Ulster University student is crowned Northern Ireland fintech scholar of the year

Northern Ireland fintech company Seopa Ltd has announced the winner of this year’s Fintech Scholarship.

Winner Kenna White, an Environmental Science student from Ulster University, Coleraine campus, wrote an intuitive piece, entitled Bitcoin’s Environmental Parlay, touching on the sustainability factors influencing the fintech sector.

Kenna wins a £1,000 bursary to help cover any educational fees such as textbooks, course materials and living expenses.

The initiative is designed to help foster greater diversity in the sector by asking students to explore from outside the world of fintech to explore what it could potentially offer them.

Northern Ireland has been hailed as a key epicentre for growth in the fintech sector, employing 39,000 people with Belfast ranking as the world’s top destination for financial technology investment projects.

Danielle McWall, head of the department of accounting, finance and economics at Ulster University, explained: “The region has an exceptionally high concentration of FinTech employment with the proportion of FinTech roles higher than anywhere else in the UK, generating proportionally 2.5 to 5 times more Gross Value Added than any other region.”

Parent company of financial comparison platform CompareNI.com, Seopa’s approach to fostering greater diversity in its sector has been hailed by politicians, academics and business leaders across the UK.

Alex Lee, chairman of FintechNI, continued: “We are delighted to endorse this important initiative from one of our member firms Seopa. Northern Ireland is now recognised as a leading global fintech hub, but maintaining that position into the future relies on the continued supply of quality talent into the sector.”

Greg Wilson, the fintech entrepreneur behind CompareNI.com, added: “Congratulations to our Fintech Scholarship winner, Kenna White, from Ulster University. Kenna’s insightful blog post was one of many interesting entries in their year’s scholarship.

“It’s encouraging to see so many students proactively researching and discovering fintech from all educational backgrounds. Diversity is key to building an innovative team for the future. I studied mechanical & manufacturing engineering and started my career as a stress engineer at Bombardier Aerospace before I created Seopa, now our brands CompareNI.com and Quotezone.co.uk are household names in financial comparison technology.”

Seopa has been recognised with six Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards, and has been awarded a Deloitte Best Managed Company Award each year for the past five years – now a Gold Standard Best Managed Company since 2020.

As a leading fintech employer, Seopa has been investing in recruitment throughout lockdown, with new fintech roles currently available.

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