Fin Tech firm looks to the North to expand

Challenger bank OakNorth has opened a new office in Manchester and has launched a recruitment drive in the city in a move that tech industry watchers believe will become increasingly common.

They see more tech sector businesses with a London base looking to move some of their operations out of the capital as they expand and grow in what is a form of ‘north shoring’.

OakNorth has lent almost £4bn to date and has a further £2bn of qualified deals in the pipeline. It sees the North West as an attractive place to be.

Chief operations officer Amir Nooriala says: “We’ve actually had an operations and customer service team based in Manchester since day one. However, we’ve recently expanded this to include debt finance directors too.

“Access to talent is always an important factor for us. In Manchester, there are four very strong universities with a graduate pipeline.

“You also have big banks who have built a pool of expert talent. Connectivity is another benefit of being in Manchester.

“Manchester Airport has two runways – we fly ourselves to India, New York, Singapore amongst other destinations all the time, as we also have bases there. All the boxes were ticked.

“In terms of further boosting our presence in Manchester, we currently have 25 staff there, however our new offices within Ship Canal House along King Street has room for 50 so we are preparing to grow more in the future.”

He adds: “There has been a conscious decision from fintech businesses that if they are not going to be based in London, then they should be based in Manchester or one of the other emerging fintech hubs in the UK.

“Globally, fintech is incredibly hot. Valuations are doubling. It’s bigger than social media or messaging companies.

“The UK has now attracted more fintech investment than any other country besides the US and China and the figures are increasing year on year.

“In terms the barriers to growth, obviously, continued uncertainty from Brexit and a potential no-deal in October are impacting business confidence which could see businesses’ willingness to borrow decrease.

“However, we’ve still got a very strong pipeline at the moment, so hopefully that continues to grow.

Julian Wells, director at Fintech North, says: “Companies might have their headquarters in London, but operations in other cities such as Manchester and Leeds.

“It’s a form of north shoring and something we don’t understand well at the moment. We don’t have the data. As we get it we will understand the UK infrastructure better and that firms are operating and creating jobs in different places.”