Close your round, scale your roadmap: how nearshore tech teams accelerate UK fintech growth

You’ve finally made it: your fintech funding round is closed. After all those hours finding investors, perfecting your pitch and sorting the paperwork, you might fancy a break. But while the champagne's still fizzing, it's worth thinking about what comes next.

Getting the money is just the starting line. Approximately 75% of companies that secure VC funding still end up failing, and 35% of businesses do not make it past Series A before closing their doors.

So what trips up new companies in the UK? And how might partnering up with nearshore, dedicated IT teams help UK fintechs stay on track and speed up their plans, short and long-term? Let's take a look.

Why UK fintechs struggle after funding

A quick word of warning...

Remember Fast? Founded in 2019, this e-commerce startup bagged over £120 million in investments, including cash from Stripe. The future looked bright, with the company eyeing that coveted $1 billion valuation.

By 2022, they’d shut up shop. The reason? Too many hires, poor marketing decisions, and just $600,000 revenue in 2021.

Besides the scale and widespread media coverage, The Fast’s case isn’t that uncommon. Approximately 75% of venture-backed fintechs fail, proving that gaining investment does not guarantee success. Just last year, nearly 1,000 startups closed in the US, a 25% increase compared to 2023.

Once you've got the funding, the clock starts ticking. Founders are no strangers to the pressure of the post-funding round to deliver and achieve ROI fast..

You need to deliver returns quickly, but you can't rush things either. It's a proper balancing act – sticking to your roadmap (or better yet, getting ahead of it) while carefully building your product and scaling up. On top of the usual post-funding challenges, there are UK-specific hurdles to watch out for when you're scaling and growing your fintech.

The challenges of UK founders after closing funding rounds

New people to answer to

With new investors on board, expectations shoot up. Growth targets, launch dates, revenue milestones – they’re all on the table now, and the pressure’s on to deliver fast.

Sustainable scaling

It’s easy to get carried away once the money lands. The bigger the financing, the higher the temptation to overspend, especially if you’re on an aggressive growth timeline. Staying focused and spending wisely is key to keeping your momentum without burning through cash.

Expanding your team

You’ll need more hands on deck to match your bigger goals. Scaling up your team with new hires without losing your culture, quality, and efficiency is one of the hardest balancing acts.

New responsibilities

At the start, founders are deep in the product or service. Post-funding, their role shifts to managing teams and stakeholders. This can prove a tough adjustment, particularly in the high-pressure UK fintech scene.

Maturing operations

As you grow, your processes and systems that worked earlier start to give in. Compliance, operations, internal workflows – they all need a serious upgrade, and doing it on the fly isn’t easy.

The challenges on your fintech roadmap in the UK

With over 3300 fintechs, the UK’s claim to fame as Europe’s top fintech hub is undisputed. And it has a user base to match: In 2024, more than 51 million UK citizens used fintech products just for digital payments. For 45% of them, investing and saving are the top financial priorities.

That said, the market isn’t easy for new contestants to enter. Half of all new UK companies fail to survive beyond their third year in business, and 52% of smaller fintechs express concerns about their financial solvency. What challenges can you expect when scaling your fintech in this market?

High operational costs

When you close a funding round, it’s tempting to dive straight into hiring and scaling. But for UK fintechs, relying on local tech talent can quickly burn through your cash. A large chunk of new capital secured often goes toward scaling headcount or infrastructure. While necessary, these expenses can put significant pressure on early revenue and increase the risk of failure if growth stalls.

Bear in mind that the UK is one of the most expensive places in the world for labour and operations. For example, the average software developer salary here is around £57,500 (~€67,000) a year. Compare that to about €43,000 in places like Poland, Bulgaria, or Romania, and you can see how much dedicated tech teams can lower your operational costs.

Regulatory and compliance complexity

UK fintechs also face a tough regulatory environment. Getting authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and, if needed, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), takes time and money. You also have to stay on top of GDPR, KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and CTF (Counter-Terrorist Financing) rules.

Automation helps. One of our European clients, an IT service provider, needed to scale up its finance unit to keep up with the annual 30% company growth. To help our partner sustain this pace and replace manual reporting and tax-related processes, we built a custom RPA solution. In just 3 months, the tool managed to speed up task execution 5 times while eliminating human error.

Intense funding pressure and VC expectations

With each funding round closed, it’s not just your capital that grows, but also the pressure on your business to deliver ROI and hit growth targets. And in the UK, that pressure is only getting stronger.

Despite slowing fintech investment, the UK remains the European leader in attracting capital, ranking as the third-largest VC market in the world. But today’s investors expect more: 

• 77% of investors expect funded companies to upskill their teams 
• There’s also a growing focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and innovation, especially around AI
• At the same time, rising interest rates make VCs more risk-averse and hungrier for quicker returns

The hidden risks of rush hiring post-funding

New funding brings brilliant opportunities – and serious pressure. There’s no silver bullet for the ensuing challenges, but strategic team building can be the difference between sustainable scaling and hitting the wall.

When you assemble teams in a rush, you often face difficult decisions later when the project needs shift. This isn't just a minor inconvenience; it creates real business problems and teams that are misaligned, overpaid, or simply not up to scratch, stalling your business growth.

Consider what happens after launching a major feature. With traditional hiring, you've got experts on the bench who may have nothing else to do. Do you keep them on payroll? Shoehorn them into roles they weren't hired for? And the real risk only shows when your next big challenge lands. By that time, your best people may already have moved on, burnt out from sitting idle, or demotivated by poor planning.

How do you avoid these pitfalls and maximise your new funds? 

In manoeuvring this challenge, flexibility is your ally. Post-funding, your focus should be on controlled, deliberate team growth, not panic hiring to plug holes. But there’s only so much your HR team can do alone, especially without access to deep, mature tech talent markets.

Because raw talent isn’t enough – you need flexibility and resilience, too. That means scaling up or down without lock-ins or hidden costs, while keeping your top performers engaged in meaningful work that builds loyalty.

Finding this balance without compromising quality might seem daunting. But it’s absolutely achievable with thoughtful team building through IT nearshoring from talent-rich countries like Poland, Ukraine, or Bulgaria. 

High-quality talent

The right people help you move faster and more securely, tackle complex challenges, and build high-quality products, making every penny of your funding work harder.

Poland has over 1 million developers and top-tier tech universities, such as the Warsaw University of Technology. In Bulgaria, there are more than 500 IT professional services firms, while Ukraine boasts over 200,000 IT specialists who excel in AI and blockchain. Developers from the region consistently achieve top ranks in global skills assessments, STEM Olympiads, and other technology skill championships, demonstrating the premium quality of their work.

Scalability, speed, stability

Massive talent pools still don’t matter if you can’t access them quickly. And doing it alone puts you on the slow track.

Instead, partnering with talent experts who've built networks across Eastern European tech hubs shrinks your timeline dramatically. You'll meet hand-picked developers in weeks, not months, without wading through countless CVs and conducting endless preliminary interviews. They’ve already passed a rigorous assessment and are ready to start when you are. How’s that so?

Dedicated team providers like us have spent years building relationships you don't have time to cultivate. We know exactly who to call, tapping on connections that would take you months to build alone. And all of this with no commitment to a permanent headcount. You can scale up for big projects, scale down when they're complete. Your team size matches your exact needs and budget at any moment.

Cultural and operational fit

Cultural fit comes as standard. Without it, the impact of even the most exceptional talent will fade. After all, you’re looking to build a team. And in teams, all the cogs must be aligned.

Tech experts in the CEE region are highly proficient in English and work from compatible time zones, meaning smoother collaboration and faster results. That helps. Additionally, unlike freelancers (who can disappear) or agencies (that often swap people out), a nearshore developer team usually stays with you in the long haul. Our 95.7% retention rate is the best testament to that, and deep cultural alignment plays a key role.

Lower competition for talent

While the UK, US, Germany and Netherlands face tech talent droughts, Eastern Europe offers a refreshing alternative. The region boasts a robust talent pool that grows substantially each year with thousands of fresh graduates, good news, especially for mid-sized UK businesses.

Back home, you face a particular challenge, competing with deep-pocketed corporations for scarce local talent, while your needs often exceed what startups require. Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria are your lifeboat. They offer access to versatile, cross-functional teams at significantly lower costs than in saturated Western markets, helping you build stable, loyal tech teams when local recruitment feels like a chore. For British businesses feeling squeezed between global giants and nimble startups, CEE tech hubs offer precisely the breathing room they need.

Cost-effectiveness

With hourly rates varying from $25 to $65 in the three countries, IT nearshoring can cut costs by 40-70% compared to the UK. Combined with exceptional coding skills, this makes Polish, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian developers a perfect pick for mid-size fintechs.

Lower costs also allow you to hit your milestones more safely, stretch your funding further, and invest more into the growth areas that matter most.

Fuel your fintech growth with IT nearshoring

Closing a funding round should be the start of real momentum, not a stumble. But too often, companies either ease off once the capital’s in or get overwhelmed, burning through their cash on things they don’t really need, bloated teams included.

Missed milestones, disgruntled investors, and even company failure – it can all be avoided with smart market research and sensible spending. Strategic hiring through a dedicated team partner can help you scale properly, whatever funding round you’re at.

With years of experience in IT nearshoring, we know how to help. If you’re ready to speed up your roadmap and grow wisely, let’s chat!