Our CFO and Head of Membership and Growth, Thin Chambers and Rashee Pandey, were in Silicon Valley on the 21st February to bring our UK-US FinTech Forum to the West Coast. 

It was fantastic to welcome FinTechs and investors based in the West Coast to our Google- hosted event, taking place at their PartnerPlex headquarters in Mountain View, California. Many thanks to our gracious hosts Google for providing such a wonderful setting.

Rashee kicked off proceedings with a panel discussion on the topic of scaling to and from the UK and the US. Joining her was Nello Franco, CCO, Onfido; Mohit Narula, Managing Director, Citi and Paula Paschoal, Managing Director, Global Partnerships, Google Pay. We were also delighted to welcome Joe White MBE, British Consul General in San Francisco and Technology Envoy to the US, and his colleagues. 

The conversation addressed issues such as UK - US Financial Innovation Partnerships, differences in scaling and adoption of digital technologies across the Atlantic, and continuing resilience in investment levels amidst high levels of global disruption. We thank all of our generous speakers and panellists for their valuable comments and contributions to the discussion.

After a short Q&A session with the panellists, Jeremy Goro, Head of Financial Services Strategy & Partnerships, Google UK, hosted Rich Widmann, Head of Web3 and Digital Assets, Google Cloud, for a fireside chat. This was followed by a presentation from Chengpeng Mou, Partner, CapitalG. They discussed the current state of blockchain and cryptocurrency spaces, as well as the role Google and CapitalG will play and supporting this innovative ecosystem. Many thanks to Rich, Jeremy, and Chengpeng, for their insightful discussion.

Before finishing the day with a networking session, we heard closing remarks from Jeremy Goro and Kyle Dewees, Business Development Manager, London & Partners San Francisco. In addition to colleagues at the Department for Business and Trade, we especially thank the West Coast London & Partners team for their guidance and support in promoting this event.

We will next be back in the USA - visiting New York - between 22-25 May 2023. If you’d like to meet us then, please let us know by emailing international@innovatefinance.com.