11 UK FinTechs chosen to showcase ESG and green finance solutions at the New York Climate Week

By Gaia Lamperti

After a highly competitive process, 11 UK-headquartered FinTech companies have been selected to join a virtual trade delegation during New York Climate Week starting September 20^th.

The companies were chosen on the basis of their ESG commitments and to showcase green finance solutions, according to the judgment of the UK Department for International Trade (DIT), an economic department helping businesses export, drive investment, negotiate market access, and trade deals.

This group of FinTechs includes 2RSquared, All Street Research, Amplyfi, Arabesque Group, Carbon Trade Exchange, corfinancial, Net Purpose, OakNorth, Solidatus, Tumelo, and Urgentem. All of them stood out for groundbreaking products and services that are already helping companies, investors, consumers, and regulators around the world to tackle key challenges in ESG adoption.

During the trade conference, the firms will present their solutions and missions at a critical moment in the US financial services landscape, as most firms are struggling to upgrade their capabilities, tools, and products to meet the growing demand for environmental, social, and governance conscious investment strategies. While 1 in 3 dollars invested in the US ($17 trillion in AUM) already falls within an ESG or sustainability commitments, the hope for this initiative is that it will contribute to raising that number.

Kunal Khatri, Her Majesty’s Acting Trade Commissioner for the US, said about the program: “The UK has been at the heart of global financial services innovation for decades, and as we lead up to the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, UK companies are poised to play an even greater part in driving ESG and sustainability across the financial industry.”

In particular, the financial industry is considered a key player in shifting investments towards achieving net-zero goals globally. Thanks to new technologies applied in financial services, the sector is increasingly enabling universal access to services, empowering traditionally underserved groups, and enabling climate-responsible, informed decisions.

“FinTech will have a crucial role to play in achieving net-zero by spurring green innovation and expertise into sustainable investments, by providing companies with better tools to measure and mitigate their climate impact, and by giving consumers the information they need to make more informed decisions. The UK has world-leading talent, technology and businesses with an enormous amount to offer to the US market we are excited to bring this delegation of cutting-edge technology firms to New York Climate Week,” Khatri added.

The DIT program will be delivered in partnership with the City of London, the Investment Association, and the Green Finance Institute. “The UK is a fintech powerhouse with UK FinTechs raising a record-shattering $24.5bn of investment in the first 6 months of this year alone,” the Lord Mayor of the City of London, William Russell, commented about the initiative. “The City of London Corporation has long played an active role in helping to scale up the UK’s FinTech sector by bringing together our existing strengths in financial services with burgeoning tech expertise across the country. As the world faces up climate change it has never been more important to discuss the role that tech can play in sustainable development for financial institutions.”