University of Cambridge student wins Fintech Scholarship prize from Quotezone.co.uk

A University of Cambridge student has won a £1,000 bursary after exploring the role of fintech in sustainability.

Ella Henry, a MPhil student studying biological sciences, was named the winner of the Fintech Scholarship, an initiative from financial comparison platform Quotezone.co.uk designed to foster greater diversity in the sector by asking students from outside the world of fintech to explore what it could potentially offer them.

Ella’s piece, titled ‘Fintech in a finite world: The price of protecting our planet’ discussed how technology had enabled greater efficiencies, but could also be responsible for consuming greater resources. She discussed the enormous carbon footprint of a Bitcoin transaction, compared to using Mastercard, and the Bitcoin Zero initiative to tackle the problem.

Ella’s bursary is designed to help with education fees and materials.

As a sector, fintech is growing fast. There are now 13 UK cities with at least 10 fintech companies, estimated to employ nearly 53,000 people.

Greg Wilson, the fintech entrepreneur behind Quotezone.co.uk, said: “Ella’s insightful blog post was one of many interesting entries in their year’s scholarship. It’s encouraging to see so many students proactively researching and discovering fintech - from all educational backgrounds. Diversity is key to building an innovative team for the future.

“I studied mechanical and manufacturing engineering and started my career as a Stress Engineer at Bombardier Aerospace before I created Seopa. Now our brands

CompareNI.com and Quotezone.co.uk are household names in financial comparison technology.”

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