Investec Fintech Podcast: Building a relationship bank

Conrad has a long history in Fintech. In fact, he and I met before "Fintech" was a thing.

After 6 years at Barclays, including a leadership role at Clearlybusiness, a high growth tech business within the bank, he left to form his own Fintech start up Funding  Options - a platform aimed at helping small businesses to access the right loans from multiple lenders. Since then he has had advisory roles at Starling Bank, as well as Iwoca, Coconut and Trade Ledger.

Currently he is helping CEO Richard Davies and team build Allica Bank, which I note has just been named the UKs fastest growing tech company in Deloitte’s annual survey. Allica is also the UK's fastest growing Fintech ever in the 26-year history of the awards.

So there's not much about Fintech, and in particular bringing a digital approach to SME lending that Conrad doesn't know. We cover his views on the SME lending landscape, the moats that Allica has built, and his views on the outlook for the UK Fintech sector.

Listen to the podcast

In a regular series of interviews, we chat to the leading lights of the UK’s Fintech sector, discussing their current businesses, their outlook for the sector as a whole, and also delving into their back stories and how they arrived at their current positions.

Mark James, Managing Director, Fintech
mark.james@investec.co.uk