Fintech Awards London: The Energy’s Back, AI’s Everywhere, and Tunic Pay Had a Very Good Night
London, 23 June 2026
Oh I do love an occasion to get dressed up and put a nice frock on. Even better when it’s to attend one of the hotly anticipated social events of the year for the fintech industry. And everyone was looking gorgeous that night and full of smiles.
While most of the room tucked into a delicious meal, I was doing laps with a microphone, catching judges, sponsors, founders and a few nominees full of anticipation before the plaques came out.
Here’s what I heard, what it tells us about where fintech’s headed, and who actually went home with a winning prize.
The Room Was Buzzing Again
Matt Hyde and Emma Peterson, the duo behind the awards, set the tone before I’d even got a drink in hand. For Matt, it’s always been about the community:
"We still need each other to grow, build businesses, and support in different ways... it's nice to recognize and reward talent. People work damn hard in their jobs, and it's just nice to have a night where you can celebrate what we've all done together."
Emma backed it up with numbers: this year brought the highest number of applications the awards have ever had, and the mood in the room matched it.
"London last year maybe had a bit of a quieter year... The energy is definitely back."
You could feel it. Five-time judge Neil Shah put it best:
"I've never seen this level of talent. You guys are making my life harder than it needs to be."
I also found out from Neil that judging took three whole days this yea a massive commiotment from the judges!
What’s Hot
Ask anyone in the room what’s trending and you’ll get the same answer in different accents: AI, AI, and then stablecoins.
"AI everywhere... we saw literally companies that have not been AI-native almost becoming AI-native."
Sarah Williams-Gardner agreed, flagging AI and stablecoins as the two threads running through nearly every entry she judged – alongside a reminder that fintech’s real job is solving unglamorous human problems.
“There’s still 4 billion to go in this market,” she told me, pointing to areas like lasting power of attorney as ones nobody’s properly cracked yet.
Joe Wiggins at ClearScore is already past “should we use AI” and onto agentic AI specifically – his team is building what he called “an agentic credit broking protocol,” basically the rules of the road for letting an AI apply for credit on your behalf.
Stablecoins and tokenisation had their own corner of the room. Thomas Easterby at HSBC Innovation Banking shared where they’re seeing the money flow.
"Within the world of fintech, stablecoin, AI, and fraud are the three hottest topics that investors are going for pre-Series A."
Ed Pugh at Aon, this year’s headline sponsor, sees institutions finally moving past “the wild west of non-fungible tokens” toward digital assets that deliver real, measurable value alongside a sharp rise in AI-driven cybersecurity risk.
Matt Ong at Ctrl-Alt, who’s spent five years bringing alternative assets on-chain, is finally feeling the regulatory tailwind he’s been waiting for.
And EY’s Christopher Woolard pointed to a genuinely wide field now tokenised deposits, securities, funds calling it “such a variety and a vibrancy as people really begin to think about what the use cases actually are.”
What’s Not (Yet)
Not everything’s firing on all cylinders. Samuel Norman at City A.M. put it plainly: London isn’t short on ambition, it’s short on capital – especially at the earliest stages.
"There is a bit of a capital issue in the UK, but I don't think that is actually particularly stopping the desire at the moment."
Karen Allan at HaysMac is seeing a related squeeze play out through governance: new regulatory regimes are pushing fintechs to invest more internally just to keep pace.
And the Winners Are…
A few of the people I’d grabbed earlier in the evening had good reason to celebrate later. Joe Wiggins told me ClearScore was up for three awards and he was “hoping for two” – he got exactly that, with Justin Basini named Fintech Leader of the Year and ClearScore’s debt consolidation product Clearer taking Fintech New Product of the Year.
Maya Mehan’s Tunic Pay went in nominated across five categories and walked out with two of the biggest: Fintech Start-up of the Year and Best Use of AI.
Martin Cosgrove’s GrowthInvest took WealthTech Company of the Year, Rohini Gupta’s FinregE took RegTech Company of the Year, and TSB picked up Best Accelerator/Incubator.
And after a whole night of people talking about Revolut’s outsized pull on this ecosystem, it felt fitting that Nik Storonsky closed it out with Outstanding Contribution to Fintech.
The full list:
Fintech Start-up of the Year
- Winner: Tunic Pay
- Finalists: Bourn, Eunice, Adclear, Tunic Pay, Hands In, Serene
Fintech Scale-up of the Year
- Winner: Creditspring
- Highly Commended: iwoca
- Finalists: iwoca, Sokin, PAYSTRAX, Pockit, Creditspring
Fintech Company of the Year
- Winner: iwoca
- Highly Commended: Zopa Bank
- Finalists: Zopa Bank, iwoca, Stream, BCB Group, MillTech, Zilch
Fintech Leader of the Year
- Winner: Justin Basini, ClearScore
- Highly Commended: Killian O’Rawe, Reward
- Finalists: Hema Gandhi (LatentBridge), Justin Basini (ClearScore), Killian O’Rawe (Reward), Pete Correia (Appital), Tim Renew (BCB Group)
WealthTech Company of the Year
- Winner: GrowthInvest
- Finalists: GrowthInvest, Index One, Bondsmith, Know Your Dosh
PayTech Company of the Year
- Winner: GoCardless
- Finalists: GoCardless, Yaspa, Sokin, Form3, Aevi
RegTech Company of the Year
- Winner: FinregE
- Finalists: Sumsub, REGnosys, Cygnetise, FinregE, KYCP (KYC Portal)
Digital Asset Award
- Winner: BCB Group – BLINC
- Highly Commended: Ctrl Alt)
- Finalists: Taurus SA, Ctrl Alt, OpenPayd, Midas, BCB Group – BLINC, Cordial Systems
Fintech New Product of the Year
- Winner: ClearScore
- Finalists: ClearScore, Eunice, Dojo, Tunic Pay, LatentBridge – Epic, Hands In
Best Marketing Campaign in Fintech of the Year
- Winner: Zilch × Arsenal, “Clean Sheets”
- Finalists: Zopa Bank (“Biscuit” current account launch), Zilch × Arsenal (“Clean Sheets”), Allica Bank (“I-like-a-bank”), BCB Group (Paris Blockchain Week / BLINC magazine)
Best Use of AI in Fintech of the Year
- Winner: Tunic Pay
- Finalists: Zopa Bank (Zopa Assistant), Liquidity, ClearScore Group (D•One), Sikoia, Tunic Pay, FintechOS
Fintech Advisory Firm of the Year
- Winner: Chatsworth
- Highly Commended: MHA – Baker Tilly)
- Finalists: Shoosmiths, KPMG, EY, MHA – Baker Tilly, LatentBridge, Chatsworth, 11FS
Fintech For Good of the Year
- Winner: Lightning Reach
- Finalists: Stream, Open Banking Limited, Creditspring, Lightning Reach, Tunic Pay, Maji
Fintech Best Place to Work
- Winner: Zilch
- Highly Commended: Creditspring)
- Finalists: Creditspring, Funding Circle, Titanbay, Zilch, Zopa
Rising Fintech Star of the Year
- Winner: Katherine Chan, Juice Ventures
- Finalists: Savannah Price (Serene), Samuel Flynn (Hands In), Katherine Chan (Juice Ventures), Ravi Ranjan (Finexer), Arthur Greenwood (Payr)
Best Fintech Collaboration of the Year
- Winner: MQube × Nottingham Building Society
- Highly Commended: TSB Bank Plc
- Finalists: Serene × NatWest, MQube × Nottingham Building Society, TSB × Tunic Pay, JUMO × MTN Mobile Money, ClearBank × Taurus
Best Accelerator / Incubator of the Year
- Winner: TSB Bank Plc
- Finalists: TSB Labs, JP Morgan Chase Fintech Forward programme
Outstanding Contribution to Fintech
- Nik Storonsky, Co-Founder & CEO, Revolut
Is Everyone Coming to Fintech Week London?
I asked almost everyone the same closing question: see you in September? The answer was unanimous.
Christopher Woolard (EY), Joe Wiggins (Clearscore) and Samuel Norman (Citu AM) both gave me a big thumbs up, Susanne Chishti confirmed Fintech Circle is backing it as a supporting partner again, and Julia Streets, a loyal supporter from the beginning was full of beans for what we’re doing.
Emily Berry let slip that S&W has already made plans for their annual fintech event during Fintech Week London with a unicorn panel and drinks on a rooftop. Excited to see what other events will take place that week. Who will be next?
"Absolutely. I love everything you're doing, Calypso."
"I'm getting involved in every way that I can possibly be."
"1,000%."
"Fintech and London together for one week. Brilliant."
See You in September
If the room was any indication, fintech’s mood has flipped from cautious to genuinely confident – AI and stablecoins are doing the heavy lifting, capital is still tight at the early stage, and almost everyone I spoke to is already counting down to Fintech Week London.
Aon’s Ed Pugh promised some dad dancing later in the night. Unmissable but sadly I didn’t catch it – I might just create an event for a repeat episode – bring on September!
