Ahead of her keynote speaking slot at The Future of FinTech conference, Kirsty Rutter, Strategic Investment Director (Corporate Venture Capital) at Lloyds Banking Group, talks to FStech about bridging the gap between FinTech innovation and corporate strategy – and offers a preview of the lessons, partnerships, and emerging technologies she’ll explore on stage.

Your keynote is titled “Bringing the outside in.” What does that mean in the context of FinTech innovation and Lloyds Banking Group’s investment strategy?

I set up the FinTech Investment Team three years ago to create a firm connection between Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) strategy and the amazing community of FinTech that operate across the UK and sometimes further afield: Our investment mandate is from Seed to Series B stage companies.

As a team, we work to support LBG business growth objectives and delivery, to understand and inform their strategy and create a connection that enables the delivery of their plan by partnering with the best companies we identify. Sometimes these introductions lead to partnership, and these partnerships can lead to investment. And that is how we bring the outside in, creating value on both sides; value for LBG which now has a connection with innovative market solutions and value to the FinTechs because now they have access to the expertise the network of Lloyds Banking Group.

What are the most significant trends shaping the FinTech landscape in 2025, and how are these trends redefining how the industry interacts with financial services?

Well, the biggest one is obviously agentic AI. We really haven’t heard much about anything else for the last six months. While agentic technologies may have been stealing the headlines, there has been a strong market narrative and much activity taking place in infrastructure technologies across payments, and banking technology supporting the transparency and the operating model of the future of financial services.

In both AI and distributed ledger technologies, our investments in Aveni, Ocula and Thought Machine are giving Lloyds Bank a front row seat in these exciting market changes.

You’ve highlighted consumertech, AgenticAI, and payments innovation as key areas of focus. What developments in these areas are you watching most closely?

All of these innovations are based on data, its value, its application and its interpretation.
Success in consumertech is led by outstanding personalised experiences that emerge from smart solutions and products that know what I want and when I want it. An understanding that is gained from the insight and data that profiles me and my preferences, my patterns of life and preferred styles of engagement. A huge chunk of this insight comes from the payments that underpin many of my decisions.

Agentic AI is only going to be brilliant if the data upon which it trains, learns and operates is brilliant. I’m hoping that the agentic technologies that are emerging will engage with me in ways I want and that it shows up in a consumer interface that solves a problem I genuinely have. I think it's going to be a combination of all of these things that starts to really change the value proposition for the consumer.

How does Lloyds identify and evaluate FinTech ventures for strategic investment, and what differentiates a promising opportunity from the rest?

People. What differentiates a promising opportunity from the rest is always the people.

An amazing founding team will pivot and respond to market to home in on product market fit. The culture of a successful company comes from the top. When you find amazing founders, you're investing in their ability to deliver on a vision aligned to your objectives – as an early-stage investor, you know full well the product's going to pivot many times before it gets locked down.

As for how we evaluate? There needs to be a strategic value identifiable by the business sponsor, who will partner with the portfolio company. And as investors, we will need to buy into the growth story. When both these are true, we will consider investing.

Can you share an example of a recent FinTech partnership that has delivered tangible value for Lloyds or its customers?

One of our early investments with Moneyhub back in 2022, has been hugely successful. Most recently the relationship has led us to partner with their market-leading technology, to categorise and enrich all retail and non-retail transactions across LBG’s extensive customer base and brands. This will support customers to understand what they spend their money on and improve their personalised digital banking experiences.

The application is set to revolutionise the way we interact with our customers, enabling more people to benefit from our services while increasing LBG profitability.

We also have many partnerships that are not investment companies – recently our partnership with ApTap, the benefits finder service in our digital banking app, which has driven incredible results for people looking to understand how they might benefit.

What are the biggest challenges facing FinTech innovators today, and how should established institutions work with them to drive progress?

Speed of change. And given the last couple of years, fundraising.

The FinTech world has always moved fast. Now the speed of change of technology is impacting the FinTech community as much as it impacts the banks. 18 months ago, everything was SaaS, today everything's agentic technology.

Whilst I hope we are seeing the early stages of more investment monies in the market; we are a way away from the volumes of 3-4 years ago. The scarcity of investment dollar is forcing a focus on profitability which supports sustainability, but some great FinTech companies have suffered if they misjudged how far they could go without managing burn rate smartly.

In your view, what makes a FinTech–bank collaboration truly successful in today’s fast-moving regulatory and technological environment?

Oh, that one's easy, we are back to people: this is all about leadership. Within the bank this means strong and attentive executive sponsorship, with high commitment. On the FinTech side, it’s a recognition that working with a large, regulated bank comes with some challenging processes – we’re not saying they shouldn’t be challenged but expecting to go from signing an agreement to live build in a few weeks is not yet a reality.

Where we’ve these behaviours we’ve also seen the greatest results and the most value created: teams co-locate, work from a single product roadmap and work every day to build and solve together at pace.

What can attendees expect from your session at The Future of FinTech conference, and what are you most looking forward to discussing with industry peers?

Well, I hope they enjoy it! I prefer to share stories than preach, so I'm hoping I'm going to bring to life some parts of the journey that the team and I have been on and that our lived experience will help others identify opportunities for themselves.

FStech's The Future of FinTech is taking place on 12 June at the London Hilton Tower Bridge. This event is open to professionals in IT, technology, security, compliance, digital transformation, innovation, risk and other technology and business functions across the financial services industry. Register now.

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