Warwick Business School opens Fintech Innovation Lab

Editorial

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Designed to serve as a global hub of fintech excellence, the lab is open to visiting academics, students and businesses and is fully equipped with high-specification computers, digital screens, VR headsets, voice-to-text AI Software and strategic AI tools.

The Centre was established with a £3 million donation from Clive Gillmore, an alum of WBS and founder and Group CEO of Mondrian Investment Partners. It also recently received a £1.25 million anonymous donation to establish a FutureFinance.AI Research Group to look into the emerging proptech market.

The Business School is also launching a new MSc Fintech qualification, with applications opening from September 2025.

Ram Gopal, director of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, says: “Fintech has the power to turbocharge the economy, and we aim to play a key role in enabling the West Midlands and the UK to become a science and technology superpower.

“The Fintech Innovation Lab will help to build on the School’s excellent research environment and with the business school and the University of Warwick generating more than £1.15 billion for the local economy, cement the School’s importance in the West Midlands.”

The West Midlands is gaining recognition as one of three fintech hubs in the UK, according to a report from local group SuperTech, revealing that the sector supports more than 11,000 jobs in the region.

With the sunk costs of establishing a base in London proving prohibitive, bootstrapped UK fintech startups are emigrating north, attracted by the region’s higher education insitutions and local talent pools.

The report highlights how Birmingham and the region’s fintech businesses have generated £474 million in economic output, and are on track to achieve over £1 billion.