Annual Review 2024 and Plans for 2025
2024 was a year of contrasts – for many businesses and the economy as a whole, it was a challenging period, with uncertainty and turbulence defining much of the landscape. Yet, it was also a year that underscored the resilience, creativity, and determination of the FinTech sector, particularly in the North. Against this backdrop, FinTech North reached new heights, fuelled by the collaborative spirit of our fantastic community, the steadfast support of our partners, and the brilliance of the innovation happening in our region.
This success is part of broader positive trends within the UK FinTech sector. According to the FinTech Impact Report 2024, published by Innovate Finance, the UK’s industry body representing the FinTech sector, in collaboration with Accenture and Vested Impact, the sector has a net positive societal impact score of +24, underscoring its role as a force for good.
The report evaluates 3,560 UK FinTechs across five categories—Productivity, Place, People, Planet, and Peace—aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The findings revealed that 90% of UK FinTechs contribute positively across these key areas, including 39% of FinTechs improving social and economic inclusion, financial literacy, and access to safer financial services, helping underserved communities.
While investment in the sector declined by 37% in the first half of 2024, the report highlights the vital role FinTechs play in driving economic growth, innovation, and financial inclusion, strengthening communities and the nation’s digital infrastructure.
With a newly expanded team, FinTech North set ambitious goals aligned with our strategy to enhance international engagement, focus on FinTech skills development, and deliver more events than ever before. Reflecting on 2024, we’re immensely proud of what we achieved together, despite the headwinds.
This review celebrates the past year while offering a preview of our plans for 2025, as we look to build on our successes and navigate an ever-changing landscape.
We want to take a moment to thank our incredible community for their unwavering engagement and support throughout 2024. Networking consistently stands out as the most valued aspect of our events, and it’s your participation, energy, and collaboration that make them so special. From thought-provoking discussions to meaningful connections, it’s the people who come together at FinTech North that truly define our success. Your contributions inspire us to keep raising the bar each year, and we couldn’t do it without you.
We’d like to also take a moment to share a massive thank you to our partners for their ongoing support of our organisation and community. During what has been a difficult year for many businesses, our partners have played an instrumental role in the work we do supporting the sector in the north, and all we’ve achieved this year wouldn’t be possible without them.
We’re now in the planning phase of another jam-packed year of fantastic events and continuing our initiatives supporting international trade and enhancing the supply of skills into the sector. We are already speaking with many of our partners about getting involved with our initiatives, sharing content with our community and shaping our events, and we look forward to working together again next year.
Without further ado, here’s what we accomplished in 2024.
Events
With three full-time employees at the start of the year, supported by our wider team of trusted experts and creative resources, we expanded our capacity and set ourselves an ambitious target of delivering 30 events, which we are proud to share that we reached. These included our regular programme of monthly seminars, webinars, and socials, alongside flagship conferences and pre-conference gatherings. In addition to these staples, we introduced several new and notable events:
In Q1, we returned to Liverpool after five years to host our second-ever conference in the region. This became the largest FinTech event hosted in Liverpool , showcasing the growing ecosystem. In Q2, we ventured into East Yorkshire for our first-ever conference in Hull, celebrating the emerging FinTech ecosystem in the region and marking our second event in East Yorkshire overall. A significant highlight of the year was the Northern Summit, hosted at York’s Guildhall. This two-day conference gathered a national audience to explore four themes central to the North’s FinTech ecosystem: Market, People, Money, and Tech & Product. Attendees enjoyed vibrant networking opportunities, including an evening social event at Lendal Cellars, a historic York venue. With a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 95 and an average rating of 9.2/10, the Northern Summit was not only a team favourite but also the highest-rated event of the year, ensuring its place as a regular feature in our calendar.
Statistics
2024 was a record-breaking year for FinTech North. We delivered a 25% increase in events, including full-day conferences in Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, York, and Manchester. Conference registrations were up by 62% year-on-year, and attendance increased by 38%. Across all our events, we achieved a brilliant average NPS of 54 and an average event rating of 8.2/10. Networking remained the most valuable aspect of our conferences according to our audience, followed closely by the opportunity to deepen knowledge and understanding of the FinTech sector.
Diversity and Inclusion
Across all our events this year, 65% of our speakers were male, 35% female, and 20% identified as diverse. While these figures highlight some progress, they also underscore the need for continued improvement. Ensuring greater gender and ethnic diversity among speakers and attendees remains a priority, as inclusivity is one of our organisation’s core values and has strong personal value to all of our team.
Tracking metrics like these helps us identify trends, measure our impact, and focus our efforts on driving meaningful change. We recognise that these numbers are not where they need to be, and we remain committed to doing better.
To support this goal, we partnered with organisations like Project Nemo and Purple Tuesday to improve visibility around accessibility and representation in the sector. Next year, we aim to build on this foundation by launching new initiatives and events focused on creating an even more inclusive environment for all stakeholders in the ecosystem.
Strategic Pillars
In 2024, we expanded our strategic focus to include two new pillars: FinTech skills and international trade. On the skills front, we engaged key stakeholders across businesses, academic institutions, and industry bodies to make skills development a central theme of our flagship events. Dedicated skills-focused events addressed the industry’s most pressing needs, and we brought a new colleague, Silas Ozoya, on board as our Talent Upskill Associate to work on initiatives such as developing a FinTech upskilling course. We also convened a Skills Steering Group comprising industry experts to drive progress and provide updates on our initiatives. Additionally, we are working on supporting the formation of a Trailblazer Group to explore innovative solutions for industry-wide skills challenges.
On the international trade front, we facilitated a Northern delegation’s participation at Money20/20, Europe’s largest FinTech trade show, which saw 10 companies and 19 participants join our mission, as part of a Department for Business and Trade UK Pavilion. We also attended international events like Pay360 and the Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS) with the North’s inward investment agencies to build connections, share insights and highlight the breadth of activity in the North. Our international strategy focused on connecting Northern FinTech businesses with global opportunities and fostering outbound and inbound trade relationships.
Looking Ahead to 2025 – Enhanced networking and higher engagement at our events
After a successful year characterised by growth, and impact, we are excited to enhance our offerings in 2025. Feedback from our audience has been invaluable in shaping our plans, and we’re committed to delivering even greater value to our community.
Next year, we will refresh our conference structure with shorter days to optimise engagement, thematic segmentation to allow for deeper exploration of key topics, and a new ticketing structure offering more choice for delegates including season tickets for our most loyal attendees.
To expand on our thinking for our new ticketing structure in 2025, we are introducing a new ticketing structure designed to provide increased choice and flexibility for our attendees. We recognise that our flagship conferences, while packed with valuable content, can be a long day, and not everyone is able to commit to attending the full day. Some attendees may only have limited time available or wish to participate in sessions most relevant to their interests and needs. Inspired by the success of our Northern Summit ticketing model, which allowed participants to attend individual days based on their preferred themes at a reduced rate, we aim to offer a similar approach to our flagship events. Although these conferences will remain one day in length, we will now provide the option to attend half-day sessions, each organised around distinct themes. This thematic focus ensures that attendees can tailor their experience to what matters most to them while enjoying greater flexibility and accessibility.
We are also extending networking opportunities by introducing more social events, including evening gatherings after conferences, similarly to our Northern Summit, and an annual sponsor dinner to foster connections among industry leaders and celebrate the importance of their support in impacting the Northern FinTech ecosystem and beyond.
In 2025, we will introduce an even more diverse range of content formats, introducing short form content, podcasts, and masterclasses, offering skills development opportunities open to all, that will aim to impact individual and business growth.
Finally, we’re excited for Whitecap Consulting’s pan-Northern ecosystem report, which is poised to shape the strategies of many Northern fintechs and play a prominent role in our upcoming events.
Reflecting community feedback, we’re looking forward to delivering a lower number of high-impact, higher quality events. An increased focus on webinars and socials, some of our most popular events, will maintain community engagement between flagship events.
Our community’s ongoing feedback is of great importance to us, and our Community Survey 2024 will be live in January, providing an opportunity for our community to shape our activities for the next 12 months.
As we reflect on a remarkable year, we extend our heartfelt thanks to our partners, speakers, and the wider community. Your support and participation are what make FinTech North events truly special and what makes what we do possible Here’s to another stellar year in 2025, filled with innovation, collaboration, and growth. We can’t wait to see what we achieve together.
