NatWest Announces Firms Selected for Its 2026 Fintech Programme

WHY THIS MATTERS: NatWest Group’s cohort selection acts as a powerful bellwether for where institutional capital is aggressively moving within the artificial intelligence ecosystem. This is fundamentally a shift in focus, moving past generalized generative AI experiments toward high-stakes, action-oriented systems. The selected fintechs—spanning compliance, risk, collections, and treasury—are deploying Agentic AI: models designed not just to offer insights but to autonomously execute critical workflows. The inherent challenge for any financial institution is transforming vast customer data into tangible, auditable outcomes while operating under strict regulatory frameworks. By focusing on solutions for conduct risk assurance, financial crime, and identifying vulnerable customers, NatWest is prioritizing operational resilience. This validates that the most significant technological disruption in banking today will not be visible on the customer’s mobile app, but embedded deep in the middle and back office, where true efficiency and risk management are achieved.

NatWest Group has today announced the fintechs selected to take part in its 2026 Fintech Programme, following a competitive application process that attracted founders and innovators from across the UK. 

The new cohort brings together early‑stage fintechs applying artificial intelligence to some of the most pressing challenges facing financial services today, from customer experience and vulnerability to financial crime, compliance and risk. At a time when customer expectations are evolving rapidly, with growing demand for more personalised, accessible and secure financial experiences, working with fintechs supports innovating at pace to deliver better customer outcomes. The announcement marks the official launch of the programme and follows a founder roundtable hosted by NatWest. 

The 12‑week programme is focused on the theme “How AI is Shaping the Future of Customer Experience” and is designed to support pre‑Series A and Series A fintechs building safe, responsible and customer‑led AI solutions.  

Participants will work closely with NatWest’s Open Innovation team to explore potential collaboration opportunities across the bank, receive mentorship from senior leaders, and access to NatWest’s wider innovation ecosystem through in‑person events and workshops. 

The fintechs joining the 2026 cohort are: 

• Aveni – An AI platform purpose built for financial services, combining proprietary language models to enable agentic customer engagement, real time compliance and conduct risk assurance.
• Condukt – An always-on, agentic compliance platform delivering real-time business onboarding and automated decisioning across the customer lifecycle. 
• DeepFlow – A cross‑silo agentic orchestration layer for financial crime and risk operations, improving efficiency while maintaining human oversight. 
• Empath_AI – Vocal biomarker technology that helps banks identify and support vulnerable customers who may not disclose their needs. 
• Galveston Group – An AI‑native geopolitical intelligence platform mapping live global events directly to portfolio, trading and balance‑sheet risk. 
• Gradient Labs – AI agents built specifically for financial services to automate complex customer support and operational workflows with embedded guardrails. 

• Murphy AI– An AI‑first operating system for debt collections, using autonomous agents to improve customer outcomes while reducing operational cost. 

• Round Treasury – An agentic treasury and payments platform unifying banking, automations, payments, liquidity, and FX across more than 2,000 banks in real time. 

David Grunwald, Director of Innovation at NatWest Group, said: “All of the fintechs joining this year’s programme are using AI in innovative ways – whether maximising the opportunities it presents or providing solutions to some of the challenges faced by banks and our customers. From safer AI adoption and better protection for vulnerable customers, to smarter risk management and simpler business banking, this cohort demonstrates the power of focused collaboration. We are excited to work closely with these teams and explore how their solutions could help shape the future of banking.” 

The Fintech Programme is a cornerstone of NatWest’s innovation strategy and builds on the Group’s long‑standing commitment to supporting the UK fintech ecosystem. Several participants from the 2025 cohort went on to pursue deeper collaboration with the bank following the programme, including live pilots. 

For more information about the NatWest Group Fintech Programme, visit  www.natwest.com/fintechprogramme 

FF NEWS TAKE: This cohort significantly moves the needle by validating the institutional necessity of autonomous systems. It confirms that the future competitive battlefield is no longer just about innovation, but about governance. We see a clear, strategic move to leverage AI to minimize both operational friction and regulatory exposure. The next benchmark will be tracking which of these proofs-of-concept make it from the accelerator into full production, demonstrating they can deliver both transparency and auditability at the required institutional scale.