Accenture onboards 50% more female founders in 2020 fintech lab cohort
Accenture has announced its eighth FinTech Innovation Lab in London, which this year will welcome 50% more female founders in a bid to narrow the gender gap in fintech.
To select the programme’s 20 fintechs, Accenture worked with F6S to “proactively scout female-led companies”. The lab’s director Tom Graham says they whittled down the list from 300 to 20, and that more than 45 banks and insurers took part in the decision making.
Using its pool of graduated lab alumni, Accenture’s lab has also gathered together female business mentors “to bring women closer to the venture capital community”. For the first time, the lab is offering female CEO-led masterclass sessions and female founder-focused events tailored to women’s position in fintech.
The full list of Accenture’s 2020 cohort
“It’s encouraging to see the UK fintech landscape continuing to thrive, and particularly good to this year see an increase in female-led companies participating in Accenture’s lab,” says Graham. “Its integral we all work to create an equal playing field in a highly competitive space.”
Read more: CBI’s CEO on gender diversity in banking and how it’s changing
Running from 6 January to 27 March 2020, the three-month programme will see fintechs split into five categories: capital markets, enterprise tech, insurtech, open data/open banking, and regtech.
Some of the lucky fintechs include: German-based passive investing tool BITA Indexes, cybersecurity-awareness platform CybSafe, bill management software ApTap, digital invoice financing platform LendFlo, and insurance platform for freelancers and the gig economy PORTABL.co.
A 2019 alumni and co-founder of fintech start-up Lifetise Caroline Hughes says: “I think it’s extremely important that female founders, of fintechs in particular, are encouraged to take part in these programmes as there is still plenty to be done to narrow the gender gap in the industry.”
Globally, the labs’ alumni have raised more than $2.0 billion in venture capital financing post-programme.
Read next: Our top women in fintech and banking 2019 short list
