45. Pollinate

Founder: Fiona Roach Canning and Alistair Lukies
Founded: 2017
Website: pollinate.co.uk

Fintech has been one of the most glittering areas of the UK’s new business landscape for more than a decade, with Startups 100 alumni Monzo and Starling contributing to a star-studded cast of big funding winners.

London-based Pollinate is certainly no exception to that rule. In the past five years the company has picked up global bank clients including Natwest and Mastercard, grown to 200 employees, and raised a staggering £70m.

So what is it doing to attract such significant industry attention?

The brand’s redolent name should be your first clue. Pollinate partners with banks to distribute its unique arsenal of tools amongst their existing small business communities, thereby planting the seeds for growth.

In the past five years the company has picked up global bank clients including Natwest and Mastercard, grown to 200 employees, and raised a staggering £70m.

At Startups, we love an organisation that’s helping other new businesses to succeed. Through the Pollinate digital hub for business management, SMEs – a critical market for banks – can access capital, digital loyalty schemes, marketing tools, insights, and the ability to take payment.

Excitingly, it takes under 10 minutes for Pollinate to sign up new customers through its ‘self-service onboarding process’, creating a smoother experience for small business users, and generating savings of more than £1m a year for banks.

At Startups, we love an organisation like Pollinate that’s helping other new businesses to succeed.

Combined, the Pollinate list of banking partners represents a community of more than 2 million SMEs and 26 million consumers globally. But Pollinate’s buzzing team wants even more bank-customer relationships to bear fruit, and plans to have expanded into “at least” three new regions by 2027.

Just one bee colony can pollinate up to 20 million flowers in a single day. Judging by the current rate of Pollinate customer onboarding, we won’t be surprised if it can rival that statistic in 2023.