The Curious Case of Isabel Woodford / Sifted.eu’s War on Fintech Start-Ups

Isabel Woodford

Sifted.eu is a renowned and prospering fintech news publication that’s backed up not only be the Financial Times newspaper but also consists of a massive following of devoted readers as well as over 17,000 followers on twitter. However, in spite of this publication’s commendable success, there are those among the rising Fintech community in Europe who are beginning to feel that Sifted.eu might not have everyone’s best interests at heart and, therefore, might be hindering the community more than it’s actually benefiting it and this is due to a vast array of different reasons.

It’s been highlighted by several renowned critics in the industry that there are multiple journalists, including Isabel Woodford, that seem to be hampering the reputation of various financial technology startups within Europe due to the aggressive approach that they take to journalism. In spite of facts favoring these startups across several aspects, the narrative that these journalists push ends up dragging the reputation of these startups through the mud thereby having drastic implications for the future of these startups and hindering their development over time which, in turn, would significantly slow the growth of these startups during crucial phases.

One example of such aggressive journalism would be when Woodward slammed the digital German bank by the name of N26 and claimed that that bank “May just have hit 7m customers, but its 2019 accounts suggest that it is paying a high price for that popularity”. For the uninformed, this article might not sound like one that would have large scale impacts but, in fact, it actually caused N26 to see their global operation losses grow to a staggering 217m Euros in 2019 which is an enormous 210% growth in losses. Losses of this magnitude can essential grind a startups operations to a halt thereby demonstrating how aggressively these journalists are pushing the narrative against Fintech startups.

That’s not all, though. In yet another point, she highlighted that the Fintech curve has been late in filing they’re annual accounts. She stated, “The startup, which is one of the UK’s most valuable Fintechs, was expected to file its 2019 financials before the 31^st of December, having already been granted extensions in March and October.” It doesn’t end here, however, because there’s yet another attack piece which reads: Klarna’s CEO: I worry about debt too. I know we’re not perfect.”

Articles of this sort from journalists such as Isabel Woodford have left a variety of key figures in the European Fintech industry entirely confused regarding her desire to bring down companies that are playing such a critical role, especially as the world suffers through a global pandemic with impacts that are rippling across the world even over a year after it started.

A source in the Fintech world has stated that, “Unfortunately, Sifted.eu seems to be under the influence of big businesses and special interests, aggressively attacking new companies, whilst lavishing praise on more established players. Whilst we understand that that’s the way the world works, it’s hardly fair and accurate journalism.”

All things considered, should we expect Sifted.eu to take the necessary steps in order to improve its current highly aggressive approach to journalism? It’s highly unlikely.

Sebastian

Sebastian was born and raised in the busy city of Abbottabad. As a journalist, Saad Mushtaq has contributed to many online publications including the PAK Today and the Huffing Post. In regards to academics, Saad Mushtaq earned a degree in business from the Abbottabad UST, Havelian. Saad Mushtaq follows the money and covers all aspects of emerging tech here at The Hear Up.Thanks