FinTech North announces North of England FinTech Innovation Challenge for Spring 2026
FinTech North has announced its North of England FinTech Innovation Challenge: a pan-Northern programme designed to connect FinTech innovators with established financial services organisations and other industry experts to tackle real-world sector and societal challenges.
Set to launch in the Spring of 2026, its inception comes off the back of a recommendation from Whitecap Consulting’s FinTech in the North of England Report, which identified the launch of an innovation challenge as one of five ‘big ideas’ capable of accelerating growth, collaboration and impact across the North’s FinTech ecosystem.
The initiative seeks to address the following objectives:
- Stimulate innovation in financial services through agile collaboration
- Provide corporates with actionable solutions and early access to emerging technology
- Give FinTechs exposure, validation and potential commercial partnerships
- Strengthen the North of England as a hub for financial services innovation
During the programme, up to four challenge themes will be defined by participating partners, aligned to the North’s established strengths across areas such as payments, banking, lending, WealthTech, InsurTech, RegTech and financial inclusion.
Selected FinTech participants will take part in a structured programme of workshops, mentoring, sponsor engagement and solution development, culminating in a final showcase and demo day.
The North of England FinTech Innovation Challenge is designed to deliver tangible outcomes for all stakeholders and participants.
- Corporate partners will gain access to emerging innovation and benefit from structured engagement with high-quality FinTech firms, whilst addressing clear, high-value challenge topics aligned with corporate priorities.
- FinTechs on the other hand, will benefit from real-world problem statements, direct access to corporate decision makers, structured mentorship, support to accelerate solution development and routes to commercial validation and scale.
Additionally, by operating across the major FinTech hubs of the North of England (Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Liverpool and North East) and attracting participants from across the UK and beyond, the Innovation Challenge will strengthen the region’s position as a leading centre for financial services innovation, collaboration and inclusive growth.
Joe Roche, General Manager, FinTech North said:
“This Challenge is about bringing the North together to turn great ideas into real impact. By connecting ambitious FinTechs with established financial institutions around live, meaningful problems, we’re creating clearer pathways from innovation to action and showcasing what collaboration across the Northern FinTech ecosystem can achieve.”
We’re now calling out to the FinTech North community for organisations to get involved:
Are you a corporate or established financial services organisation?
- Partnership packages are available for organisations looking to sponsor challenge themes, engage with high-quality FinTech innovators and explore pilot and partnership opportunities through the programme.
- If you’re interested in coming onboard as a partner of the North of England FinTech Innovation Challenge, contact us via email at info@fintechnorth.uk.
Are you a FinTech startup or scale-up with a payments, banking, lending, WealthTech, InsurTech, RegTech or financial inclusion proposition?
- Applications will open ahead of the programme launch in Spring 2026. If you’d like to register your interest, fill out our short form here.
