GLASGOW-based financial technology firm Soar has created 15 jobs after winning £450,000 official funding as it aims to help credit unions and the like capitalise on the rise of the smartphone.
Soar won a research and development grant from Scottish Enterprise to support the development of an online platform the firm reckons will help not-for-profit lenders compete with bigger commercial players.
Read more: Scots fintech firm in US acquisition
Scottish Enterprise said Soar’s pioneering software will allow lenders to make better and faster loan decisions and offer state-of-the-art online and mobile banking products to their members.
Soar’s executive chairman Andrew Duncan said the software could help “ethical” providers respond to rapid changes in the financial services market without requiring them to have IT budgets on a par with established online banks.
“By next year over 80 per cent of financial transactions will be carried out on smartphones,” said Mr Duncan.
“Ethical providers need to leap forward to become digital first and remain relevant for the next generation of savers and borrowers – millennials.”
Read more: Financial technology firm grows profits amid Brexit uncertainty
Founded by Mr Duncan in 2017, Soar has already developed a mobile banking app for credit unions. The R&D grant allowed it to increase employee numbers to 22 from seven.
Public Finance and Digital Economy Minister, Kate Forbes MSP, said: “Projects like Soar’s help sustain Scotland’s international reputation for innovation.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here