Banks, insurance, payment and asset management companies continue to transform into more digitised, customer-focused and flexible business that face challenges in the quickly evolving fintech ecosystem.
After the global financial crisis in 2008, the financial industry has lived in a low-interest-rate environment, with quantitative easings and much monetary expansion. These developments over the past decade, in theory, should favour the retail banking business but have not necessarily and always translated into credit expansion, due to stricter and more rigorous regulations imposed on them. Low interest rates are not as favourable to insurance businesses, according to conventional economic wisdom.
This could, however, change as central banks decide to tighten monetary policy and raise interest rates with apprehensions of another recession which may be just around the corner.
The banking industry faces certain profitability challenges due to regulatory frameworks and breaks but the overall prospects for it remain optimistic. The 2019 Banking Industry Outlook report by consulting and auditing firm Deloitte summarises the current situation of the industry in rather positive terms: “The global banking system is not only bigger and more profitable but also more resilient than at any time in the last 10 years. According to The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks Ranking for 2018, total assets reached $124 trillion, while return on assets stood at 0.9%. Similarly, tier one capital ratio as a proportion of assets rose to 6.7%, significantly higher than in 2008.”
The report notes, however, that this global growth of banking has not been uniform across regions: “US banks, compared to their European counterparts, are ahead on multiple measures. Aggressive policy interventions and forceful regulations helped propel US banks to health more quickly. And more recently, favourable GDP growth, tax cuts, and rising rates have further bolstered the state of the industry….[In Europe] structural deficiencies, overcapacity, low or negative interest rates, and the absence of a pan-European banking regulatory agency have all likely contributed to European banks experiencing persistent profitability challenges.”
The region that registered most growth in its banking sector over the past decade is China but, as the Deloitte report explains, trade disputes with the United States may seriously affect the long-term sustainability of that growth: “The Chinese banking industry has surpassed that of the European Union in terms of size. The world’s four largest banks in 2018 are Chinese; in 2007, none of the top 10 banks in the world were Chinese. Chinese banks are also doing well in terms of profitability—the larger banks reported a 15.3% return on equity in 2017. However, the concern with economic growth and the tariff war with the United States are already affecting prospects.”
Burdensome regulation and uneven expansion are not the only hurdles the banking industry faces. Much bigger and more worrisome are perhaps the technological challenges stemming from the digital world. As bank customers are turning more tech-savvy, the sector becomes riper for transformation. Many customers do not even use physical branch offices, resulting in the shutdowns across the globe. Many customers of this new digital world demand genuine customer-centricity, which calls for further rationalisation of ways to target customer segments. As a corollary of this deep and permanent digital transformation, banking institutions need to leverage new technologies to better understand and serve customers.
And banking institutions have not been laggards in adopting new emerging technologies. They are normally faced with the option to either develop such helpful technologies internally or source them externally via partnerships or investments in emerging businesses, whether minority stakes or full-scale acquisitions. As the Deloitte report puts it, they have even become excited about certain technologies and not without a good reason: “While the wild enthusiasm with blockchain has tapered off, the industry continues to sail toward a blockchain future. However, the energy might now lie with artificial intelligence and cloud, as they are already transforming many aspects of banking in significant ways.” The report also notes the increasing importance of data management and challenges, which may translate into opportunities: “Although data is plentiful, it is often not easily accessible, clean enough, nor integrated.”
The interactions of banks with the world of tech innovation which transforms their industry has already resulted in a shift of perception of the rising fintech businesses developing, such as technology and solutions. Rather than being perceived as a threat, newcomers are increasingly viewed as providing an opportunity. As the report explains: “Fintechs are increasingly no longer seen as scrappy adversaries – collaboration with incumbents is more the norm.” The report unwaveringly concludes on the matter of digital transformation: “No doubt many banks have embraced digital transformation across the banking and capital markets value chain.”
A symbiosis between the emerging fintech and the incumbents in the banking sector is indeed a likely outcome. Aside from having the resources to respond to disruptive pressure, banks also seem to boast certain “competitive advantages”. In the first place, complex regulatory frameworks in developed and large economies may often create serious barriers to entry for new challengers. Secondly, it is often something as simple as switching costs, actual or perceived, that prevent many a customer to switch providers. Despite this, fintechs have already left their indelible trace on the banking sector by helping incumbents with their enhancing of user experience.
The payments space has been one of the most the disrupted areas. The advent of connected mobile technologies has increased the choice of payment solutions for consumers, which has intensified competition and increased adoption, according to the Deloitte report: “Payments [continue] to be one of the most disruptive and dynamic banking businesses. Innovations spanning the spectrum from incumbents to fintechs alike are reshaping the payments landscape, boosting customer expectations, and intensifying competition globally. With friction endemic in almost every legacy payment system, the search for frictionless digital payment experiences continues. PayPal, for instance, crossed 250 million active users worldwide. Apple Pay and Amazon Go are bringing in new users rapidly. Similarly, in China, Tencent and Alipay are setting new records for digital payment transactions. In fact, contactless in-store payments are expected to total $2 trillion globally by 2020.”
The report also notes that payments have drawn in more M&A transactions around the globe. A case in point would be PayPal’s $2.2bn acquisition of corporate-backed Sweden-based mobile payment technology developer iZettle, whose previous corporate backers included chipmaker Intel, Spain-based bank Santander as well as credit card payment operators American Express and Mastercard.
The increased competition in payment services is leading to commoditisation, which is expected to make it harder for card issuers to drive volume-based fee growth. This would force them to look for more differentiation into areas like B2B payments, cross-border payments and ancillary services. Data and data-driven insights are bound to play a crucial role in this shift. As Banking Industry Outlook points out harnessing the power of data will require organisational transformations to make them more customer-centric, which may open up opportunities for innovative businesses: “Unlocking the full value of data in designing new services or strengthening security may be difficult unless there is a concerted effort to bring together disparate data across different business lines and systems, however. Therefore, incumbents should consider restructuring their organisations around customer solutions rather than products. This could improve organisational agility and enhance customer experience.”
Another area of banking and financial services that is being seriously disrupted is wealth management. Digitisation has democratised financial advice, previously affordable for high-net-worth individuals only. There has been a substantial shift toward low-cost financial advice (robo-advisers) and low-cost or zero-cost passive investment products (the first no-fee ETFs as well as feeless trading services like Robinhood).
Despite these trends that put a downward pressure on the bottom line, the Deloitte banking report points out that in times of relative exuberance such as the present, wealth management remains a profitable business: “Wealth management remains one of the best-performing businesses for banks globally. Fuelled by positive macroeconomic trends, robust stock market performance, continued movement toward fee-based versus transaction-based relationships, and favourable demographic shifts, wealth management businesses have achieved impressive top- and bottom-line performance.” The report, however, also notes that the profitability of this space is owned to high-net-worth clientele.
In alternative lending, non-bank lenders seek opportunities within underserved market segments and play a significant social role. And there is no shortage of such market niches. According to data of the SME Finance Forum, cited by Business Insider, there was an estimated funding gap sized at $5 trillion between the financing needs of small and medium businesses and institution-based financing for them in 2018. It is, however, difficult to predict the longer term impact of alternative lenders on the industry, as there are not enough data on loan repayments and default rates under different economic conditions.
One potential competitive threat in terms of fintech disruption may come from large technology, internet, social media and e-commerce companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Alibaba (also known as GAFAA). The threat such companies may pose is significant, as there are already good examples of powerful internet companies like Tencent and Alibaba going into the payments business, for instance, and grabbing a significant market share in their home country.
According to the Deloitte report, the relationship between banks and bigtech is somewhat tense, though not entirely antagonistic: “With increasing industry convergence, the relationship between the banking industry and bigtech can be characterised as a bit guarded. Banks typically need bigtech, and in some ways bigtechs also need banks, as the banking industry remains a big revenue source for many technology companies.”
The other major area of the financial services sector, insurance, is also undergoing significant transformations. The 2019 Insurance Industry Outlook by Deloitte highlights favourable short-term developments that have helped to bolster financial results of insurers from 2018, noting that the US insurance industry appears to have grown quicker than elsewhere thanks to faster economic expansion and low unemployment rates.
The longer term prospects, however, may be bumpier: “While improving economic conditions this year may have brightened the short-term outlook for insurers in 2019, for many insurers, a rising tide will not necessarily lift all boats equally. There are still plenty of challenges to overcome in the year ahead, as well as opportunities to improve a carrier’s competitive position and bottom line.”
In light of concerns about an economic downturn, the report recommends insurers “maintain their growth momentum by continuing to focus on improving operational efficiency, boosting productivity, and lowering costs with new technology and talent transformations, while customising products and services to meet the evolving demands of the emerging
digital economy.”
Insurtech innovation enables insurers to address such digital transformation issues in their industry. Connected devices, big data and advanced analytics come to the rescue along the value chain of the insurance industry – from underwriting based on actual driving data in auto insurance to direct-to-consumer online platforms selling policies. Not only can digitisation help to rationalise expensive and cumbersome processes but it also gives more control to customers.
The Deloitte insurance industry report recommends: “Insurers should modernise and personalise policies, with swifter rollouts and more meaningful tracking of trends and results… Consumers increasingly want more control over their specific coverage. A survey of life insurance consumers indicated that 90% of buyers revealed a preference for self-management of existing policies through digital channels. One example might be “pay as you ride” supplemental life insurance coverage for motorcycle enthusiasts. Such a feature could even be embedded into the product in the vehicle sale process.”
Aside from the agility of insurtech emerging business, the report also highlights the importance of cloud technologies and blockchain. Cloud technologies are already widely adopted by insurers, with seven in 10 carriers using cloud as an integral part of their technology environment. The potential of blockchain, on the other hand, is still untapped. “Looking ahead, 2019 will likely see the industry move past basic education and proofs of concept to preparing for the launch of an increasing number of real-world blockchain applications impacting day-to-day operations… While we probably will not see sudden and dramatic implementation growth in 2019, large carriers and consortiums are expected to launch more impactful blockchain initiatives that could change the shape of insurance operations,” says the report.
Cybersecurity is a common hurdle in the digitisation of both banking and insurance sector. As data becomes the most valuable currency in the digital economy, data-rich financial companies are a natural target of cyberattacks. Furthermore, there have been regulatory moves around the globe to establish cybersecurity risk management standards. We will naturally expect to see investments and interest in cybersecurity on part of financial companies doing corporate venturing to increase.
For the period between October 2018 and September 2019, we reported 1,213 venturing rounds involving corporate investors from the financial services sector. Many of them (496) took place in the US, while 152 were hosted in Japan and 133 in China.
Many of those commitments (336) went to emerging enterprises from the same sector (mostly payment technology and cryptocurrency, insurtech and alternative lending) as well as into companies developing other technologies in synergies with financial services: 225 deals in the IT sector (mostly cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and big data and analytics), 193 in life sciences (mostly pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics, and healthcare IT), and 150 in the professional services sector (mostly edtech, accommodation and travel, logistics and supply chain services, and HR tech).
The sector’s incumbents have a broad variety of investment interests of the The commitments ranged from AI solutions for big data analytics (Digital Reasoning, Oxdata) and transaction analytics solutions (AccesSFintech) through payment tech (Veem, Paidy, Plaid), insurtech (Wellth, Next Insurance) and alternative lending (Better Mortgage) to cybersecurity (Menlo Security) and mobility and ride hailing (Grab, Go-Jek).
On a calendar year-on-year basis, total capital raised in corporate-backed rounds rose from $41.17bn in 2017 to $76.5bn in 2018, representing an 86% increase. The deal count also increased substantially to 1,046, up from the 796 rounds reported in 2017. As outlined further in this article, the 10 largest investments by corporate venturers from the financial sector were diversified across sectors.
The leading corporate investors from the financial sector in terms of largest number of deals were investment bank and financial services firms Goldman Sachs and SBI Group along with bank Wells Fargo. The list of financial corporates committing capital in the largest rounds was headed also by Goldman Sachs, payment operator Ant Financial – the financial subsidiary of e-commerce firm Alibaba – and investment firm Fidelity.
The most active corporate venture investors in the emerging financial businesses were Goldman Sachs, internet company Tencent, SBI Group and conglomerate SoftBank.
The emerging financial service businesses in the portfolios of corporate venturers came from payment tech (GoCardless, Viva Republica, Divido, Paystack, Akulaku), alternative lenders to individuals and small businesses (C2FO, Lufax, Quptal, ZestMoney, Even Financial), insurtech (Lemonade, Akinova) as well as from cryptocurrency trading solutions (Coinhouse).
Overall, corporate investments in emerging fintech-focused enterprises went up from 326 rounds in 2017 to 404 by the end of 2018, suggesting a substantial 24% decrease. The estimated total dollars in those rounds also surged, by more than two-and-half times, from $11.19bn in 2017 to $28.42bn last year. However, by the end of August this year we had already tracked 360 rounds, worth an estimated total of $10.61bn, suggesting that valuations may be cooling down slightly.
Deals
Corporates from the financial sector invested in large multi-million-dollar rounds, raised by enterprises from the same sector as well as from other sectors like consumer, transport, health and IT. Three of the top 10 deals were above the $1bn mark.
Ele.me and Koubei, the merged local services subsidiaries of Alibaba, raised $4bn at a $30bn valuation from investors including SoftBank and the parent company’s financial services affiliate Ant Financial. SoftBank provided its share of the funding through its Vision Fund, joining private equity group Primavera Capital. The capital was provided to support the merger of Ele.me, a portfolio company Alibaba fully acquired in April 2018 at a $9.5bn valuation, and Koubei, the Alibaba spin-off that had secured $1.1bn from investors in 2017. The merged company will provide mobile users with access to a wide range of local services including retail, food delivery, travel and accommodation.
China-based online financial services provider Lufax received $1.33bn in a round co-led by financial services firm SBI Holdings. Other corporate participants in the deal were financial services firms JP Morgan, Macquarie Group, UBS, UOB as well as Goldman Sachs through its Private Equity Group division. The state-owned Qatar Investment Authority co-led the round with SBI. The transaction reportedly valued Lufax at $38bn pre-money. Founded in 2011, Lufax initially launched as a peer-to-peer lending and brokerage subsidiary of insurance firm Ping An but has since grown into a wealth management firm. It had reportedly a loan balance of approximately $24.5bn by the end of May 2018.
Tencent invested $800m to lead a series D round for China-based real estate brokerage Ke.com sized at almost $1.2bn. It also included a $50m commitment from property developer Country Garden. Financial institution China Renaissance’s unit Huaxing Capital also participated by contributing $20m of capital. The round reportedly valued Ke.com at $9.5bn. Spun off by online real estate portal Lianjia in 2018, Ke.com runs an online platform where users can buy new, second-hand and rental properties in some 500 cities across China and utilises virtual reality technology to help users inspect properties. The cash will support an ongoing expansion in Ke.com’s research and development and marketing costs in addition to increased management investment as the company forges links to more urban property owners. It will also fund hiring and the strengthening of the company’s technology.
China-based facial recognition software provider Megvii received $750m in series E funding from investors including Alibaba at a reported valuation of more than $4bn. The round was led by a $200m investment from Bank of China Group Investment, the private equity arm of state-owned financial services firm Bank of China. Macquarie Group, sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and ICBC Asset Management, a division of financial services firm Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, filled out the investors. Megvii provides a software platform known as Face++ which uses AI technology to identify faces, people and objects. The technology is used in consumer devices and retail and also for large-scale Chinese surveillance systems, with the city of Beijing set to construct a citywide, AI-equipped CCTV system.
Ant Financial co-led a funding round sized at almost 4bn yuan ($582m) for Hello TransTech, the China-based operator of bicycle rental service Hellobike. The round was co-led by investment firm Primavera Capital Group and included undisclosed existing investors. Hellobike is an app-based bicycle sharing platform used some 24 million times each day across more than 300 Chinese cities. It focuses on second and third-tier Chinese cities and is considering an expansion into adjacent sectors such as car sharing or ride hailing. The company’s approach is interesting in that it differs from that of rivals Mobike and Ofo, both of which have raised large amounts of funding targeting the country’s largest cities as well as international expansion, but that have run into difficulties.
UK-based online food ordering service Deliveroo raised $575m in a series G round led by e-commerce, cloud computing and consumer technology group Amazon. Fidelity Management and Research, asset management firm T Rowe Price and investment firm Greenoaks Capital also contributed to the round. Deliveroo runs an app-based food delivery service that spans more than 500 cities and towns across 14 countries in Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and Australia. The series G proceeds will be put towards expanding the company’s delivery presence and growing its engineering team.
Babylon Health, a UK-based developer of AI applications for the healthcare sector, announced a $550m series C round featuring reinsurance provider Munich Re. Health insurance provider Centene provided $50m for the round, which reported that Munich Re is investing $7m through its Ergo Fund while the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund is supplying $200m. Investment firms Kinnevik and Vostok New Ventures also participated in the round, which valued Babylon at more than $2bn post-money. Babylon has built a range of AI-based health services, including a chatbot used by the UK’s National Health Service to help diagnose minor ailments. Its partnerships also include a telehealth app created for private health insurer Bupa.
The SoftBank Vision Fund, the nearly $100bn vehicle run by SoftBank, led a $484m series E round for Germany-based travel activity booking platform GetYourGuide. The round also featured Swisscanto Invest, an asset management subsidiary of financial services firm Zürcher Kantonalbank, plus Temasek, Lakestar, Korelya Capital and Heartcore Capital. It boosted the company’s overall funding to $655m. GetYourGuide runs an online platform where tourists can book tours and other attractions in destinations spanning 170 countries. It plans to channel the funding into growing its range of available tours, improving the platform’s search and booking capabilities and extending its marketing activities.
Sweden-based payment technology provider Klarna secured $460m in funding from investors including financial services provider Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Investment firm Dragoneer Investment Group led the round, which included pension fund manager Första AP-Fonden, IVP, HMI Capital, Merian Chrysalis Investment Company, IPGL and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. The round reportedly valued Klarna at $5.5bn post-money. The company also disclosed that it had raised more than $100m in a separate round that closed in April this year, which was co-led by clothing producer Bestseller and VC firm Sequoia Capital. Founded in 2005 as Kreditor, Klarna operates a payments platform for online merchants that enables consumers to pay for items immediately, at a later date or in instalments. It secured a full banking licence in Sweden in 2017 and is active in 14 countries. The company has partnered more than 130,000 merchants and processes 1 million transactions each day, having served more than 60 million consumers to date. It has signed up more than 3,000 merchants in the US and will use the funding to drive an expansion in that market.
US-based data warehousing technology provider Snowflake Computing completed a $450m funding round that included Capital One Growth Ventures, the strategic investment subsidiary of financial services firm Capital One. Venture capital Sequoia Capital led the round, which valued Snowflake at $3.5bn pre-money. Altimeter Capital, Iconiq Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Meritech Capital and Wing Ventures also invested. Snowflake has created a data warehousing platform for the cloud that enables businesses to store and manage large quantities of data across multiple clouds. It will put the funding towards expanding its engineering and sales teams as it looks to add to its product range.
There were other interesting deals in emerging fintech-focused businesses that received financial backing from corporate investors from other sectors.
The SoftBank Vision Fund led a $440m funding round for UK-based digital bank OakNorth. The corporate put up $390m of the funding while the rest was supplied by conglomerate Clermont Group, and the round valued OakNorth at about $2.8bn. OakNorth offers fixed-term savings accounts to consumers and businesses, and customers can apply for an account in minutes. It also provides business financing and has lent in excess of £2bn ($2.6bn) to UK-based companies. The funding will support an international expansion that will begin with the US market.
SoftBank committed ¥46bn ($419m) to PayPay, a Japan-based mobile payment services provider. The investment was announced with the news that SoftBank intends to purchase up to $4.2bn worth of newly issued shares by Yahoo Japan, the other co-founder, to increase its holding in it from 12% to 45%. The company runs a platform which allows its users to transfer money online and pay for items using QR codes on mobile devices. The backbone of the platform was formed by the customer base of 40 million user accounts of Yahoo Japan’s Yahoo Wallet platform, which it replaced. Part of the technology is based on India-based digital payment system operator Paytm, which has already received backing from the SoftBank Vision Fund.
Brazil-based mobile financial services provider Nubank collected $400m in series F capital from a consortium led by growth equity firm TCV which featured Tencent. DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Ribbit Capital and Thrive Capital also took part in the round, which reportedly valued Nubank at more than $10bn. Founded in 2013, Nubank started out by providing a fee-free credit card managed through a mobile app. It has added current and savings accounts for consumers, entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises, a loyalty rewards program and personal loans. Nubank is preparing an international expansion, having already hired teams for Argentina and Mexico. The series F funding enabled it to accelerate those plans, as well as driving growth in Brazil and hiring staff.
Payment processing firm Visa invested up to $300m in India-based mobile wallet provider BillDesk at a valuation of $1.8bn. Visa did not confirm financial details but the deal reportedly consisted of approximately $200m in direct investment and between $80m and $100m as a secondary purchase. Founded in 2000, BillDesk operates an online payment and loyalty platform that enables customers to pay bills by linking their existing bank account. The company launched with a focus on utilities but today covers a wide range of businesses. Visa’s investment will help BillDesk develop additional products around its existing offering and support expansion efforts into new markets.
US-based digital insurance platform developer Lemonade secured $300m in series D funding from a consortium led by SoftBank. Insurance provider Allianz and GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, also took part in the round, as did equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd and venture capital firms General Catalyst and Thrive Capital. The company was valued at more than $2bn. Lemonade relies on AI and behavioural economics to operate a property and casualty insurance platform that does not rely on brokers. It takes a percentage as a fee and donates a portion of any unclaimed premiums to non-profit organisations. The fresh funding will enable Lemonade to accelerate its US expansion efforts and enter Europe as it explores the potential expansion of its product offering.
Plaid, a US-based financial services software provider backed by Alphabet, secured $250m in series C funding. The round was led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and Goldman Sachs, among other investors like traditional VC firms Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Spark Capital and Index Ventures. Plaid provides the software infrastructure and tools that enable developers to build financial products that include features such as transaction management and user verification. It claims to be integrated with some 10,000 banks and 20 million consumer bank accounts.
Brazil-based consumer loan provider Creditas obtained $231m in series D capital led by SoftBank’s Latin America Fund. SoftBank also participated through its Vision Fund, investing alongside Santander InnoVentures, the corporate venturing arm of Santander, investment firm Vostok Emerging Finance and venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners. Creditas, founded in 2012 as BankFacil, enables consumers to take out secured loans of $1,250 to $500,000. The company accepts vehicles and property as collateral and claims to hugely undercut the rates offered by products such as overdrafts and credit cards.
China-based supply chain finance provider Linklogis closed a $220m series C round backed by logistics services provider GLP, consumer electronics manufacturer Skyworth and Tencent. Bertelsmann Asia Investments, a corporate venturing division of media group Bertelsmann, also participated in the round, which was led by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. Founded in 2016, Linklogis provides financing to micro-sized and small enterprises using big data, AI and blockchain technologies to power its risk assessment platform.
Exits
Corporate venturers from the financial services sector completed 97 exits between October 2018 and September 2019 – 52 acquisitions, 44 initial public offerings (IPOs) and one other transaction. The total estimated exited capital in those transactions was $31.92bn, reflecting exits of some financial investors from large acquisitions and IPOs not necessarily related to fintech.
US-based on-demand ride service Uber, which counts with a range of corporate investors as backers, raised $8.1bn when it went public on the New York Stock Exchange. This was a much-awaited IPO of what was for a long time the most highly valued unicorn. Uber issued 180 million shares, priced at $45.00 each, near the bottom of the $44 to $50 range it had set earlier. Even though this was the largest IPO since Alibaba floated in 2014, raising $25bn, it was considered by many a disappointment. It valued Uber at $82.4bn on the first day of trading but the share price subsequently went down to $41, leaving it with a total market capitalisation of around $69bn. Its previous corporate backers included Fidelity Investments. Founded in 2009, Uber runs an app-based ride service spanning 63 countries plus food delivery and last-mile delivery services. Its core ride hailing service boasts 91 million monthly active users and its UberEats subsidiary 15 million.
Google agreed to pay $2.6bn to acquire Looker, a US-based data analytics technology provider backed by CapitalG, its corporate venturing unit formerly known as Google Capital. Goldman Sachs was one of the exiting investors. Looker has built a platform that can take business intelligence data from a range of sources and use a proprietary data modelling code language to unify it, allowing it to be used in other applications, analysed together more thoroughly and more easily shared. Its technology will be added to the cloud computing services provider Google Cloud, expanding its business analytics capabilities and enabling users to quantify data from different sources using the same metrics.
US-based on-demand ride provider Lyft, which counted several corporates among its investors, raised $2.34bn in an IPO in which it floated at the top of its range. Lyft issued 32.5 million shares priced at $72.00 each. It initially planned to issue almost 30.8 million shares priced between $62 and $68 each, before upgrading the range from to $70 to $72 earlier this week. The company was valued at $24.3bn in the offering. Fidelity was one of the exiting corporate backers. Founded in 2012, Lyft runs a ride hailing platform that facilitated rides for some 30.7 million users in 2018, through a network of about 1.9 million drivers. It made a $911m net loss in 2018 from approximately $2.16bn in revenue.
Video-based social media platform YY completed the acquisition of one of its portfolio companies, Singapore-based social video live streaming platform developer Bigo, for more than $1.45bn. YY paid approximately $343m in cash, with the remainder in shares. The platform had owned approximately 31.7%. Founded in 2015, the flagship product is a live streaming platform called Bigo Live. It also offers a short-form, video-based social media service known as Like as well as a range of other apps. Bigo relies on AI technology to remove sexually suggestive content from its platform and has unveiled plans to partner governments in order to use the same technology for cyber-surveillance.
Pinterest, the US-based social media platform backed by e-commerce firm Rakuten, raised $1.43bn when it floated on the New York Stock Exchange. The company priced 75 million shares at $19.00 each, above the $15 to $17 range it had set, giving it a market cap of $12.6bn. Goldman Sachs was one of its previous corporate backers. Founded in 2009, Pinterest runs an online platform with more than 250 million monthly active users where people can post and share images they like with each other. Pinterest initially concentrated on building user numbers but has ramped up advertising revenue in recent years.
Enterprise software supplier Blackberry agreed to acquire US-based cybersecurity technology provider Cylance, allowing several corporates, including Capital One, to exit. The deal will consist of $1.4bn in cash and the assumption of unvested employee incentive awards. Dell Ventures, Capital One Ventures and Citi Ventures, subsidiaries of computing technology producer Dell and financial services firms Capital One and Citi, had financed Cylance. The company produces predictive endpoint cybersecurity products that use AI to combat malware and fileless attacks, detecting and responding to threats. Its technology will be used to enhance BlackBerry Spark, Blackberry’s connected enterprise communications platform.
Brazil-based payment processor StoneCo floated in a $1.22bn IPO alongside a $100m private placement by Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of Alibaba. The company issued 45.8 million common class A shares priced at $24.00 each, above the IPO’s $21 to $23 range. Its shareholders sold a further 4.9 million shares, while Berkshire Hathaway, the financial conglomerate led by famed value investor Warren Buffett, and existing backers Madrone Partners and entities advised by T Rowe Price agreed to jointly purchase 25.9 million shares. Stone has created a software platform that enables merchants and service providers to electronically accept, make and integrate payments online and offline. It also provides additional services such as sales, customer service and operational support.
Peloton Interactive, the exercise equipment and class provider backed by mass media group Comcast NBCUniversal and Fidelity, went public in a $1.16bn IPO. The company floated on the Nasdaq Global Select Market after pricing 40 million class A shares at the top of the IPO’s $26 to $29 range. Founded in 2012, Peloton sells advanced exercise bikes and treadmills with attached video screens that broadcast live video gym classes that are available through a paid subscription plan. The company’s community has 1.4 million members, and it more than doubled revenue to $935m in the first half of 2019, though its net loss also increased, from $47.9m in the first half of 2018 to nearly $196m a year on.
Application services provider F5 agreed to acquire US-based app development technology producer Nginx for approximately $670m in a deal that will allow telecoms firm Telstra and Goldman Sachs’ Growth Equity subsidiary to exit. Nginx was founded in 2011 to market the open-source web server and application delivery software of the same name. The company offers a premium version helping enterprises deliver content rapidly and securely, and the software is used in some 375 million websites, often for load balancing, where multiple workloads are distributed across several computing platforms.
Moderna Therapeutics, a US-based messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics developer backed by pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca, Merck & Co and Alexion, raised approximately $604m in its IPO. Previous backers also included financial services provider Julius Baer as well as Fidelity Management & Research. The IPO, the largest ever for a biotech company, consisted of almost 26.3 million shares issued on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced at $23.00 each, up from 21.7 million shares when it set a $22 to $24 range. The offering valued it at approximately $7.52bn. Moderna is working on mRNA drugs and vaccines, and has advanced 21 product candidates into development, 10 of which have gone into clinical studies. The company will put up to $420m of the proceeds into drug discovery, clinical development and the growth of its manufacturing capabilities.
Global Corporate Venturing also reported exits of emerging fintech-related enterprises that involved corporate investors from different sectors.
Funding Circle, a UK-based peer-to-leer lending platform backed by e-commerce holding company Rocket Internet, went public in a £440m ($576m) IPO in its home country. The company issued $393m of new shares, pricing them at 440p each, at the lower end of their 420p to 530p range, while its shareholders divested approximately $184m of shares. The offering valued Funding Circle at $1.97bn. Funding Circle runs a platform where small businesses can access debt financing provided by a pool of some 80,000 investors who provide the capital through an online account. The businesses pay back the money in monthly instalments which are distributed to lenders.
Consumer tax services provider H&R Block (HRB) agreed to purchase Wave Financial, a Canada-based accounting software provider backed by financial services firms National Australia Bank and Royal Bank of Canada, for $405m. Wave’s leadership team, including co-founder and chief executive Kirk Simpson, will continue to operate independently, from its headquarters in Toronto. Founded in 2009, Wave has developed a cloud-based platform that enables entrepreneurs and small businesses to manage all aspects of accounting, including invoicing and receipt-tracking, as well as payment processing, payroll and bookkeeping services. The company serves more than 400,000 clients across the world. HRB expects the acquisition to strengthen its position in the small business market.
Quovo, a US-based investment and brokerage aggregation platform backed by enterprise software producer Salesforce, agreed to an acquisition by banking technology provider Plaid. The terms of the acquisition were not officially disclosed, but the deal would be reportedly worth up to $200m after performance bonuses have been taken into account. Founded in 2009, Quovo has developed software that offers financial analytics and data management to investors with bank-level security measures, providing features such as automated clearing house payments, stress tests and internal audits.
PayU, the fintech subsidiary of internet and media group Naspers, agreed to acquire Iyzico, a Turkey-based online payment platform backed by e-commerce platform Beenos, for $165m. Founded in 2013, Iyzico operates a digital payment processing platform for use by online merchants. The service facilitates payments by card and in instalments and is available as a dedicated offering for both online stores and marketplace platforms. The platform, which employs AI technology to prevent fraud, is used by more than 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises headquartered in Turkey in addition to international brands, such as clothing retailers H&M and Zara, which operate in the country.
Up Fintech, the China-based digital brokerage also known as Tiger Brokers, floated in the US in a $104m IPO, enabling consumer electronics producer Xiaomi to exit. The offering consisted of 13 million American depositary shares (ADSs), each representing 15 ordinary shares, priced at $8.00 each, above the $5 to $7 range set. The online brokerage targets Chinese customers worldwide. It has 1.58 million registered users and was responsible for some $119bn of trades in 2018, facilitating trades across various geographies, markets, products and currencies.
China-based online brokerage Futu Holdings went public in a $90m IPO that involved existing backer Tencent buying $8m of shares through its subsidiary Tencent Mobility. The company priced 7.5 million ADSs at $12 each, at the top of the IPO’s $10 to $12 range, valuing the company at approximately $1.33bn. Futu runs a digital brokerage with 5.6 million registered users, more than 500,000 of which have opened accounts on the platform. It was responsible for more than $115bn in trades in 2018, a year in which it generated almost $104m in revenue, making a $17.7m net loss.
Weidai, a China-based business lending platform backed by corporates healthcare technology provider Hakim Unique, online game publisher Shanda Interactive and home decoration services provider Dong Yi Ri Sheng, went public in the US in a $45m IPO. The company issued 4.5 million ADSs on the New York Stock Exchange priced at $10.00 each, in the middle of the $9 to $11 range. It had initially filed to raise up to $100m. Weidai operates a lending platform for small and medium-sized businesses that takes automotive title loans as collateral.
Pintec, the China-based business financing marketplace that counts internet company Sina and electronics maker Xiaomi as investors, secured $44.3m in an IPO in the US. The company issued just over 3.7 million ADSs, each worth seven ordinary shares, on the Nasdaq Global Market priced at $11.88 each, near the top of the $10 to $12 range it had set earlier. It gave Pintec a market capitalisation of about $444m. Founded in 2013, Pintec has created a system that enables businesses to offer financing options such as point-of-sale financing or insurance using capital sourced from lenders such as banks, brokers or asset management firms.
Financial chart provider TradingView acquired US-based mobile trading technology developer TradeIt for an undisclosed amount, allowing financial services firm Citi’s strategic investment arm, Citi Ventures, to exit. TradingView paid an amount that was less than $20m and reportedly in the “high teens.” Founded in 2014 as Trading Ticket, TradeIt provides a suite of products that enable retail brokers and wealth managers to access mobile apps and social networks used by their customers. TradingView will extend the TradeIt ecosystem by creating new products such as account opening and proxy messaging delivery. TradeIt customers will also have access to TradingView’s charting and quote services.
Funds
For the period October 2018-September 2019, corporate venturers and funds investing in the sector secured over $1.31bn in capital via 32 funding initiatives, which included 13 VC funds, eight new CVC subsidiaries, eight accelerators, two incubators and one other initiative.
On a calendar year-to-year basis, the number of funding initiatives in the financial sector stood at 40 in 2018, down from the peak at 62 registered in 2017. The total estimated capital decreased substantially from $5.86bn to $3.16bn and this downward trend so far appears to have continued through 2019.
US-based, blockchain-focused financial services provider Algo Capital closed its VC fund at $200m, having raised capital from limited partners (LPs) including data marketplace Wibson and consulting firm Rokk3r. NGC Ventures, the venture capital branch of blockchain network Neo Global, is also an LP, as are investment and venture firms Brainchild, Arrington XRP Capital, Eterna Capital, GSR, Cognitive Blockchain, 11-11 Ventures, Invermaster, Winslow Strong and DG Ventures (likely the fund set up by internet company Digital Garage and brokerage Daiwa). Algo Capital was formed to support the growth of Algo, the digital currency for open-source public blockchain Algorand, by investing in companies developing products or systems built on the platform. The fund was oversubscribed from its initial target of $100m.
Japan-based financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group launched a ¥20bn ($180m) fund to focus on fintech startups in Southeast Asia. The bank already invests through a venture capital arm known as Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, but set up a new unit called MUFG Innovation Partners in January this year to oversee strategic fintech investments and the formation of strategic partnerships. The vehicle will invest in Japan and Southeast Asia, where it will focus on fintech startups that are looking to enter its home country. The fund will also explore more cutting-edge technologies such as AI, the internet of things (IoT) and quantum computing.
American Family Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of US-based insurance firm American Family, raised more than $162m for a VC fund. AmFam VC Fund III LP, took in $162.5m from four investors and set a $200m target for its close. The unit emerged from stealth in 2014 with a $50m first fund but has not disclosed details concerning the size of its second fund or whether it featured external LPs. It operates as an early-stage investment vehicle, typically supplying up to $5m per deal at seed to series B stage. American Family Ventures has 22 companies in its portfolio.
Portag3 Ventures, the fintech investment firm formed by diversified Canada-based conglomerate Power Corporation, achieved a C$198m ($150m) first close for a fund backed by a range of corporates. LPs included insurance providers Intact Financial Corporation, La Capitale Insurance and Financial Group, SSQ Insurance and Great-West Lifeco, as well as financial services firms National Bank of Canada and Equitable Bank. Power Financial, the investment management arm of Power Corporation, and asset management firms Guardian Capital and IGM Financial also contributed. Portag3 Ventures II is expected to raise at least C$300m but has a substantially larger target. The fund will make early-stage investments in the fintech sector internationally, seeking to take stakes of 10% to 20% in portfolio companies.
InnoCells, the digital innovation subsidiary of Spain-based banking group Banco Sabadell, committed $10m to the inaugural fund of Base10, a US-based venture capital firm focused on automation technologies. Base10 was founded in January 2017 and had already collected $137m for its first fund as to invest in seed and series A rounds through contributions sized between $500,000 and $5m. The firm favours emerging AI-powered technologies with mass-market potential. Banco Sabadell considers its involvement an opportunity to engage with the Silicon Valley ecosystem to drive its pursuit of fintech-oriented AI applications.
Japan-headquartered insurance group MS&AD Holdings added ¥9bn to an investment unit managed by its US-based corporate venture capital arm, MS&AD Ventures, tripling the size of the vehicle to ¥13.5bn ($128m). Founded in October 2018, the arm backs developers of risk, insurance and financial technologies at seed to series B stage across the world, supplying roughly $500,000 to $3m per deal. The unit has made more than 20 investments. Portfolio companies include US-based AI technology developer Node, Israel-headquartered cybersecurity software provider VDoo and Germany-based speech recognition technology developer i2x.
Indonesia-based financial services firm Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) is set to form a venture capital unit that will be equipped with between $70m and $100m. BRI will build the vehicle around an existing VC firm, Bahana Artha Ventura (BAV). It had originally bought a 35% stake in BAV in 2017 before increasing its share to 97.6% in December 2018, and it acquired a regulatory licence from Indonesian regulators. BRI Ventures will invest in startups developing technology of strategic interest to its parent company. It has reportedly brought in experienced venture capitalists to run its activities and has entered talks with its first prospective portfolio companies. The bank is reportedly being helped in the establishment of the unit by MDI Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of telecoms firm Telkom Indonesia.
Financial services firm NIBC Bank backed UK-based venture capital firm Outward Venture Capital’s first fund, which has reached a first close. Asset management firm Investec is also among the LPs for the fund, which has raised roughly half of its £75m ($91m) overall target. Its other LPs include unnamed additional investors, and Outward is looking to add more institutional and private backers in the next year. Founded in 2017 as INVC Fund by Investec’s UK-based executives, Outward focuses on financial technology developers at late-seed to series A-stage.
Accion, a US-based non-profit organisation focusing on financial inclusion, quadrupled the size of its seed-stage investment initiative, adding $33m from investors including Visa and insurance group Prudential. Accion Venture Lab has launched a $23m co-investment vehicle backed by third-party investors and has separately received a $10m investment from the parent organisation. The $23m fund was backed by Visa, Prudential, development bank FMO, Ford Foundation, ImpactAssets Giving Fund of Blue Haven Initiative, Heifer Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Pace Able Foundation, Proparco and Stichting Hivos-Triodos Fund, co-founded by banking firm Triodos. Accion Venture Lab claims that its portfolio companies have raised an additional $13 in equity capital from later-stage investors for every dollar it has invested itself.
Japan-headquartered human resources firm Recruit Holdings launched a $25m Singapore-based corporate venturing fund to invest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. RSP Blockchain Fund will primarily target direct investments in blockchain-related startups that are using tokens to raise funding. The unit will invest in startups working on blockchain technology that are looking to raise capital through the issue of tokens rather than equity shares. It will primarily concentrate on international investments and operate alongside the firm’s Recruit Strategic Partners unit.
University backing for fintech companies
By the end of 2018, we registered 10 rounds raised by university spinouts developing fintech-related technologies, a significant drop from the 25 recorded in the previous year. The level of estimated total capital deployed in 2018 stood at $62m, down from $138m in 2017. By the end of September this year, however, we had already tracked 10 rounds, worth an estimated total of $298m, which suggests that valuations of such enterprises emerging from academia and interest in them are rising.
Bolt, a US-based e-commerce payment processing platform backed by Stanford-StartX Fund, the venture fund linked to the university’s StartX accelerator, obtained $68m in series B funding. The round was co-led by investment firm Activant Capital and VC firm Tribe Capital, and featured several angel investors boasting expertise in the e-commerce and consumer goods industries. Founded in 2014, Bolt markets a software platform with payment processing and data analysis features catered to the e-commerce market. The tools were used by more than 100 online merchants as of early 2018. Bolt claims its checkout experience is twice as fast as competing technologies. The software uses machine learning to measure specific e-commerce metrics, such as the number of times a customer clicks on a given page.
Ethos, a US-based online life insurance service backed by Stanford University, raised $60m in a round led by GV, a corporate venturing arm of technology conglomerate Alphabet. Goldman Sachs and venture capital firms Accel and Sequoia Capital also contributed to the round. Ethos has created a digital life insurance platform powered by data analytics and process automation where customers can take out a policy from one of its insurance partners without needing to undergo a medical examination or pay commission. The technology applies predictive analytics to the customer’s application, before verifying the information against their medical and pharmaceutical records.
Legend Capital, the venture capital firm formed by conglomerate Legend Holdings, took part in a 350m yuan ($50.7m) series C round for China-based financial risk management software developer Bangsun Technology, founded by an academic from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, though more details were not forthcoming. Private equity firm VMS Investment Group led the round, which also featured state-owned investment holding firm State Development & Investment Corporation. Founded in 2010, Bangsun provides anti-fraud products including device fingerprint, intellectual property recognition and risk control systems to a customer base of approximately 400 financial institutions. The company also supplies anti-payment fraud, anti-insurance fraud and anti-money laundering services in addition to credit risk control to help protect customers and help them comply with regulations.
People
William Bell, a director in US-based financial services company TIAA’s corporate development department, joined its investment services subsidiary Nuveen as a managing director. TIAA acquired Nuveen for an enterprise value of $6.25bn in 2014. Bell joined TIAA in 2012 and initiated its corporate venture capital investments, focusing on the fintech sector. During Bell’s time, the firm, backing a $200m round for US-based advanced glass maker View and a $141m fund for microfinance non-profit organisation Accion, both in 2017.
Matthew Carbonara, formerly a senior director at corporate venturing unit Cisco Investments, joined Citi Ventures as managing director. Carbonara will oversee Citi Ventures’ investments in companies focusing on areas such as enterprise IT, security, data analytics and machine learning. Cisco Investments, US-based networking equipment producer Cisco’s corporate venturing vehicle, hired Carbonara in August 2016 as a senior director, and he led venture investments and acquisitions in the IoT, collaboration and enterprise networking sectors.
Peter Berg left Visa Ventures, Visa’s corporate venture capital unit, to join US-based data security technology developer Very Good Security (VGS). VGS has created a software platform that enables businesses to share safe versions of data with others without risking third-party breaches. It hired Berg as vice-president of business development and strategy, and he will oversee the company’s strategic partnerships and new business ventures. Berg joined Visa in 2011 from financial services provider October Three, which he co-founded, as a senior business leader for product strategy and innovation. he began leading the firm’s corporate venturing activities in 2014.
Bill Qian, formerly head of cross-border M&A at China-based e-commerce firm JD.com’s fintech spinoff, JD Finance, was promoted to general manager of corporate ventures. Qian oversees investments in enterprise services, industrial IoT and consumer internet technologies. He was involved in investments in digital contact platform Jiatui Technology, collaboration software developer FangCloud and news aggregation platform Qutoutiao. He joined JD in July 2015 as head of crowdfunding business strategy, Qian and concentrated on equity crowdfunding as part of a year-long stint in which it raised more than 1.1bn yuan ($162m) for 89 startups. Qian helped JD Finance launch JD Innovation Ventures, the early-stage fund now renamed Qianshu Capital. Qianshu typically pursues series A deals and earlier for consumer-focused startups, in areas such as lifestyle, fashion, cosmetics, health and entertainment.
Emad Fouad, head of structuring, execution and venture capital for Egypt-based private-sector bank Commercial International Bank (CIB), joined its new corporate venture capital unit, CVentures. He was hired as managing director, and will focus on early-stage companies working on next-generation financial services platforms. The unit will invest in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa, mainly backing series A and B rounds before possibly expanding to seed-stage deals. Fouad held different private equity roles at CIB across a 12-year period, executing more than 30 transactions totalling over $500m across sectors including leasing, mortgage, asset management, telecoms, retail and textiles.
TIAA promoted Raja Doddala, managing director of its business-to-business digital division, to head its financial technology strategy and development branch. He joined in 2016 to head the digital team at its institutional financial services department. In his new role, he will develop TIAA’s fintech strategy by exploring innovative technologies and investment opportunities in the digital technology ecosystem that are relevant to the firm’s business units. Doddala spent a decade at US-based convenience retail chain 7-Eleven, where he held various senior roles, co-founding its corporate venturing unit, 7-Ventures, in 2013 as senior director of services and new ventures.
Rita Waite left her investment manager position at Juniper Ventures, US-based networking technology producer Juniper Networks’ corporate venture capital arm, to join Portugal-based commercial bank Millennium. The news came in the wake of Waite being selected as one of Global Corporate Venturing’s 2019 Rising Stars. Juniper Networks hired Waite as a corporate strategy analyst in 2011, and she moved to a senior analyst role in 2014 before being appointed to the three-member unit the following year.
Henry Choi, formerly a principal at venture capital and private equity firm Korea Investment Partners, joined Hana Ventures, South Korea-based financial services firm Hana Financial Group’s 1 trillion won ($894m) fund-of-funds. Choi will head Hana Ventures’ global investment efforts. Launched in 2018, Hana Ventures is understood to be the first corporate venturing subsidiary set up by a Korea-headquartered financial services firm. The unit intends to back venture capital firms focusing on investments in biotech and information, communication and technology product developers, both domestically and abroad. Choi spent seven months at Korea Investment Partners, which manages 41 funds with a total of more than $2bn in assets under management globally. He previously held a similar role at VC firm Big Basin Capital, overseeing seed-stage investments and taking board seats at eight portfolio companies.
Wells Fargo hired Mansi Parikh to oversee strategic venture investments on its behalf. Parikh came from electronic payments processor Verifone in 2014, initially as an associate, before becoming director of global business and corporate development two and a half years later. Verifone acquired payment services providers DoubleBeam, InterCard and AJB during that time. Prior to joining Verifone, Parikh had worked for Wells Fargo Securities, the capital markets and investment banking services arm of Wells Fargo, where she had been an investment banking analyst for more than three years since 2011 as part of its technology, media and telecoms group.
Germany-headquartered financial services firm Deutsche Bank hired Gil Ahrens as its US-based head of venture capital and emerging growth company coverage. He comes to the bank after two years in the same role at Wells Fargo Securities where he worked with technology, media and telecoms startups on behalf of its Technology Investment Banking group. Deutsche Bank has invested in financial management technology developer Zeitgold and payment technology provider ModoPayments. It also runs Deutsche Bank Innovation Labs incubators in the US, Germany and the UK.
Belgium-based financial services and advisory firm KBC Securities set up a fund, headed by investment director Nuno Carvalho. Carvalho, who was hired from steel wire transformation and coating product maker Bekaert, will help identify developers of advanced technologies in areas such as nanotechnology, microelectronics and the IoT space, focusing on early and scale-up stage startups in France, Germany, the UK and the Benelux countries. The Focus Fund will look to partner entrepreneurs adopting a so-called “hands-by” approach which involves taking active board seats as well as “being close to the startup team and providing support whenever needed”. Carvalho worked at Bekaert for 14 years, half of which he spent conducting open innovation and corporate venturing activities. He became investment manager at Bekaert in November 2011, then head of Bekaert Venturing four months later. He was made director of innovation and corporate venturing in 2016.
Anish Acharya, who spent two years from 2012 at GV, the early-stage corporate venturing unit of Alphabet, joined venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Acharya’s role as a general partner will involve him overseeing fintech deals on behalf of the VC firm, having most recently spent four years at credit management service provider Credit Karma. Acharya founded mobile game publisher SocialDeck in 2008 before the company was acquired by Alphabet almost three years later. As part of the deal, it hired Acharya in 2010 as lead product manager to run Google’s social media initiatives, before assigning him a partner position at GV in 2012 to focus on social media and adtech investments.
Jenny Lee, formerly a senior talent partner at financial services firm Citadel, joined SoftBank’s fund manager, SoftBank Investment Advisers, as head of US talent acquisition. Softbank Investment Advisers manages the group’s Vision Fund. She is expected to support Softbank’s recruitment efforts, identifying, acquiring and managing human resources, mainly in the US. She will also liaise between external and internal human resources service providers to carry out recruitment.
Tiffine Wang joined Japan-headquartered insurance group Mitsui Sumitomo & Aioi Nissay Dowa (MS&AD)’s US-based corporate venturing unit, as a partner after nearly five years at Singtel Innov8. oOerseen by managing partners Jon Soberg and Tak Sato, MS&AD Ventures is a venture capital firm runs a $120m fund to invest in early-stage enterprise companies. It was set up in October 2018. Wang joined Singtel Innov8in 2014 before being promoted to senior investment manager in early 2017. Wang’s deals in frontier and robotics technologies at Singtel Innov8 included the seed and series A rounds for Airspace, an aerial security system developer likely to see increasing demand following the recent drone attack on a Saudi Arabian oil refinery.
Elizabeth “Busy” Burr, formerly US-based health insurance provider Humana’s chief innovation officer and vice-president of healthcare trend, joined mortgage lender Mr Cooper. Humana had hired Burr in 2015 to set up its Silicon Valley office and its corporate venturing subsidiary, Humana Health Ventures. She oversaw Humana Health Ventures’ healthcare venturing and innovation activities and was nominated to Global Corporate Venturing’s Powerlist in 2017 and 2018. The unit evolved from predecessor Humana Health Innovation, which was formed in early 2014. The unit included Louisville Innovation Centre, which had been led by former senior vice-president and CIO Christopher Kay.
Next47, the corporate venture capital vehicle of Germany-headquartered industrial equipment and appliance producer Siemens, hired Adiari Vazquez as a UK-based associate. Vazquez had been a Portugal-based investment manager at Caixa Capital, the corporate venturing fund operated by financial services firm Caixa Geral de Depósitos, for more than three years having joined in late 2015, and oversaw early-stage deals in smart energy and materials. Vazquez will help Next47 identify startups disrupting established sectors including industry, infrastructure, manufacturing, construction and agriculture.
Sorenson Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of US-based private equity firm Sorenson Capital, has hired Chris Downer, a former principal at XL Innovate, the corporate venturing arm of insurance firm XL Catlin. Sorenson Ventures targets enterprise software and security startups. Downer joined XL Innovate as an associate in 2016 before being promoted to principal in July 2018. He had spent five years at Goldman Sachs, working in its Alternative Investments and Manager Selection Group. During his three-year stint at XL Innovate, Downer was involved in the unit’s insurance technology investment in the US, Europe and Asia.
John Eggleston, head of the tech sector for British Growth Fund, a UK-based patient capital investment firm founded by banks, joined private equity firm Pantheon Ventures as partner and chief technology officer. In eight years BGF, which is backed by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered, has invested in more than 280 companies, providing over £2bn ($2.4bn), according to Eggleston. He had taken seats on the boards of various companies.
Shriram Bhashyam, the co-founder of online share-trading marketplace EquityZen, took an entrepreneur-in-residence position at Citi Ventures. Bhashyam was head of business development and general counsel for EquityZen from its formation in 2013 until 2018 when he moved to chief strategy officer, before taking on an advisory role this year. Citi Ventures’ entrepreneur-in-residence activities take place within its D10X Innovation initiative, where the entrepreneurs coach employees looking to create solutions to problems that could form the basis for new startup companies.
Marin Cauvas, formerly an investor at Santander InnoVentures, joined fintech-focused venture capital and advisory firm Anthemis Group. He had been based in the UK but he has now relocated to Lisbon, Portugal. He will be responsible for identifying and executing potential investment opportunities. Cauvas had joined InnoVentures in 2016 after his 16-month stint as a vice-president of alternative finance at UK-based investment banking firm Liberum Capital.
The GCV Analytics definition of the financial services sector encompasses payment technologies and cryptocurrencies, personal finance and wealth management, insurance, alternative lending and crowdfunding, client and risk analytics, social investing and other related services.