The bank launched Kinetic in beta in February 2020. Peter McIntyre, the bank’s small business banking head, recalls the soft launch. It commenced after one of his last meetings in the Waterloo WeWork before the UK went into lockdown.
Prior to its beta, a UK-based team of around 150 had been working on Kinetic since 2018. Nadya Hijazi, HSBC’s global head of digital business banking channels, heads up the team, which works in tandem with McIntyre’s operations.
Hijazi tells FinTech Futures the digitally native app has accumulated some 4,500 SME customers through self-selection, having initially given 1,500 start-ups access to the beta offering.
