The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK’s financial services regulator, has taken on five fast-growing companies into its Scale-up Unit, giving them tailored guidance as they expand, innovate and adjust to regulatory change.
ClearScore, Modulr, Teya, Urban Jungle and Zilch, which operate across payments, consumer finance, credit information and InsurTech, are the first companies regulated exclusively by the FCA to be accepted onto the programme. Applications for solo-regulated firms opened in May 2026 and closed on 22 June 2026.
The Scale-up Unit gives regulated firms a dedicated point of contact to help them work through the difficulties that come with rapid expansion.
Support covers areas such as understanding which regulatory processes apply to growth plans, coordinating with the regulator ahead of and during formal submissions including variation of permission applications, responding to new policy proposals and engaging with relevant sectors.
The unit runs two separate tracks, one for firms regulated jointly by the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and another for those regulated solely by the FCA, each with its own eligibility criteria and application process.
The initiative sits alongside other FCA programmes designed to guide firms from start-up through to scale-up, including Innovation Pathways, the Pre-Application Support Service (PASS) and the Early and High Growth Oversight function.
A pilot cohort of six dual-regulated firms, overseen jointly by the FCA and PRA, was announced in February 2026, with a second dual-regulated intake due to open soon.
Separately, between July 2025 and March 2026 the FCA ran an Early and High Growth Oversight pilot involving 15 firms from asset management, wealth management and payments, assessing whether their governance, risk management and control frameworks were keeping pace with their growth. Findings from that pilot, published on 10 August 2026, indicated that firms which invest early in governance, risk management and controls are better placed to manage growth-related opportunities and challenges while scaling sustainably.
Three of the five newly onboarded firms, ClearScore, Modulr and Zilch, also belong to the Unicorn Council for UK FinTech, a coalition set up by Innovate Finance that brings together founders and chief executives of UK FinTech unicorns with the aim of accelerating growth across the sector. The FCA notes that its innovation services have now supported more than 1,000 innovative and growing firms since launch.
FCA chief data, information and innovation officer Jessica Rusu said, “High-growth firms play a vital role in driving economic growth across the UK. We want the UK to remain one of the best places in the world to start, grow and scale a financial services business. That’s why we’re supporting ambitious firms as they scale, helping them navigate regulation and innovate with confidence.”
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