Judges from Google, Stripe, Volution, City of London Corporation and SBI recognised Serene and Yavrio as the startup and scaleup winners of Innovate Finance’s Pitch360 competition
London, 24 April 2026 – Serene and Yavrio have been crowned the winners of premier FinTech competition Pitch360 2026 as part of UK FinTech Week, sponsored by Volution. Hosted at Level39 by Innovate Finance, the industry body for UK FinTech, the competition recognises the innovative startup and scaleup companies that have the potential to power the future of finance in the UK, and showcase how FinTech innovation can help drive the growth agenda and transform financial services in several UK regions.
In a Dragons’ Den style format, FinTech companies each had three minutes to pitch their innovative concepts to a panel of esteemed judges, including senior leaders from Stripe, Google, Volution, City of London Corporation and SBI.
Serene
Following an emotive pitch by Founder and CEO Savannah Price, Serene was awarded the best Start-Up prize, securing complimentary Innovate Finance membership for one year, providing access to a powerful network and growth opportunities.
Seren was designed to bring financial care to an era of digital isolation. By looking at the anonymous transaction data of users, Serene can help banks notice the early signs of financial distress and work to prevent fraud before money has left the bank.
The other cutting-edge startup finalists included BEYLA, an AI-native business operating system; PROMS.AI, an enterprise risk and regulatory reporting platform; REGULEX AI, AI-driven infrastructure designed for faster, smarter decisions for investment servicing; and Sync Savings, an embedded payroll infrastructure platform making automated financial wellness a standard workplace benefit.
Savannah Price, CEO of Serene, said: “This recognition reflects a broader shift in financial services: from reacting to risk to understanding people earlier. At Serene, we’re building the behavioural intelligence layer that helps institutions identify risk before it turns into fraud, financial distress or customer harm – bringing empathy into decision-making at scale. This is a real credit to our team and partners who are bringing this to life in practice. We’re grateful to Innovate Finance for the platform, and to Volution Capital for sponsoring such a fantastic event. Congratulations as well to the other finalists! It’s a privilege to be building alongside such impressive fintechs.”
Yavrio
CEO John Lewis secured a Scale-Up victory for Yavrio, a fast-growing open banking platform, designed to connect internal financial infrastructure by implementing live bank feeds, embedded payments and automated reconciliations directly into one interface.
Yavrio’s work using open banking to overcome fractured Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) models was recognised by the judges for its ability to move past fundamental systemic friction inherent in financial services.
The other inspirational Scale-Up finalists included Gemba, an infrastructure provider enabling non-financial businesses to launch fully compliant, white-label banking apps; Platform-D, a digital financing platform transforming e-invoices into digital securities for instant funding and steady returns; Tokenovate, a SaaS solution modernising post-trade operations through programmable architecture and smart contracts; and Xapien, an AI-powered due diligence platform automating complex background research.
John Lewis, CEO of Yavrio, said:“This award is huge for us. We’re proud to be part of the UK FinTech scene, and the leader in embedded finance for ERP. Enterprise finance systems have so far been left behind by the FinTech era. Yavrio changes this by seamlessly embedding open banking and multirail payments directly into finance teams’ existing workflows. Many of the world’s leading CFOs are already turning to Yavrio to automate reconciliation, reduce fraud risk, and help make money move. We’re very grateful for this industry recognition which will further fuel our global growth.”
Janine Hirt, CE of Innovate Finance, said:“Pitch360 is where the next generation of cutting-edge FinTechs get their moment in the spotlight – in front of the investors, partners, and leaders who can help the brilliant founders take their companies to the next level. The quality of this year’s finalists reflects the extraordinary depth of talent across the UK FinTech ecosystem, and it is fantastic that we are able to showcase these up-and-coming innovators. Congratulations to the two deserving winners – Serene and Yavrio – who truly embodied the innovation and ambition that Pitch360 is all about.”
See also:
UK fintech backed to embrace future payments technology | Disruption Banking
Tube Strike or Not, UK Fintech Is Unstoppable: What IFGS 2026 Revealed | Disruption Banking
