London Summit Fintech Panel
During our Fintech Panel at last year’s Forex Magnates London Summit, one of the topics of conversation was hiring. A challenge for fintech companies is finding staff with both an understanding of the financial markets and technology. The result is that some hires may be able to build amazing products, but never really grasp the idea that it has to be as low latent as possible to satisfy the needs of traders and 90% good isn’t good enough. On the other hand, to become disruptive in the financial industry, fintech firms need to be able to provide solutions that are introducing efficiency to finance users through technology. During the panel, the dual nature of finance and technology was apparent in the responses from the panelists who were mixed on their view of whether to focus hiring of candidates with stronger finance or technology backgrounds.
Creating a potential solution for the industry is untapt, an automated jobs platform focused exclusively on the fintech sector which launched this week. Created by a founding team of former technology managers at global banks as well as recruitment experts, untapt aims to provide an algorithm-based jobs board to match technology candidates with financial firms such as banks, hedge funds, consultants and startups.
The launch occurs as the fintech industry has become one of the hottest markets for venture capital investment, having raised record levels of funding last year. The result is that there is more competition between firms for potential candidates. This includes fintech firms themselves battling it out for top hires, as well as competing against larger financial institutions that are filling technology positions in their firms.
To find a match, according to untapt, its algorithms analyze factors such as experience, skills, cultural fit, career stage and industry-specific Analytics . Like other data-based products, untapt believes its system will improve as its network of candidates and companies expand and its technology can learn more about its users to predict better fits.
Commenting about the need to apply an automated strategy for technology recruiting in the financial industry, Ed Donner, co-founder and CEO of untapt, stated in the firm’s public remarks, “The financial services industry has become increasingly tech driven, creating a tremendous need for great tech talent to help drive innovation, regulatory compliance, and more. Yet with more than 15 million technologists in the world and over 400,000 tech jobs to fill in financial services, there has been no way to easily connect the two.” Donner added, “Through my own experiences hiring and managing engineers at JPMorgan and other firms, I faced this challenge first-hand. I'm thrilled to have teamed up with some of the top influencers in finance, recruiting, and technology to change the process for companies and candidates alike."
