Where Silicon Roundabout Meets the City, Flame PR’s Sparks Fly

by Melissa Sidnell

Flame PR’s London office places us where finance and technology converge.
One of London’s charms is its rich and vibrant history: At the Museum of London – (perfect for a lunchtime visit for  some of Flame’s more culturally inclined members) remnants of the Roman city wall jut up against displays of London’s digital future.

Flanked by the City on one side and Old Street’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’ on the other, Flame PR sits at the junction between London’s traditional and novel industries. Within walking distance of London’s financial heart and its dynamic tech hub, our central location places us at the heart of the digital economy. 

As old and new rub noses, there is great potential for new and exciting innovations. New research published by Fintech Global this week shows that London is still leading the way in fintech, despite the UK’s imminent departure from the European Union. London fintech companies attracted more than three times as much investment as Berlin, its closest competitor, in the first three months of 2017.

At Flame PR, we are interested not only in the vibrant fintech start up scene, but also in the ramifications for the traditional financial services industry. As we look towards the City from the Silicon Roundabout vantage point, we wonder how the industry will change in order to compete with fast-moving tech companies.  

Of course, traditional financial providers have all the benefits of long establishment – a large customer base, brand recognition, large global teams, existing revenue streams – on their side, and with the right digital innovations, they stand a good chance of remaining strong competitors within the sector.

The close proximity between the City and London’s best known tech hub has certainly helped to breed ideas. Situated at the meeting point of these two worlds, we at Flame PR work on being an intermediary between two industries sometimes speak in different languages. Unlike our company namesake (as our team often say on the phone “Flame, as in fire”) our aim is to create light rather than heat.