This month marks the first anniversary of Westbourne Partners’ New York office – an office that has enjoyed 100%+ revenue growth year on year. The firm, a boutique specialising in a number of niche business areas including AI, banking, quantitative trading and fintech was born in London but the explosion in fintech in the US has been instrumental in the its recent growth and was the driving force behind the launch of the New York office in 2017.

“It’s a natural hub for the fintech market” explains Richard Broomhead who heads up Westbourne Partners’ US operation. “While the accepted view is that Silicon Valley is the main hub, New York is currently slightly ahead in terms of numbers of start-ups.” The firm sources strategic leadership talent for the whole fintech ecosystem: the software companies that build the technology, the private equity and venture capital companies that have portfolios of fintech companies – and of course the fintech firms themselves.

“It’s a market that demands a lot from search firms – fintech is a highly competitive area and there is a distinct lack of leadership talent openly looking for opportunities. It’s also a constantly evolving market – larger firms are merging with smaller players and traditional financial services and consultancies are now partnering or even acquiring fintech firms in order to take advantage of their expertise and offer added value and innovation to their clients. That means that the range and types of talent needed is also evolving necessitating a high degree of subject matter expertise from search firms.” This is just one of the reasons that the company has recently hired a former head of talent acquisition from one of the biggest fintech companies in the world. “It’s testament to our reputation that we are able to attract that sort of quality”, says Broomhead.