Meet the 35 most exciting young entrepreneurs, engineers, and advisors in UK fintech

Business Insider/Jenny Cheng

LONDON — Fintech is a big business in the UK.

The British Treasury has now held two conferences to promote the country's burgeoning financial technology industry on the world stage and the government estimates that the entire sector is worth £7 billion to the UK economy. That's up from almost nothing a decade ago.

Business Insider has covered UK fintech since our 2014 launch. The UK Fintech 35 under 35 highlights the most promising young entrepreneurs, engineers, marketers, and sector experts under the age of 35. It spans both startups and big banks operating in the sector.

Here's who made the cut:

Name: Pierce Glennie.

Age: 27.

Company: iwoca.

Role: Chief product officer.

iwoca is an online lending platform that gives small businesses quick and affordable access to credit. The company has lent over £400 million since its founding in 2011. Glennie was one of iwoca's first outside hires and just 21 when he joined the business. iwoca CEO Christoph Reiche says Glennie is "the single most valuable hires we've ever made and without him, iwoca wouldn't be what it is today."

Name: James Birch

Age: 28

Company: Hambro Perks

Role: Associate director

Birch is developing an "InsurTech" accelerator called InsurTech Gateway for Hambro Perks, a London-based venture builder company that creates startups. Prior to joining Hambro, Birch cofounded his own InsureTech startup — a chatbot called Meet Mia — and was an analyst at Accenture and EY before that. At Accenture, he was named a global "superstar analyst" two years running and at EY he helped set up the consultancy's fintech practice, which compiled the first-ever audit of British fintech for the UK's Treasury. Outside of work, he is a semi-professional race car driver.

Name: Matthew Ford

Age: 31

Company: Pariti

Role: Cofounder

Despite being just 31, Matthew Ford has already had a hand in two successful fintech exits. After a stint as a strategy consultant, Ford led user acquisition at personal finance management app OnTrees, which was acquired by MoneySuperMarket in 2015. Ford had in fact already left by the time the acquisition closed and was setting up Pariti, another financial management app aimed at helping people save money and pay off debt. Backed by Index Ventures and JamJar Ventures, Pariti was acquired by startup bank Tandem for an undisclosed fee earlier this year.

Name: Phoebe Hugh

Age: 28

Company: Brolly

Role: CEO and cofounder

Hugh got her first job aged 10 (a seven-day a week paper round) and in her teenage years did everything from waitressing on rollerskates to running poker games. After university, she joined Aviva but became frustrated with the slow pace of the large insurer. Hugh enrolled in startup programme Entrepreneur First and went on to cofound Brolly, an AI-powered insurance aggregation tool. The startup raised £1 million last year from backers including Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures.

Name: Xen Baynham-Herd

Age: 31

Company: Blockchain

Role: Head of strategy and lead economist

Blockchain is the world's largest provider of cryptocurrency wallets, with 24 million opened around the world. The London-headquartered startup poached Baynham-Herd from UBS last year after he caught their eye authoring research on "A Path to 100% Digital Money" while at the bank. He also spearheaded the Swiss bank's efforts to create its own "utility coin." Baynham-Herd has advised several central banks on digital assets and is helping to position Blockchain as the go-to company for institutions looking to get into crypto or blockchain.

See Also:

• I flew on the cheapest private jet in the world and it's truly a game changer
• We drove a $175,000 Porsche wagon to see if it lives up to the hype — here's the verdict
• Here's our take on TransferWise's borderless account