Mid October meant it was time for our Annual FINTECH Circle “Autumn Drinks” which brought together our community of leading Fintech entrepreneurs, investors, and financial services professionals from across the UK.
More than 70 guests came together for an evening of Fintech discovery, networking, sharing ideas, amking freiends and looking for partnerships to scale up their businesses. The event was hosted by our partner Cavendish, the full service investment bank and trusted advisor to ambitious companies.
After welcome drinks, FINTECH Circle’s Chair Susanne Chishti opened the evening, followed by welcome words of Ben Goldring, Financial Services Partner at Cavendish. A keynote followed by Stephen Barrett, Head of Diversified Financials and Professional Services Research at Cavendish. Then the panel started consisting of:
- Ben Goldring, Partner, Financial Services Private M&A, Cavendish
- Malcolm Ferguson, Partner at ETFS
- Simon Weston, CEO & Founder, ICON
- Moderated by Susanne Chishti, Chair of FINTECH Circle
During the panel we covered trends in financial services overall and in M&A activity in particular and the multiple routes to an exit, from trade sale to IPOs. Malcolm introduced Fintech VC ETFS Capital and explained how they look at capital efficiency and the interplay with growth and which fintech verticals they are most interested in to invest.
Simon Weston, the CEO of ICON shared cross industry insights from his digital engineering B2B enterprise software company. It takes great leadership to develop mission critical software and strong partnerships were key to expand globally.
Susanne opened up the Q&A session so that all audience members could ask questions and get advice on their most burning challenges. Lisa Gordon, the Chair of Cavendish spoke the closing remarks and shared that the future of the fintech sector is bright and that Cavendish is a great partner for ambitious companies across the public and private sector, delivering expert services in equity capital markets, M&A, debt advisory and private growth capital.
After the official program came to an end, drinks were served with canapes overlooking the City of London and the beautiful views of St. Paul’s. Conversations were flowing and it became another wonderful evening for fintech entrepreneurs to exchange their growth stories with each other, learn from each other and meet fellow startup founders and investors.
If you want to become a member of FINTECH Circle and be invited to our future events, please click here. If you would like meet the Cavendish Team, please email Emily Watts on ewatts@cavendish.com
Make sure you check out the Gallery below:
Thank you once again to the entire community for bringing your positive energy, laughter, and fellowship to the FINTECH Circle Autumn Drinks. Your enthusiasm and genuine connections truly made the occasion a roaring success.
Looking forward to more gatherings and shared moments in the future.
Until then, “Cheers” to the wonderful memories we created together! The Team at FINTECH Circle
