FinTech Wales has positioned the area as a rising pressure within the world finance business, marking its maturing ecosystem with a landmark £1.5 billion funding spherical secured by Propel Finance. The Fintech in Wales Annual Report 2024/25 particulars an economic system more and more powered by digital innovation, drawing consideration to specialised clusters in Synthetic Intelligence (AI), inexperienced finance, and regulation expertise (regtech).
Whereas the general funding move into Welsh fintechs totalled over £20 million by late 2025, sustaining constant progress from £13 million in 2022, the Propel Finance deal represents a transformative scale of funding coming into the market. The asset finance lender closed its large spherical in July 2025 to help Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) throughout the UK, reflecting main investor confidence in Welsh monetary companies. FinTech Wales CEO Sarah Jones affirmed that the mission is to show this momentum into world impression, inviting worldwide buyers and innovators to see the area’s mixing of creativity, collaboration, and objective.
The ecosystem has additionally demonstrated its functionality as a launchpad for world companies. Corporations like Cardiff-founded Finalrentals now function their automotive rental market in over 60 international locations throughout 5 continents, aiming for 100 by the top of 2025. Equally, cycle insurer Bikmo secured £4.75 million to speed up its enlargement throughout Europe. Ammar Akhtar, Founding father of Finalrentals, mentioned their enlargement is constructed on partnerships, including, “It proves that innovation born in Wales can attain the world”.
Sector Strengths and Innovation
The report highlights a number of areas the place Welsh fintechs are attaining business firsts:
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Funds: Burbank raised $textual content{£}5 textual content{ million}$ to launch the world’s first Card Current over Web (CPol) platform, enabling safe ‘faucet & PIN’ type transactions on-line and mitigating fraud usually related to Card-Not-Current (CNP) transactions. Founder and CEO Justin Pike defined the aim is to make the fee expertise the identical for everybody, no matter channel.
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RegTech and Compliance: Credas debuted the UK’s first reusable Compliance Pockets, permitting people to finish and share a verified compliance profile, together with Anti-Cash Laundering (AML) checks and identification verification, throughout completely different regulated service suppliers.
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AI: Welsh-founded Starling Financial institution rolled out the UK-first Spending Intelligence software, utilizing AI to permit clients to work together with their transaction knowledge by way of pure language, reminiscent of asking, “How a lot did I spend on groceries final week?”. This AI adoption can also be serving to companies increase roles, automate repetitive processes, and improve fraud detection, fostering the creation of latest specialist roles in knowledge science and machine studying.
Expertise Pipeline and Collaborative Assist
Recognising the necessity for a talented workforce, the ecosystem is closely targeted on expertise growth. The report notes round 13,000 individuals are employed in fintech domestically, with key hubs in Cardiff and Newport. FinTech Wales’s efforts, together with its FinTech Wales Foundry accelerator, which accomplished its fourth season in October 2025, are attracting expertise and companies globally, with six out of 9 startups within the newest cohort coming from outdoors Wales.
Strategic partnerships are additional strengthening the sector. FinTech Wales is collaborating with world gamers reminiscent of Mastercard, Aviva, and Barclays, integrating worldwide experience and networks into the native ecosystem. Fintechs like Sero are partnering with bigger establishments, of their case British Fuel, to handle social and environmental challenges, utilizing their vitality expertise to sort out gasoline poverty and enhance effectivity in 1,500 properties.
Regardless of challenges associated to accessing constant early-stage capital and competitors for digital expertise, Wales stands able to capitalise on a £500 million Native Progress Fund and supportive authorities industrial methods that prioritise digital innovation. Jo Stevens MP, Secretary of State for Wales, commented, “The UK Authorities’s Industrial Technique recognises the essential position that fintech performs in driving job creation and progress”.
The total Fintech in Wales Annual Report 2024/25 could be discovered right here:
