Manchester-based fintech, AccessPay, has received the accolade in the scale-up entrepreneur of the year category, which seeks to recognise entrepreneurs whose businesses are growing on a rapid scale.
AccessPay are experts in connecting businesses with banks to make payments, cash management and financial messaging processes smarter, simpler and more secure. The business also recently secured a £3 million expansion funding deal supported by Barclays, to enable the scaling-up of their engineering and sales departments, which will be used to fund new product development reach a wider client base.
Founded in 2012 with just four team members, AccessPay began to grow at pace in 2015 when CEO Anish Kapoor joined the team. By 2019, AccessPay had grown to a staff of 90 based at their City Tower office in Manchester city centre, and now have plans to expand, creating 45 new jobs over the coming months.
AccessPay’s mission is to create tailored solutions for businesses and financial service companies, recognising the multitude of different methods and manual processes involved in making payments. The team are experts in designing bespoke, rather than ‘off the shelf’ solutions to automate these processes, leading to significant improvements in security and accuracy for their clients.
AccessPay CEO, Anish Kapoor said: “”I am delighted that AccessPay, a company from the North West, has been selected by Barclays Entrepreneur Awards as it highlights that entrepreneurs don’t need to move to London to support the UK’s economy by driving job growth and talent locally, attracting investment, and creating innovative products and services.”
Juliet Rogan, National Head of High Growth at Barclays, said: “It’s been a difficult time for businesses due to the coronavirus outbreak, which is why it’s more important than ever we celebrate entrepreneurs and recognise their achievements. The awards are a celebration of the exceptional innovation and leadership entrepreneurs’ show, helping to create social change and growth. This is the fifth year of the awards and as a regional winner AccessPay will go forward to the national stage, which will recognise businesses from across the UK.”
All regional winners will now go through to the national final, where an overall winner will be announced on November 26th, 2020. Ahead of the final, national judging will take place with key industry leaders, influencers and eco-system partners in order to select the eventual winner.
The awards bring the full entrepreneurial community together. This year, for the first time, Barclaycard are joining the event alongside Barclays Rise and Eagle Labs as partners of the Awards. This group wide initiative started five years ago and forms an integral part of our support for entrepreneurship across the bank.