Skwile wins £50,000 prize from Fintech Scotland to revolutionise small business financial insights.

EAST SUSSEX, UK. 15th December 2023 - Skwile, a leading fintech product owner, specialising in cash flow and actionable data insights, is thrilled to announce that it has been awarded a prestigious £50,000 prize from Fintech Scotland. 

This remarkable achievement marks a significant milestone in Skwile's commitment to delivering cutting-edge financial solutions, in particular through its cash flow forecasting and budgeting product, CaFE. 

Fintech Scotland, an organisation dedicated to fostering innovation in the fintech sector, recognised Skwile's outstanding potential to harness the power of Open Banking data, ultimately benefiting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the national economy. 

Through its collaboration with key partners, including Smart Data Foundry, NatWest and Virgin Money, the Skwile team demonstrated how Open Finance data could be used to go beyond basic transaction information to provide a wealth of invaluable SME attribute and benchmarking insights. 

Some of the ground-breaking insights made possible by this innovative approach include the categorisation of fuel consumption for carbon footprint analysis, positioning of industry trends, examination of past profit and loss results, forecasting future trends in money flows by industries, and more. SMEs can now gain a deeper understanding of their financial performance, while financial institutions are better equipped to provide tailored advice for business growth. 

In light of the success achieved through this programme, Skwile plans to expand its presence into Central Scotland. This expansion is likely to involve the employment of Scottish engineers and collaboration with Scottish CFOs and academic institutions to further develop products and business growth. 

In addition, CaFE hopes to embark on a ground-breaking project with NatWest and Virgin Money to build an 'Interactive Virtual CFO' based on Open Finance. This venture aims to empower businesses with real-time financial insights, enabling them to make well-informed decisions for sustainable growth. 

Makoto Fukuhara, the founder of Skwile, expressed his enthusiasm for this new phase: "This prize from Fintech Scotland is a testament to the dedication and innovation of our team. We are excited about the opportunity to make a positive impact on SMEs in Scotland and further enhance their financial success. We are also looking forward to strengthening our ties with Scotland, a hub of expertise and talent in the fintech sector." 

Elaine McLaughlan, Core Capabilities Lead at NatWest Group commented: “Supporting and strengthening Financial Services relationships with their SME clients is fully aligned with our purpose to champion potential: helping people, families and businesses to thrive. We’re excited to see the ideas that were showcased through the challenge”. 

With this grant, and the promising projects on the horizon, Skwile is poised to play a pivotal role in transforming financial services for SMEs and contributing to their prosperity.