cheqd has been selected to join two of the UK’s most competitive growth programmes: the JPMorganChase Fintech Forward Programme and the Barclays Eagle Labs Scaleup Programme. Running in parallel, both programmes are designed to support high-potential companies that are solving meaningful problems with strong commercial potential.
Fraser Edwards, our CEO and co-founder and Javed Khattak, CFO and co-founder, are taking part in both programmes. Participation in these programmes is another indicator of cheqd’s growth as we scale trust infrastructure for decentralised identity and AI adoption.
About the Programmes
JPMorganChase Fintech Forward Programme
The Fintech Forward Programme is a 12-week accelerator focused on supporting emerging fintech leaders who are shaping a more equitable and resilient financial ecosystem in the UK. The programme connects founders to industry experts, corporate leaders, and investors across the bank’s extensive network.
JPMorganChase focuses on businesses that demonstrate real impact, particularly those solving challenges for underserved markets. cheqd was selected for our mission enabling verifiable and privacy-preserving trusted data, a critical need for financial services as compliance, fraud prevention and AI governance become central to growth.
Â
Barclays Eagle Labs Scaleup Programme (Powered by Plexal)
The Scaleup Programme is a three-month hybrid initiative designed specifically for high-growth technology companies in the UK. Delivered in partnership with Plexal, it brings together founders who are scaling commercially and operationally, providing them with structured support in three core areas: leadership and management, sales and go-to-market strategy, and finance and fundraising.
Barclays selected cheqd as one of the few companies in the cohort based on our commercial traction and growth opportunity in trusted data infrastructure across sectors like financial services, cybersecurity, AI governance, and enterprise compliance.
Key Learnings So Far
Although both programmes are still in progress plus different in focus and format, they have already provided cheqd with invaluable insights.
1. The Right Team Makes All the Difference
One of the striking lessons so far is how much having the right people in the right roles matters. Working alongside experienced mentors and fellow founders has highlighted the value of a team that combines technical know-how, commercial sense, and strong operational skills. These programmes have made it clear that growth is about execution, above any theoretical claims. Having the right mix of skills and perspectives speeds up decision-making, sparks innovation, and makes it easier to tackle the everyday challenges.
2. Improving How We Run Growth Experiments
Running growth experiments is a key part of scaling a company, as it gives us valuable feedback and helps us validate our use cases. Both programmes have offered frameworks and hands-on guidance to improve how cheqd tests and develops new initiatives. From setting up hypotheses more clearly to defining measurable success metrics, we’re learning to iterate faster and smarter. This means we can roll out initiatives with more confidence, avoid wasted effort, and focus on the strategies that really make a difference for our clients and users.
3. Learning the Best Practices
Being part of a cohort of high-growth companies has given us access to both good practices and proven approaches from peers and experienced founders. From customer engagement and go-to-market strategies to operational frameworks for scaling teams, these insights are highly practical. Unlike theory-led accelerators, both programmes focus on execution, with sessions led by operators who have real growth experience. This has helped cheqd improve strategic planning, define better metrics for product-market fit, strengthen leadership across teams, and avoid common scaling risks around hiring, capital, and timing.
4. Strategic Network Growth
Through Barclays and JPMorganChase networks, we’re meeting potential enterprise customers, exploring commercial collaborations, building new relationships with corporate innovation teams, and gaining exposure to investors focused on fintech, AI, and data infrastructure.
Impact on cheqd
Being part of both initiatives has helped us sharpen our go-to-market strategy by helping us test and refine our product-market fit across regulated industries.
Participation is also helping us expand our commercial pipeline through strategic introductions from programme mentors and corporate partners. Internally, the programmes have helped refine our focus and operational processes, bringing more clarity to growth planning and organisational priorities.
In addition, being selected by two respected institutions reinforces cheqd’s credibility and awareness in the market. It signals that trust infrastructure is becoming foundational for enterprises navigating digital risk, fraud, AI governance and compliance challenges. The validation and visibility gained through both networks continue to support our growth and fundraising position.
Benefits for the Community and Ecosystem
Our participation in these programmes doesn’t just benefit cheqd, it strengthens the ecosystem around us. As we open new commercial paths, these opportunities extend to system integrators, solution providers, and startups collaborating with us on trust data solutions. The insights we gain on regulatory alignment, data governance, and AI assurance directly shape our product roadmap, resulting in a stronger platform for those building on cheqd.
More broadly, this contributes to a shift towards verifiable digital interactions across industries. By making it easier for organisations to prove trust with evidence, we are helping create a digital economy rooted in transparency, accountability, and user control. This aligns with our long term vision of enabling trusted digital ecosystems while preserving privacy and data ownership.
