Greater Birmingham looks to US for fintech investment
Inward investment agency, Business Birmingham is attempting to secure more foreign direct investment (FDI) into Greater Birmingham’s growing fintech and cyber security sectors.
The agency will press the area’s claims during its participation in global conference FinovateFall, which takes place in New York next month.
Greater Birmingham secures more FDI from the United States than any other overseas market. The USA was responsible for nearly a quarter (23%) of all FDI projects into Greater Birmingham during 2016/17. This is significantly higher than the second highest market, Germany, which generated 10% of all projects.
The development of Greater Birmingham’s financial services industry has led to rapid expansion of the cyber security and financial technology sectors.
The area benefits from having one of the UK’s largest financial services hubs, with a range of global financial firms such as Deutsche Bank, KPMG, PwC and HSBC.
Business Birmingham said the city region’s financial services sector was expected to grow by 23% by 2025, making it one of the UK’s fastest-growing financial services centres, according to research by TheCityUK and PwC’s Strategy&.
The scale and growth of Greater Birmingham’s financial services supply chain has created a wide network of potential customers that fintech and cyber security firms are now targeting. B2B technology firms now comprise around 80% of the wider tech sector in the West Midlands, with 11,000 firms based in the region – according to research compiled as part of the Regional Observatory’s Tech & Digital Deep Dive Report.
The report also identified that Birmingham is the UK’s premier tech and digital centre outside of London, with just under 3,000 tech and digital firms in the city itself – an increase of 38% during the last five years.
Roy Meredith, Senior Business Development Manager at Business Birmingham, is attending FinovateFall and will be pressing the city region’s case to investors.
He said: “Global demand for fintech, financial services technology and cyber security support is rapidly increasing, as businesses in a range of sectors realise the importance of protecting their finances, technology and data.
“For financial services firms in particular, ensuring that their systems are secure is absolutely critical to their performance. The rapid growth of financial services in Greater Birmingham is fuelling a surge in fintech and cyber security firms looking to move into the region, from innovative SMEs to global names.”
He said factors in the area’s favour included a highly-skilled workforce, respected universities, a thriving ecosystem of entrepreneurial businesses, and strong connections with other global financial centres such as London, Frankfurt and New York.
Business Birmingham will follow up the conference with a digital marketing campaign focused on New York and Atlanta.
