Barclays has opened a new innovation site in London’s Shoreditch that the company claims is Europe’s largest.

The Rise London site, situated at 41 Luke Street, will serve as co-working space for FinTech startups, corporate clients and other experts to develop new financial services.

Working along with other startup partners, Barclays will co-create new products, services and platforms at the new innovation site.

Barclays will collaborate with corporates, investors and industry experts across seven sites, including New York, Manchester, Mumbai, Cape Town, Vilnius, London and Tel Aviv.

In each location, the company will provide multiple programmes for open innovation, including Barclays Accelerator that is supported by Techstars.

Barclays Accelerator is a 13-week intensive startup, which connects startups to mentors from across Barclays and the Techstars network to develop next generation of Fin-Tech businesses.

The programs will help Barclays to work with Rise FinTech community to develop new models, long-term financial solutions and create relationships with the clients from various communities and markets.

Rise London is said to accommodate around 40 FinTech companies, as well as banking and technology teams from Barclays, It will also serve as a gathering place for leaders in the FinTech and venture capital communities. 

According to Barclays, Rise London will play host to about 200 hours of learning, workshops, hackathons and networking on a monthly basis. 

Barclays Group chief executive Jes Staley said: “We believe that technology must be a core competency of a global financial institution, and we intend to be a leader in the industry.  Last week we announced the creation of 750 new jobs in our UK technology centres. 

Barclays innovation group head Michael Harte said: “Rise is an open innovation platform to engage FinTech startups with customers and clients to invent new business solutions. Our vibrant community taps into the agile and disruptive nature of these ventures.”


Image: Barclays Group chief executive Jes Staley. Photo: courtesy of Barclays.