Sustaining Innovation Through Crisis

These are challenging times for all of us. Notwithstanding the huge human cost of the pandemic, the economic impact looks set to play a sustained part in determining the fortunes of business of all shapes and sizes for the foreseeable future.

The UK Government recently launched a £500M Future Fund to provide assistance to start-ups; in the financial services this means FinTechs, RegTechs, InsurTechs. Through the loan scheme, early-stage, high-growth companies can apply for funding to help them stay viable during the coronavirus crisis.

As with all such schemes conceived in short order over the past month or so, there will likely be teething issues (as seen with CBILS and the Job Retention scheme). TORI has had direct involvement in these, and other initiatives over the past few weeks, where one of our founders is a CBI Councillor. This direct channel into Government has allowed us to highlight where further clarity is required on scheme rules and eligibility, or where businesses are experiencing difficulty in accessing the promised funding.

When working with our clients to assess, challenge and realign their business and technology strategies, we routinely match their ambitions with emerging talent in the start-up space.

By twinning the insights gained from continuous market scanning with those gained from navigating the vagaries of hastily conceived financial stimulus packages, we can play our part in helping our start-up partners survive these testing times and keep delivering the innovation that will help restore the economy to better fortunes.

Insights