FINTECH – Gender Pay Gap & VC Funding

All those promises by Fintech founders are looking very hollow – ‘We will change the world” they cry!!

Seems the same problems exits – Sifted reports on gender imbalances within UK’s Fintech’s

UK is No 3 globally for Fintech so this is a real issue – seems just like Banking, Fintech UK is male dominated

SIFTED REPORT by Amy O’Brien 'The gender pay gap at the UK's fintech unicorns'

10 of the UK’s 12 best-funded fintechs have a wider gender pay gap than the national average — which sees women earn 90.6p for every £1 men earn.

• Pet insurtech ManyPets is the worst offender: it pays women 50p for every £1 men earn.
• Zopa Bank, Atom Bank and Funding Circle all pay women less than 70p for every £1 men earn.
• Monzo and Starling were the only fintech unicorns that had a smaller pay gap than the national average — scraping in by 0.1p and 0.2p respectively. 

While a pay gap doesn’t necessarily mean a company pays women less for the same jobs as men, it does point to a lack of women in the highest-paid roles at startups. 

There's a dearth of women in the highest-paid roles at Europe’s two best-funded startups, Checkout com and Revolut, as well as open banking startup TrueLayer. 

Revolut also tells Sifted that of 26 partners at the company, just two are women. That leaves the neobank some way off its target of women making up 30% of its senior leadership by 2025. CEO Nik Storonsky has also told me in the past it’s “almost impossible” for a company of its size to hire equal amounts of women at different levels when it’s hiring so fast — especially across tech roles.

On the flip side, German B2B BNPL fintech Billie has a gender pay gap of 0% (as in men and women in the same roles are paid the exact same) — cofounder and general counsel Aiga Senftleben has told Sifted that having a female cofounder is invaluable and that there isn’t a lack of senior female talent, you just have to work harder to scout female leaders out.

So, is size really the issue? And how hard is it for women to enter the highest pay quartile in fintech? 

Are VCs falling out love with fintech? 

Fintech has been the best-funded tech sector in Europe since Sifted can remember. But first quarter funding figures for 2023 suggest it may be losing its lead. 

European fintechs raked in $2bn in the first three months of the year — a massive 83% drop from the same period in 2022.