Barclays Rise and Rainmaking partnership

British multinational bank Barclays is expanding Rise with a new set of programmes run by Rainmaking. 

Created by Barclays, Rise is described as a global community of innovators operating fintechs around the world, while connecting start-up and scale up businesses. 

A recent press release announced that corporate venture builder Rainmaking has been chosen as an innovation partner and will support Barclays’ Rise Start-Up Academy with a launch of new suite initiatives to help companies around the globe grow and develop.

The company stated that they would focus more on detailed support around investment readiness, recruitment, sales and leadership in their Rise Growth Academy launch later this year. 

In addition to this, a ‘FinTech Venture Studio’ will also go live later in the year and will focus on co-developing new FinTech ventures through working with Barclays’ own internal talent, start-ups along with other companies and partners.

Barclays stated that this partnership will help support the company’s ambition with transforming their banking services for customers. Their innovation team will also help guide the start-ups with the development of new products and services. 

Barclays Group Chief Innovation Officer, Mariquit Corcoran, commented: “We have been humbled and changed by the incredible FinTechs we have worked with, and we understand first-hand the power of collaboration to evolve and unlock opportunities for our customers, clients, colleagues and the communities in which we operate. 

“We are very excited to work with Rainmaking to further push the boundaries of corporate innovation and ensure collaboration is at the heart of our FinTech strategy.”

Composed of a team of entrepreneurs, strategists, product experts, developers, designers and investors, corporate innovation Rainmaking brings a lot of experience to the table.

Rainmaking Europe’s CEO, Chris Locke, said: “We are working with Barclays to drive positive change and play an active role in stimulating growth and opening up future revenue opportunities for founders of new businesses.

“By providing the tools to enhance digital skills, founders can build and scale their businesses for future revenue growth. The new suite of meaningful and cutting-edge FinTech programmes will combine the power of entrepreneurship, whilst unlocking the scale strengths and the deep domain expertise of Barclays.”

The Global Head of Programmes and Strategic Initiatives at Barclays Innovation Office, Sonal Lakhani, will be leading the newly formed partnership with Rainmaking. 

Through this partnership, Barclays will continue to expand the limits of corporate innovation and expand their role of supporting the creation and scaling of early-stage FinTechs. 

Those participating in the programme will be able to join the ‘largest single-bank alumni of seed-stage FinTechs’ with a market cap at £5.7 billion.
For more information on the partnership, you can visit https://sbcaspire.io/risestartupacademy/ to find out more.