Scale-up Unit expands: the FCA picks its growth champions

The FCA has named ClearScore, Modulr, Teya, Urban Jungle and Zilch as the first solo-regulated cohort of its Scale-up Unit, extending a programme that began in February with six firms jointly regulated by the FCA and PRA (FCA). Alongside the announcement, the regulator published insights from a separate Early and High Growth Oversight pilot covering 15 asset management, wealth management and payments firms between July 2025 and March 2026 (FCA).

Key Executive Takeaways

• The FCA is formalising a two-track relationship with high-growth firms, offering tailored support to those it selects while raising expectations on governance, risk and controls as a condition of that access.
• Selection into the Scale-up Unit is becoming a de facto quality signal for investors, counterparties and acquirers, with implications for capital raising and commercial partnerships.
• Firms outside the programme should read the published pilot insights as a supervisory checklist, not optional guidance, particularly on control frameworks scaling in line with headcount and product expansion.

A selective form of regulatory access

The composition of the cohort matters. Three of the five, ClearScore, Modulr and Zilch, sit within the Unicorn Council for UK FinTech convened by Innovate Finance (FCA). The FCA is not running an open-door innovation scheme. It is selecting firms with scale, policy visibility and sector influence, and offering them what Jessica Rusu, chief data information and innovation officer at the FCA, framed as help to "innovate with confidence" (FCA). For boards, the practical read is that regulatory access has become tiered. Firms inside the tent get earlier sight of policy direction and a direct supervisory relationship shaped around growth. Firms outside it work through standard channels.

Governance is the entry ticket

The Early and High Growth Oversight pilot findings, published on 10 August 2026, concluded that early investment in governance, risk management and controls helps firms scale sustainably (FCA). That phrasing is deliberate. The FCA is telling founders and CFOs that control investment cannot lag revenue growth, and it is telling non-executive directors that the supervisory conversation will focus on whether frameworks have kept pace with the business. Applications for solo-regulated firms closed on 22 June 2026, and the next cohort will open soon (FCA). Firms considering applying should treat the interim period as a governance readiness exercise, because the FCA has already signalled it is looking at how control functions evolve alongside product and geographic expansion.

Stakeholder consequences beyond the regulator

Selection carries commercial weight. A place in the Scale-up Unit will be read by venture investors, banking partners and prospective acquirers as evidence of regulatory credibility, particularly for firms in payments and consumer credit where authorisation friction has historically slowed deals. It also reshapes competitive dynamics. Incumbent banks and insurers dealing with these firms as counterparties or distribution partners now face a group of challengers with structured regulatory engagement. That changes the negotiating posture on everything from safeguarding arrangements to data-sharing terms. The FCA has said it has supported more than 1,000 firms through its innovation services since launch (FCA), but the Scale-up Unit is a narrower proposition aimed at firms the regulator judges systemically relevant to the growth agenda.

The implication for senior leaders is straightforward. Regulatory relationships are being actively curated, and the firms that invest in governance ahead of the curve will find themselves shortlisted for the conversations that shape UK financial services policy over the next cycle.