‘It’s risky to be in the UK’ – Cleo founder on unicorn status and City regulation September 30, 2025 Nine years ago entrepreneur Matt Clifford took a data scientist to a “terrible pub” to convince him to drop his PhD and create his own start-up. “You may as well just take the risk, the biggest risk is not taking the risk,” Clifford told a young Barney Hussey-Yeo. Almost a decade later in 2025, Hussey-Yeo [...]
Checkout.com valuation slides to $12bn as it unveils employee share buyback September 26, 2025 Checkout.com said its valuation has hit $12bn (£9bn) as the London fintech reported a surge in growth and unveiled an employee share buyback. The valuation is a boost on the reported $9.4bn it had been valued at in 2023 but remains well down on the $40bn figure it attracted in a funding round in 2022. [...]
Merge London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq to save City market, says fintech boss September 26, 2025 The boss of a UK-born fintech unicorn has called for the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to merge with New York’s Nasdaq in a bid to save the City market’s future prospects. “It’s completely broken,” Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder of AI fintech Cleo, told City AM when asked about the recent string of delistings. Hussey-Yeo, a data [...]
UK fintechs send rallying cry as industry slips in global ranking September 25, 2025 UK fintech leaders have sent a rallying call to policymakers after the sector slipped in global rankings. A host of industry bigwigs have told City AM the government must be bolder in growth-orientated reforms to bolster the sector’s standing against rivals. It comes after Z/Yen’s 38th Global Financial Centres Index showed the UK’s fintech sector [...]
London hot on New York’s heels as financial centre race ramps up September 25, 2025 London is now within a whisker of ousting New York as the world’s leading financial hub, fresh rankings reveal, but risks remain over the capital’s fintech prospects. The City was chomping at the heels of the Big Apple with just a singular rating point between the two. New York once more topped the rankings in [...]
Stalling Starling revs up Engine in rebrand September 24, 2025 Veteran of the UK fintech industry Starling has overhauled its brand with a fresh colour palette, a new slogan and even a new name. The digital lender announced last week it would drop the word “Bank” from its banking arm’s name in a move analysts have described as a “significant” step in its evolution. The [...]
Revolut pumps £3bn into the UK financial services sector September 23, 2025 London-born fintech juggernaut Revolut has capped off a hefty week of investment for the UK financial services sector as the firm officially launched its global headquarters. The digital bank said it would pump £3bn into the UK and create 1,000 highly-skilled jobs over the next five years. The fresh injection of capital follows asset manager [...]
Floating in London would be my ‘signature achievement’, ClearScore CEO September 23, 2025 Floating credit score giant ClearScore on the London Stock Exchange would be “my signature achievement”, the company’s co-founder and chief executive has said. Speaking on an up-coming episode of City AM‘s Boardroom Uncovered show, Justin Basini opened up about the plans being drawn up to take ClearScore public in the next couple of years. He [...]
Zilo lands £20m funding round as it eyes global expansion September 23, 2025 Zilo has secured £20m in fresh funding as the London fintech gears up for the next phase in its expansion, City AM can reveal. The Canary Wharf-based business, founded in 2020, said its Series A extension round was led by Toronto-based investor Portage Ventures alongside US bank State Street and existing shareholders and management. Zilo [...]
Exclusive: FCA licence approvals slump September 15, 2025 As few as six e-money licence applications have been granted by the UK’s financial regulator over the past 9 months, City AM can reveal, underscoring the scale of the regulatory obstacles faced by Britain’s fintech startups. Data obtained by City AM via Freedom of Information request showed that not a single authorised electronic money institution (AEMI) licence [...]