The 40 coolest people in UK fintech

What company does: Bitcoin and blockchain analysis tools for financial services and law enforcement.

Headcount: 9.

Funding: $7 million (£4.8 million).

Why they’re cool: Elliptic started out trying to get financial services interested in bitcoin by offering analysis and custodian services but has since morphed into offering tools to law enforcement to help them catch criminals that are using bitcoin — but it still has finance customers.

Beardsley is helping to drive the startup's expansion and the company recently bagged $5 million (£3.4 million) from investors including Santander InnoVentures to drive growth. In a past life, Beardsley co-founded Beija, a super-premium brand of Brazilian spirit cachaça.

What company does: Mobile-only bank account designed for migrants.

Headcount: 22.

Funding: $5 million (£3.4 million).

Why they’re cool: Former ad man Agley left clients like BMW, Coca Cola, and Natwest to join mobile banking startup Monese after being wowed by founder and CEO Norris Koppel's vision.

As VP of Growth, Mulenga is charged with getting people interested in the app, which lets migrants easily open bank accounts in the country they're going to via their mobile. He's having great success, with a waiting list of 50,000 and 35,000 downloads of Monese so far.

What company does: Pre-paid money card for kids.

Headcount: 22.

Funding: $11.2 million (£7.7 million.)

Why they’re cool: Varma was given responsibility for managing hundreds of pounds at a young age by his accountant parents, charged with buying his own school clothes and drawing up budgets. That experience inspired him to set up Osper, a per-paid money card for kids that lets parents monitor their children's spending and set up regular pocket money payments, among other features.

Varma trained as a maths teacher but worked at with Kenyan mobile money company M-Pesa and Spotify before setting up Osper.

What company does: Consultancy.

Headcount: N/A.

Funding: N/A.

Why they’re cool: Gillian keeps fintech startups from breaking the law — no mean feat. She works with the UK Crowdfunding Association, UK Business Angels Association, and provides much-needed data on applications from startups to get regulated.

Her new venture, Umbrellahunter.com, matches start-ups with companies that are already FCA regulated and can extend their licence to cover the startup. These agreements, called appointed representative arrangements, mean that in a matter of weeks the start-up can be doing business that usually requires FCA authorisation. Gillian fell in love with photography when traveling around India and dabbles in wedding photography every now and again.

What company does: Online wealth manager.

Headcount: 80.

Funding: $46.6 million (£32 million.)

Why they’re cool: Stanford and Exeter grad Hungerford worked at Barclays and stockbroker Brewin Dolphin before setting up Nutmeg, an online wealth management platform. Hungerford's vision was to make investment advice that's usually reserved for the rich affordable to all, reducing overheads thanks to technology. Nutmeg lets people invest with professional guidance from as little as £1,000.

Hungerford is an avid bath Rugby fan and is currently spending most of his free time prepping for his wedding.

A lot to lose? Global financial services executives said that on average, they were at risk of losing 23% of their business to fintech firms in the next five years, according to recent study from PwC. That's pretty disruptive.

Learn how decision-makers are dealing with disruption.

What company does: Personal finance app that links to all your accounts and helps you save.

Headcount: 6.

Funding: $710,000 (£487,500.)

Why they’re cool: Childs was the most nominated person when BI opened up for suggestions for this list, so clearly she makes an impression. At Pariti, she says her jobs is to "gather how we can make more meaning from people's transactions to help them save. For example, we need to know if people are transferring across accounts, as this can be confused with spending. Or what counts as an income and what counts as a bill?"

Pariti is the brainchild of Matthew Ford, who was head of acquisitions at OnTrees, the personal finance app launched by DMGT Media and sold to MoneySupermarket.com in 2014. Pariti links to all your bank accounts to give your a holistic view of what's going on and helps you set saving and spending targets.

What company does: Online money management.

Headcount: 45.

Funding: $16.7 million (£11.5 million.)

Why they’re cool: Italian Paolo Galvani began his career at investment banks, working for big-name firms like Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank between 1998 and 2008. Today Galvani runs a wealth management startup called MoneyFarm, whose ‘robo-advisor’ app offers investment guidance to people with limited savings.

MoneyFarm raised €16 million (£11.5 million) in Series B funding for its platform last year and now employs 45 people in total, with 20 in London and 25 in Milan.

What company does: Information platform for bond traders to hook them up to the best leads.

Headcount: 140.

Funding: N/A.

Why they’re cool: Former UBS banker Khan built the initial technology behind Algomi, which is being used by 15 top banks and over 170 buy-side clients. Khan is a fintech geek through and through, so much so that he built a mock-up blockchain at home using rented AWS servers just to see how the thing works.

What company does: Offers a number of bitcoin services — including a wallet for holding bitcoin and a tool for exploring transaction on the blockchain, the public ledger of all bitcoin transactions.

Headcount: 48.

Funding: $30 million (£20.6 million.)

Why they’re cool: Blockchain has had a busy year, launching in dozens of new markets and opening multiple new offices. In July 2015, Peter Smith was chosen to accompany British Prime Minister David Cameron on a trade mission to South-East Asia with a host of more conventional companies.

It was also named the best cryptocurrency startup at the annual Europas Awards, and London scale-up of the year by TechCityInsider.

What company does: Rise is Barclays’ global innovation programme which operates in London, Manchester, and New York.

Headcount: N/A.

Funding: N/A.

Why they’re cool: Krön connects startups to growth opportunities through Barclays Rise, the bank’s accelerator programme and co-working space. She previously worked with Capital List, a free service which matches up startups and investors in London.

She is also co-founder of Geek Girl Meetup – a network for and by women and girls interested in tech, design, and startups.

What company does: Canary Wharf office space and accelerator for fintech.

Headcount: 207 members.

Funding: N/A.

Why they’re cool: Ben Brabyn is a former marine and JP Morgan analyst. In February, he was appointed to lead the Canary Wharf Group’s fintech accelerator Level39, which is home to 207 members. Brabyn says he wants to help Level39’s members “bloom into a thousand flowers.”

What company does: Peer-to-peer lending.

Headcount: 180.

Funding: $80 million (£55 million.)

Why they’re cool: Andrews enjoys the accolade of being one of the creators of the whole idea of peer-to-peer lending — Zopa was the first company to pioneer it when Andrews helped cofound it in 2005.

Zopa has now lent over £1.4 billion, £600 million of that in the last year alone. He ran the company for 8 years, stepping back into an Executive Chairman role last August. He's now something of a fintech ambassador, popping up at conferences and events to bang the drum for peer-to-peer.

Andrews moved to East London way before it was fashionable and lives there with his wife and 2 children.

What company does: Venture capital.

Headcount: 186.

Funding: $19.56 billion (£13.59 billion).

Why they’re cool: Belgian Fred Destin is a general partner for top-tier venture capital investment firm Accel Partners, which raised another $500 million (£347 million) to invest in startups in April.

Although Destin is primarily interested in consumer businesses, the former Goldman Sachs banker also invests in fintech and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. Fintech companies that have been backed by Destin include The Currency Cloud and CapitalIQ.

What company does: Crowdfunding.

Headcount: 80+.

Funding: $18.9 million (£13 million.)

Why they’re cool: Lang is the best-known face in crowdfunding, as the chief marketing officer of the UK's biggest crowdfunding site CrowdCube. The platform has raised over £150 million for companies over its platform since launch in 2011 and recently partnered with traditional City stockbroker Numis to bring the concept to old school finance. Lang is a keen triathlete and doing his first Ironman race this June in Switzerland.

What company does: Investment house.

Headcount: 35.

Funding: $20 billion (£14 billion) assets under management.

Why they’re cool: Woodford is one of the few people bridging the gap between the old school City of London and fintech, and definitely the most high profile. Since leaving Invesco in 2014, star fund manager Woodford has been a big supporter of fintech.

His new fund has taken positions in P2P Global Investments, which invests in peer-to-peer lending platforms, and VPC Specialty Lending, which does something similar. Woodford has also invested in challenger bank Atom, lending platform RateSetter, and crowdfunding platform Seedrs.

What company does: App linked to a MasterCard that lets you use all your various cards in that one card.

Headcount: 17.

Funding: $5.5 million (£3.8 million.)

Why they’re cool: Israeli serial entrepreneur Bialick is behind Curve, a MasterCard linked to an app that lets you use the one card for all your different bits of plastic — American Express, Visa, MasterCard, loyalty card, you name it.

The startup recently came out of stealth mode and has a list of seed investors that reads like a who's who of fintech: TransferWise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus, Ed Wray from Betfair, Tandem Bank cofounder Ricky Knox, Azimo cofounder Michael Kent, Investec Group, Seedcamp, the Google Wallet founders, and the founders of Money2020.

What company does: UK Financial Regulator.

Headcount: N/A.

Funding: N/A.

Why they’re cool: The FCA is repeatedly cited by entrepreneurs as Britain's secret weapon in the global fintech race, thanks to its understanding approach to the emerging industry. The Innovation Hub helps fintechs in the UK get regulated, even if they are doing something no-one else has done before.

Wallace, who heads the new department, previously worked for the Scottish government and the European Commission. As a policymaker, Anna led the FCA’s intervention in the payday lending market and Scottish legislation that saw the end to tobacco displays in shops.

What company does: Venture capital investor.

Headcount: 20.

Funding: $1.24 billion (£850 million).

Why they’re cool: Czech Republic-born Hammer has been a partner at Index since 2010, before fintech was even a thing. He’s spearheaded Index’s strategy on fintech, investing in the likes of Dutch payment unicorn Adyen, financial data company Credit Benchmark, international money transfer service TransferWise, and free stock trading app RobinHood.

Any free time is spent with his three daughters who are trying to get him into Peppa Pig. Not to be confused with the 1980s synth legend of the same name.

And it's global. $20 billion (£14 billion) was invested in fintech globally in 2015, according to KPMG. The UK and Europe are at the crux of fintech disruption, with venture investment pouring into an increasingly innovation-permissive regulatory environment.

Learn how fintech is shaking up financial services.

What company does: Fintech-focused venture capital fund.

Headcount: 6.

Funding: N/A.

Why they’re cool: Cobley left the top job at Google in the UK and Ireland to venture into fintech and is helping to incubate and fund new startups at Brightbridge, the fintech VC arm of internet business incubator Blenheim Chalcot.

He’s so far helped found free credit scoring platform ClearScore, online business finance site Business Finance Compared, and employee loan service SalaryFinance. When he’s not advising startups, Cobley can be found battling the London traffic on his Brompton.

What company does: International money remittance over smartphones.

Headcount: 230.

Funding: $200 million (£137.5 million.)

Why they’re cool: WorldRemit helps migrants easily send money back to family overseas via their smartphone. It was valued at $500 million (£345 million) in a $100 million (£69 million) funding round last year, led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), which has also backed the likes of Facebook, Spotify, and Netflix. In February it landed a $45 million credit line.

Prior to setting up WorldRemit, Somali-born Ahmed was an anti-money laundering advisor to the UN before turning whistleblower after discovering corruption in Nairobi.

What company does: App-only challenger bank.

Headcount: 88.

Funding: Not public.

Why they’re cool: Knox is one of the few serial fintech entrepreneurs in London. Prior to setting up app-only challenger bank Tandem he co-founded online money remittance platform Azimo with business partner Michael Kent and was also a co-founder of money transfer business SmallWorldFS in the mid-2000s.

Tandem is currently giving away single shares in its new bank to create a community of "co-founders" who will help shape what it looks like and is about to launch a crowdfunding campaign, letting co-founders put more money in. The app-only bank has so far raised "tens of millions," according to Knox, from backers including eBay cofounder Pierre Omidyar.

What company does: Makes it easy for small businesses to accept direct debit.

Headcount: 69.

Funding: $24.8 million (£17.4 million).

Why they’re cool: Takeuchi is the CEO of GoCardless, the London fintech startup that uses smart technology to make it much easier for businesses to accept and process direct debits. It works with major companies such as TripAdvisor, The Guardian, The Financial Times, and Box. The startup raised $13 million in March.

Takeuchi graduated Oxford, started his company, and then joined the Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator.

What company does: Crowdfunding investment platform.

Headcount: N/A.

Funding: N/A.

Why they’re cool: Tennis star Andy Murray was announced as a long term partner of crowdfunding platform Seedrs last June. Murray is now investing his hard-earned tennis winnings into UK startups through the platform and validating the crowdfunding investment model in the process.

In February, the world number two backed Oppo Ice Cream, Commuter Club, Landbay, We Are Colony, and Readbug.

What company does: Santander’s fintech-focused venture capital fund.

Headcount: 9.

Funding: $100 million (£68.7 million.)

Why they’re cool: Belinky is the face of Santander’s fintech efforts and arguably the most well-known banking representative on the London fintech scene.

As Managing Partner of InnoVentures he has overseen investment in iZettle, Ripple, Kabbage, Digital Asset Holdings, and Elliptic. His collection of graphic and slogan t-shirts are always fun to spot and conferences and events.

What company does: Payment management company.

Headcount: 300.

Funding: N/A.

Why they’re cool: 21-year-old Mustafa Al-Bassam made headlines for all the wrong reasons three years ago when he was named as one of the individuals involved in the notorious hacking group LulzSec, which attacks everything from Fox to the NHS. Al-Bassam was handed a 20-month suspended sentence by the UK courts.

He’s now studying computer science at King’s College in London (after a two-year internet ban), and is rising in prominence in the UK tech scene. Last year, Forbes named him one of its “30 Under 30” to watch in European tech and in between studies he works part time for fintech payments firm Secure Trading, advising the company on security, and working on blockchain research project “Trustery.”

What company does: Digital-only bank.

Headcount: 25.

Funding: $11.6 million (£8 million.)

Why they’re cool: Leah has been with Mondo since day one and was at another neobank, Starling, along with Mondo CEO Tom Blomfield before that. She currently runs the prepaid card operations, which is all of Mondo’s business until it receives its full banking licence. Mondo recently raised £1 million ($1.4 million) from the public in 96 seconds via CrowdCube.

What company does: Peer-to-peer invoice financing.

Headcount: 90.

Funding: $20 million (£13.75 million.)

Why they’re cool: Kondrashov is the less well-known of the two founders of MarketInvoice but internally the former Goldman Sachs analyst and Cambridge graduate is renown for his hip hop karaoke at office parties.

MarketInvoice last August raised £6 million from Nordic venture capital firm Northzone, which also backed Spotify, and the family office of Paul Forster, the co-founder of job search engine Indeed.com.

What company does: Peer-to-peer lending for small and medium sized house builders.

Headcount: 5.

Funding: $1.4 million (£1 million.)

Why they’re cool: Arya wants to do property lending with a difference, making sure that the type of properties being built are right for the local community i.e. affordable. Taware came up with the idea while an intern — she’s still only in her early 20s — and had to persevere to get the male dominated investment and construction industries to take her seriously. She grew up in India and has previously worked for Local Authorities.

What company does: Peer-to-peer mortgage platform.

Headcount: 90.

Funding: $55 million (£37.8 million.)

Why they’re cool: Straight-talking Australian Faes is a leading light in the so-called "PropTech" sector — property technology. His platform focuses on the financing aspect of property, letting investors lend money to developers in the form of a short-term mortgage for returns of over 5% a year.

The company raised £17 million in March from venture capital firm Atomico, which was set up by Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom.

What company does: Online small business financing for SMEs who deal overseas.

Headcount: 339.

Funding: $119 million (£81.8 million.)

Why they’re cool: Lobato helped overhaul the telecoms world in the late 1990s as head of corporate development at Telefonica. Now he’s riding a similar tech-driven wave in the finance world, raising $83 million (£57 million) in November to fuel the growth of his online small business finance company Ebury.

Spanish-born Lobato met cofounder Salvador Garcia while working as a university lecturer in Madrid 15 years ago — Garcia was his student. Lobato is also an investor and board member of predictive lead generation platform Growth Intelligence and team analytics company Saberr.

What company does: A pre-paid card and app that lets you send and spend money abroad at the interbank rate with no commission.

Headcount: 35

Funding: $7 million (£4.8 million.)

Why they’re cool: Russian-born Storosky started out as a derivatives trader at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse and hit upon the idea for Revolut as he ran up FX fees while travelling around the world.

Only launched last July, the card linked to an app already has 160,000 users and is signing up 1,500 new customers a day. Revolut is close to sealing a £10 million Series A round. In his spare time Storosky is a keen kite surfer.

What company does: International money transfer via app.

Headcount: 23.

Funding: $33.4 million (£23 million.)

Why they’re cool: Polish ex-pat Marta is one of Azimo’s cofounders and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the firm. In the past two years, the company has seen 100% growth in personnel and raised £21 million ($30.5 million) in funding.

Previously, Marta built Travelnity, a social media website for travellers and expats. She was named by Forbes as one of Europe’s 30 Under 30 in Finance in 2016.

What company does: Crowdfunded property investment — buy a chunk of a rental property for as little as £50.

Headcount: 43.

Funding: $32.7 million (£22.5 million.)

Why they’re cool: Like Christian Faes, fast-talking Gandesha is another leading figure in the PropTech scene.

His 2-year-old startup, that lets people invest in rental properties for small sums, recently landed £13 million from Octopus Ventures, Index Ventures, and Dawn Capital, and has seen almost £30 million invested over its platform. Gandesha was previously head of startup investment at Sky.

What company does: Background and identity checking service for fintech firms and on-demand services.

Headcount: 90.

Funding: $30.3 million (£20.9 million).

Why they’re cool: Hussayn Kassai left his analyst job at investment banking firm Merill Lynch to focus on building Onfido, a platform that allows fintech and sharing economy companies to carry out background checks on people to ensure they are who they say there are.

Kassai helped the identity verification platform raise $25 million in April, bringing total funding in the company to over $33 million.

What company does: Blockchain-based platform that lets people store and move money around the world for low fees.

Headcount: 87.

Funding: $22 million (£15.1 million.)

Why they’re cool: Former Nike and Barclays CIO Watson recently became chair of Labour’s Business and Enterprise Council and in February was named the most influential LGBT business leader in the UK by The Daily Telegraph and Out at Work.

Anthony also serves as a member of the National Board of Directors, Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee of GLAAD, a US-based LGBT media advocacy group. In between all of that he runs Uphold, an international money platform that's aiming to make moving and trading money affordable to all.

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What company does: Peer-to-peer lender.

Headcount: 570.

Total funding: $300 million (£206.2 million.)

Why they're cool: Burton is in charge of operations at Funding Circle in the UK, its home market. The peer-to-peer lender has seen over £1 billion lent to small and medium-sized businesses over its platform since launch and was valued at $1 billion (£690 million) last year.

Pam was previously Head of European Marketing Operations at LoveFilm and won the Google Award for Women in Digital in 2015.

What company does: Student finance app.

Headcount: 8.

Total funding: $290,900 (£200,000.)

Why they're cool: Purdue is just 22 and had the idea for Loot, a pre-paid card that helps students manage and track spending, while at University. Despite both his and the business’ young age, the startup is already in talks to partner with RBS and is close to announcing seed funding of £1 million, according to sources close to the company.

What company does: Venture capital/advisor.

Headcount: 9.

Total funding: $130 million (£90 million) under management.

Why they're cool: Burbidge is a venture capitalist who has invested in well-known fintech startups such as GoCardless and Mondo. She's also one of the most well-known faces of the London startup scene — she’s the chair of Tech City UK, the UK Treasury’s special envoy for fintech, and is one of Prime Minister David Cameron’s business advisors.

What company does: Online international money transfer.

Headcount: 500.

Total funding: $91 million (£62.5 million.)

Why they're cool: If rumoured unicorn TransferWise is the poster child of London’s booming fintech scene and then Taavet is the face. Hinrikus is helping expand TransferWise globally: the company recently signed a deal with Estonia’s largest bank and opened up in the $25 billion Mexico-USA remittance corridor. The startup is looking to do more bank tie-ups and a fresh funding round is strongly rumoured.

What company does: Digital-only bank.

Headcount: 14.

Total funding: $11.6 million (£8 million.)

Why they're cool: Blomfield is the CEO of Mondo, the fast-growing London fintech app that’s creating a branchless bank. It ran a campaign on crowdfunding site CrowdCube in February that was so popular that it brought down the site. Despite that, it went on to raise £1 million in just 96 seconds. Before starting Mondo, Blomfield was one of the cofounders of GoCardless, another fintech startup.