The Future of Fintech

The Times Scotland together with Royal Bank of Scotland, FWB Park Brown and Dell Technologies have partnered to launch a competition to identify and support the next generation of financial technology pioneers in Scotland.

With a prize fund of £125,000, it aims to encourage and reward world-class ideas in financial technology innovation. All six finalists will feature in The Times Scotland article and will have a place on the Accelerator programme.

Entries will be judged by a panel of experts chaired by Louise Smith, Head of Digitisation, Personal and Business Banking at the Royal Bank of Scotland with representatives from The Times Scotland, FWB Park Brown, Dell and Fintech Scotland. After selecting three finalists from each category and doing due diligence on each, a final line-up will be announced.

Finalists will be asked to attend a dragons’ den-style pitching event at the Royal Bank’s headquarters at Gogarburn, Midlothian on Monday, October 29th. To be eligible to enter, candidates must commit to being available to attend the pitching event which starts at 5pm.

Finalists will deliver a live, three-minute pitch of their idea or business to a panel of judges chaired by Louise Smith, Head of Digitisation at Royal Bank and including Gordon Merrylees, Head of Entrepreneurship at the Royal Bank, Greig Cameron, Business Editor at The Times Scotland, Adam Brown of FWB Park Brown, Steven Ingledew of Fintech Scotland, Craig Reid of Dell Technologies and Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE, the Olympic gold medal winning former captain of the Great Britain women’s hockey team.

Judges will make their decision on the night and the winners will be announced.

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The Pitch Process

To apply, complete the short application form and submit your three-minute video pitch.

Your 3 minute pitch should include: What you do, how you do it, who your customers are, what traction or validation you have so far, why your team can deliver this and what makes you different from the competition.

Please keep to 3 minutes or less – we will stop watching after 180 seconds!

Businesses must be available to pitch on the evening of 29th October in Gogarburn.
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Entries Open

September 20

Entries Close

October 14

Winner Announced

October 29

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Blue Sky Fintech Idea Award

For early-stage fintech businesses or individuals with new ideas. Open to pre-revenue companies trading for less than a year. Entries will be judged on originality and innovation and on their potential market impact.

Winner

£10 000

Runner Up

£5 000

PowerUp Fintech Award

For fintech companies trading for less than three years. For companies at minimum viable product (MVP) stage onwards. Judging will be based on originality and innovation as well as on validation and traction.

Winner

£80 000

Runner Up

£20 000

Third

£10 000

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