Australia-based financial services provider Westpac has supplied A$50m ($37m) in capital for venture capital firm and partner Reinventure, Australian Financial Review reported on Tuesday.
Founded in 2013, Reinventure now has $111m under management spread across three funds of equal size. The initial $37m was provided by Westpac, before the banking group returned to put up 99% of the second fund in 2016.
Reinventure has backed a total of 20 financial technology startups across its existing two funds. It has not achieved any exits to date and is taking a patient capital approach with investment horizons of five to 15 years.
The third fund will operate under a more flexible strategy that will include more investments in foreign companies, with a particular focus on Asia.
Reinventure will also seek deals beyond traditional equity investments, such as cryptocurrencies, with blockchain-associated technology a key focus for the fund.
Westpac reinvested after a benchmarking report indicated the first two funds are operating in the top quartile of VC funds internationally based on internal rates of return. It is also interested in getting access to emerging technologies.
Reinventure is currently processing five to 10 investment opportunities per week and will remain open to co-investing in startups alongside other banks besides Westpac. It is actively looking for relationships with Asia-based firms outside China.
Danny Gilligan, co-founder of Reinventure, said: “Funds one and two were focused on our key themes around modularisation of the banking stack, with investments such as Data Republic, Assembly and HyperAnna, and finance at the edge, with investments like Flare and OpenAgent.
“Fund three will have a more flexible structure providing an increased ability to make overseas investments and investments other than pure equity.”
GCV previously spoke with Gilligan and his co-founder Simon Cant about their firm in February 2017.