South West FinTechs speed up onboarding delays with single validated profile through new partnership
Bristol, 30 June 2026. FinTech West and Finbridge Global have announced a partnership to give FinTech companies across the South West access to Finbridge’s validated company intelligence infrastructure, replacing repeated due diligence with a single profile that works across every bank, investor, partner and accelerator conversation a founder is already having.
Finbridge has built a structured company data standard for financial services and investors, enabling FinTechs to create one validated profile covering capabilities, product, maturity, risk, security and compliance, and share it across multiple opportunities rather than rebuilding the case from scratch each time. Through the partnership, FinTech West will be able to better support, understand and showcase FinTech companies across the South West, with the first live view of regional FinTech capability - a continuously updated data layer that strengthens the case for investment, institutional engagement and government support in a way that static directories cannot.
Commenting on the partnership, Stuart Harrison, CEO and Founder, FinTech West said: “We know the South West FinTech community is stronger than the reported data currently shows. That gap is potentially costing founders real opportunities as a result of prospective partners never finding them or defaulting to someone they already know. This closes that gap”.
Barbara Gottardi, CEO and Founder of Finbridge Global said: “As a former CIO, I have seen first-hand how lengthy RFIs, repeated due diligence and spreadsheet-led onboarding waste time, money and innovation, and can kill promising FinTechs before they reach a commercial decision. With AI accelerating the number of solutions entering the market, this is now a critical infrastructure issue. We need a trusted company data standard that allows institutions to make faster, better-informed decisions, including a clear no when the fit is not right. We are proud to support the transformation in the South West with FinTech West”.
The pace of FinTech innovation is accelerating fast, with investment in AI-driven FinTech companies rising from $12.1 billion to $16.8 billion in 2025 across 1,334 deals1. But the processes banks and institutions use to assess and onboard new providers have not kept up. It takes around six weeks on average to onboard a new client in the financial sector, and 57% of senior banking salespeople spend more than 1.5 days each week on onboarding-related activity2. For early-stage FinTechs, that gap between innovation speed and assessment speed can be the difference between commercial traction and running out of runway.
The need for shared, trusted company data is not new. The 2021 Kalifa Review of UK FinTech recommended the development and adoption of common data standards as a national priority for the sector, alongside greater national connectivity to support FinTech outside London3. This partnership responds directly to those priorities by combining regional connectivity with a reusable company data standard.
This matters disproportionately for FinTechs outside London and the South East, where 250 regional scaleups have been mapped as drivers of UK FinTech growth but remain less visible to capital and institutional partners than their London-based peers4. With UK FinTech funding increasingly concentrated in fewer, larger and more mature firms5, being discoverable and credible to investors matters more than ever.
FinTechs can sign up at https://app.finbridgeglobal.com/signup. Activity under the partnership will build towards the FinTech West Annual Conference on 6 November 2026, free to attend, register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fintech-west-conference-2026-tickets-1989166266851.