Please stop using the F-word

It’s a marketing trick, not our purpose

Fintech is a glossy label to dazzle investors, flatter industry insiders and impress customers who might think it sounds ‘cool’. It comes across to me as slick and cold, which is the opposite of what ANNA is about. We are just people helping people and trying to be useful. That's our purpose, not trying to appear cutting-edge or hip.

It throws us in a blender

The finance landscape has changed enormously in the past decade. Lumping us into one big ‘fintech blender’ with crypto companies or buy-now-pay-later apps and trading platforms is like calling all shops ‘retail’. The term is now so generic that it erases what makes us – and many other businesses operating in this space – unique.

It hides the human side

“Fintech” sounds like it’s all algorithms and spreadsheets.

But we’ve also got a huge ‘human’ customer support team who are there to handle the complex requests the AI can’t handle. Issues that require a set of eye balls, a brain and a heart – i.e. common sense and emotional intelligence. I’ve seen our team patiently talking to a cafe owner through their tax return and helping a tearful contractor who has been defrauded by their regular client. That’s not “fintech” – that’s caring about SMEs.

It’s frozen in time

It’s like calling a smartphone a “gadget” in 2025 – technically true, but so what?

The word certainly doesn’t capture how ANNA is using AI to tackle all the boring, repetitive tasks that small businesses have to take on to keep them running smoothly and compliant. (Boringtech doesn’t have quite the right ring to it, does it?)

It doesn’t say who we are

What’s “fintech”? A company using tech for money stuff? That’s surely almost every company in the country?

Let’s bin the word. I love what we do – helping UK SMEs conquer financial admin with AI is no small feat. But we’re more than a buzzword that invites side-eyes. We’re problem-solvers, SME champions, and sometimes a bit of a lifeline. That’s the story we should be telling.