Kirsty Rutter/Lloyds.
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“Data is the new oil” is “more true than ever” says fintech investment head at Lloyds
Kirsty Rutter, director of fintech investment at Lloyds Banking Group, says she continues to be excited about data-focused investment opportunities.
The often-quoted phrase “data is the new oil” is truer than ever, according to the executive overseeing Lloyds Banking Group’s fintech investments.
It was British mathematician Clive Humby who in 2006 coined the phrase.
While over the years it has become something of a cliché, Kirsty Rutter, director of fintech investment at Lloyds Banking Group, said the phrase is “more true than ever”.
Speaking about the hottest fintech investment areas right now that interest her, Rutter said: "I am in my heart a data geek.
“I think the value creation from many organisations will be in the data space, and not necessarily the hot topic of AI.
“But more in the fundamentals. If we go back to how do you really create value from AI and ML, it’s the quality of the data that you are running your models across the top of.
“I think a lot of the really interesting stuff is how do you have a really clean robust set of corporate data from which you can make awesome decisions that support your customer and your client needs?
“I will always head in that direction.”
One investment area that particularly excited her, she says, is the identity space.
She adds: “If you haven’t got quality data, and you don’t know what you have, you are not going to necessarily create the best outcomes.”
Lloyds yesterday (Monday) announced a £2m seed funding investment in Fennech, which uses cloud-based tech to automate businesses’ finance processes.
It follows a string of other startup investments from the bank including in core banking deveper Thought Machine, digital identity company Yoti and open data company Moneyhub.
Recently, in fintech, there has been a shift away from VC investment away from sexy B2C startups to B2B fintechs.
“B2C was definitely the trend of five years ago” but fintech has realised it's “hard” and “expensive” to reach scale, says Rutter.
But she says from a B2B perspective “it’s much easier to have a scaled B2B conversation than it is to try and reach the masses” though B2C.
On the bank’s investment in fintech, Rutter says “there is a lot of awesome fintech that exists. But I am not here just to invest in interesting technology.
“My mandate is to align our strategic objectives with our investment,” she adds.
Once an investment target is identified, the bank then works with the fintech, creating a partnership, which the aim of creating value for Lloyd's customers as well as helping the fintech grow.
