Challenges and Opportunities: UK Fintech Start-up Business Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the critical challenges and opportunities in the UK fintech sector, specifically focusing on start-ups. It begins with an introduction that defines fintech and its significance, followed by a literature review that explores the key elements, segments, and the evolution of the fintech industry, including global financing activity. The report then delves into the challenges faced by UK fintech start-ups, such as cash flow management, hiring employees, time management, and fierce competition. It also highlights the opportunities available, including factors related to individual traits, business structure, and external factors. The research methodology is discussed, including sampling and ethical considerations, along with research limitations. The report examines the impact of these challenges and opportunities on business growth. The research questions address key challenges and opportunities, customer perceptions, the effects on business growth, and strategies to overcome challenges. The conclusion summarizes the findings and provides recommendations for start-ups in the UK fintech sector.

CRITICAL CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
1.What are the key challenges and opportunities in UK fintech for start-up?.......................4
1.2 Rationale...........................................................................................................................4
1.3 Problem statement..........................................................................................................5
1.4 Significance of the research...........................................................................................5
2. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................6
2.1 The significance of FINTECH in UK...........................................................................6
2.3 OPPORTUNITIES IN UK FINTECH :.......................................................................9
SOME WAYS TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES FOR BUSINESS GROWTH....11
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...............................................................................................12
3.5 Sampling.........................................................................................................................13
Ethical considerations:..........................................................................................................14
Timeline...............................................................................................................................14
Research limitations...........................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................21
1. Time Scale........................................................................................................................21

1. INTRODUCTION
Overview of the industry.
Fin-tech is a broadly speaking financial technology where the technology has been applied at the
time of the financial services which has been used by the companies for managing and helping
them at their financial aspects of the business and it has been involved the applications, software,
process and also the business models (Schueffel 2016).
Fin-tech is a comprising industry which basically a very broad sector with so much long history.
This decades of the development has been created the infrastructure of the financial technology
(Ancri, 2016).
It is a type of computer programs and also the other technologies which has been used for
supporting and enabling the financial and banking services (Schindler, 2017).
Fin-tech emerged in the 21st century which was the initially applied to the technology and
employees at the back of the end system and it also establishes the financial institution.
1.1 Background of the research
A fin-tech start-up is an emerging industry or company that used the technology for
improving the finance activities. Fin- tech focuses on integrating the latest technology into the
business in order to offer quality financial services to the consumers. (Flick, 2018). Fin-tech is
one of the most emerging disruptive technology where it milestone in the financial and banking
sector and also it open up so many opportunities and challenges for substantial. It rewriting the
history of financial sector (Rahim, Bakri and Yahaya, 2019).
Fintech in UK:
Fin-tech in UK is a top most sub sector where the Fin-tech has been the top technology of the
sub sectors when it comes to attracting the investment, according to the mainly 2 new reports it
has been identified that the UK leads to the Europe scale up technology of the investment and
also according to the latest annual government backed to the tech nations report with the US,
India and China (Gulamhuseinwala, Bull, and Lewis, 2015.).
Aim and Objectives
Aim:
To review the critical challenges and opportunities in UK fintech for start-up.

Objectives:
 To critically analyse the key business challenges and opportunities in UK fintech for
start-up.
 To know the customer’s perception about fintech services in UK present scenario.
 To evaluate the effect of business challenges, and opportunities on the fintech business
growth.
 To provide recommendations on key challenges and opportunities for start-up in UK
fintech
Research Questions:
1.What are the key challenges and opportunities in UK fintech for start-up?
2.What are the customer’s perception about fintech services in UK present scenario?
3.What would be the effect of key challenges and opportunities on fintech business growth?
4.What are the ways to overcome the key challenges for business growth?
1.2 Rationale
This research is important for analysing and observing the current situation for starting a
new business. It is important to make research before starting the new business for doing
something and also to complete a particular and certain task within the stipulated time of the
business. The reason for choosing the topic are as follows-
Personal rationale:- In this the researcher has been described the reasons behind conducting the
research where it is only based on the personal experience in the world of business and also over
the interest taken by the researcher for the reasons of success and failure of Fintech start-up in
UK and it also extracts the strength which could easily break the issues for entering in the fintech
business world.

Academic relevance :- Academic interest of research is another reason for choosing the topic as
by conducting this study is that researcher will gain the knowledge and understanding of research
methodologies and its evaluation before selection, data collection methods as well as entire
structuring of the dissertation. Further, researcher will also gain information about the steps and
factors affecting the growth and survival of fintech start-up.
In the current times, Fintech industry is growing with very high pace. However, there are
several; challenges which are facing by UK Fintech start-ups. Hence, through thematic analysis
scholar will shed light on the issues facing by start-ups in Fintech.
1.3 Problem statement
This research is based on the critical challenges and opportunities in UK fintech. How
these factors contribute to the growth and development of the fintech business. It is widely used
by the organisations and business for executing the process for the improvements of the projects
and tasks. There are so many problems, issues and challenges faced by the start-ups such as one
of the main and major problem is cash flow management which is essential for surviving the new
business and also it struggles for paying the bills and purchasing the resources as well.(Schindler,
2017).
Another is hiring the employees is major concern for the new start-up of the small
businesses, time management of both management and employees, delegated about their task and
projects for achieving the goals and objectives (Yeakley and Caballero, Hand Held Products Inc,
2016). One of the main problems and challenges is making the marketing strategy for selling and
making the strategy of selling the products in market and another one is capital which is one of
the biggest concern for the development and growth of the start-up.
However, there are some challenges which has been faced by the Fin-tech which is credibility
where it holds the goods too, marketing fin-tech, discovery and last one is customers relationship
which has been faced by the fin-tech (Pollari, 2016).
1.4 Significance of the research
The main and important purpose is to understand the current situations for finding the answer
and advance knowledge for the Fintech start-up that contribute in developing the knowledge and
growth of the study or field. This research is highlighting the importnace of the research where it
involves the tools for building the knowledge for facilitating the learning. It makes extremely

happy to their customers and also paving a way for the business to grow in the market and it also
retains so many new customers (Demertzis, Merler and Wolff, 2018).
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 The significance of FINTECH in UK
According to the Hinks, Fohrbeck and Meager, (2015) for identifying the significance for
the fin-tech start-up for UK it helps for raising the financial activity levels of the UK which is
important and necessary for the expansion of the companies and it also accommodates the lower
scale which gives benefits to the small businesses and it also helps in improving the advantages
of the technology for the future of the nation and growth of the UK financial activities.
As Jacobs and et.al., (2016) said that There are so many ways of the employment and
creation of job and start-ups of the fin-tech may be small companies but it can play a significant
role in the growth of the economy and financial activities as well where it means more job has
been created for more employments and more employment's means improvements in the
economy.
Segments and elements of Fin-tech:
There are mainly five key elements and segments of the fin-tech such as;
Block chain
Artificial intelligence
Security
Internet of things
Cloud
The evolution of fin-tech industry chart

Illustration 1: The evaluation of fin-tech 2018
(source: the evaluation of fin-tech 2018)
Fin-tech has become the special since the financial crisis because there are so many traditional
banks where it has been faced by the customers so that the technology of the financial services
where it has been present in the decades of the industry where the concept of the fin-tech
evaluation become the gained and fixture of the traction in the country (Gai and et.al., 2016).
Global Fintech financing activity Graph:

Illustration 2: Global fin-tech financing activity
(source: global fin tech financing activity 2018)
2.2 CHALLENGES IN UK FINTECH :
As per the opinion Mejia, and Gopal, (2018) there are so many challenges has been faced by
fintech start-up in the success and survival of the business such as each and every organisation
needs money for starting the business and cash flow management which is essential for the
survival of the fin-tech start-up like many of the organisations struggling for paying the bills and
purchasing of the resources, hiring of the employees is one of the main problems and issues for
the start-up because it needs so many employees for running a business and its difficult in
starting to hire employees, time management is another where its important and necessary to
utilise each and every minutes and time for starting the new set up.
As Van Der Braak, Becker and Pessoa, (2018) said that Fierce competition is one of the
challenges which is quite fierce because there is always a competition going between the giants
and competition is one of the biggest challenge for the survival of the business. There are so
many things such as government policies, unrealistic competition, partnership decision making,
financial management, security of the cyber etc.

2.3 OPPORTUNITIES IN UK FINTECH :
According to the Santisteban and Mauricio, (2017) there are so many factors affecting for the
fin-tech and growth of the business such as the behavioural and personnel traits of the individual
because when the leader's characteristics such as attitude, personality, behaviour certainly impact
the growth of the business, business structure and management is another way of impacting the
growth. Therefore, small start-up needs well structured, performance and it goals for the
management teams with their particular ability for making the rationale decision of the business
and also about its operations which impact in the positive ways such as the development and
success of the start-up. The UK fin-tech sector is booming.
As per the opinion Haddad and Hornuf, 2019 There is massive 9.1 billion takeover of all
the British payments where the processor of the wordplay by US & China during the vantiv help
all the sector for attracting more investment than those who are in US. Fin-tech has wide
geographical area where it covers over 31 billion area in UK. Fin-tech has invested 18% to $3.3
billion in 2018. Fin-tech is utilizing for helping the companies and also owners for better
managing the financial operations, process and also specialised in algorithms and software.
Illustration 3: Top challenges for the Fin-tech industry.2019
(Source: Top challenges for the Fin-tech industry. (2019 )

As Karahan, Pugsley and Sahin, (2016) said that there are so many external factors which
consider as an opportunity that contribute in the growth and survival of the business from no
controlling on the virtually which easily impact the growth and development of the fin-tech.
From the attributes of the individual for the complex interrelationships which often change the
political, culture and economic conditions, local and regional levels.
Figure below depicts the investment in UK fintech.
Illustration 5: UK Fin-tech investment.2019 (source: UK Fin-tech investment.(2019 )
HOW THESE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITY EFFECT THE BUSINESS
GROWTH?
There are so many challenges and opportunities, which can affect the growth of the fin-tech start-
up because technology and financial services are slow in the market from which there are some
errors comes up such;
Peer to peer lending services:- it is a type of practice of lending the money to the individuals
and business through so many online services which matches the lenders with the borrowers.

Payment services:- payment service provider is offers the shop of online services of accepting
the electronics payments in the wide variety payments methods which involve the debit cards,
credit cards, bank transfer etc.
Remittance services:- This service is one of the safe and fast and reliable services. It is easy and
quick for transferring the personal remittance from the abroad to the benificial in UK.
Equity funding services:- equity funding services only occurs when it gives the percentage to
its ownership to the investors for exchanging the capital. (van der braak, becker and pessoa,
2018).
SOME WAYS TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES FOR BUSINESS GROWTH
As per the opinion Barber, Metcalfe and Porteous, (2016) there are some ways to
overcome these challenges to overcome the barrier in growth of the business where entrepreneur
has to decide where to focus and also how to promote the business which is helpful in the future.
Its important that the fin-tech industry satisfying the needs and wants of the customers because
Illustration 6: challenges and opportunity affect the business growth.2019
(source: challenges and opportunity affect the business growth.2019)

its easy to get the repetitive customers and also retain customers. It’s important to differentiating
the brand as the unique selling of the propositions. Branding and differentiation apply to the
social media pages, websites and ads which has been paid by the company. Funding the
marketing efforts where many of business has finding the troubles of funding the cash for
investing in the marketing. For getting the attention in the market it’s important to invest money
and capital for the outreach of the marketing.
According to the Pinkse and Groot, (2015) time and money are the major and main
sources that everyone has trying to balance. If there is shortage of the money then fin tech has to
start with the cheap marketing strategies which is very useful and necessary for setting up the
business and also the effective content for making the marketing plan which overcomes the
challenges of the fin-tech.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Type
There are mainly two types of research which can be undertaken by the scholar such as
qualitative and quantitative. Researcher will undertake both. In order to assess challenges and
opportunities linked with fin-tech start-up qualitative research, whereas, to understand
customer’s perception about fin-tech services quantitative research type will be employed by the
scholar. These research is selected because by focusing on qualitative aspects pertaining to start-
ups opportunities and challenges research problem will be addressed (Flick, 2015). In addition,
the quantitative research by focusing on so many aspects for gaining the quantitative advantages
from the research. It measures all the techniques and collected the data from the polls. It also
measures the performance from the decisions which has been measured and evaluated. (Flick,
2015).
3.2 Research approach
Inductive and deductive are mainly two approaches which research can employ for
meeting research aim as well as objectives. Hence, for analysing challenges and opportunities
for start-up operating in Fin-tech industry inductive research will be used. On the other hand,
for the customer’s perception about fin-tech services deductive approach will be applied
because it is concerned with the development of the hypothesis which is generally based on the
present theory and it also designs the strategies of research (Quinlan and et.al., 2019).