating Diversity in FinTech

Similar to Celebrating Diversity in FinTech (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Celebrating Diversity in FinTech