When we first started investing in fintech in 2011 many questioned whether early-stage financial technology companies would ever add up to much over time. The landscape in terms of number of talented founders, available capital and evidence that venture outcomes could be generated was scant to say the least.
Forty investments later and it’s clear that not only were we right, but the fintech opportunity is significantly greater than anything we could have imagined a decade ago. Despite the progress made, the world class fintech firms that have become household names, the IPOs and mega M&A, this is just the beginning of the story. Fintech only accounts for a 2% share of the $12.5 trillion in global financial services revenue today, every $ is now a target for an ever increasingly number of talented, knowledgeable, passionate entrepreneurs across Europe that believe they can build something better. We agree.
We are therefore delighted to announce the closing of our next fund of £121million to invest in the founders building tomorrow’s financial technology. This allows us to continue our mission to back the best and boldest, typically at Seed to Series A and follow in the footsteps of our previous investments such as Roadzen (now listed on Nasdaq), hepster, Coincover, Runa, Billhop, Thirdfort, Arbolus, Duco, nCino, Fenergo & ErisX. We’ll continue in our sweet spot of £1m-£7m first cheques.
We thank our LPs and founders for their trust and look forward to supporting the next generation of pioneering fintech entrepreneurs
We have much to be thankful for, the support from the fintech founder community and industry at large continues to be staggering. We now have 38 world class founders and industry leaders as LPs, provides an unparalleled entrepreneurial network of experience, connectivity, expertise and talent to create a unique fintech venture platform. The value of businesses built by the group is a staggering $34bn.
Our portfolio founders tell us this is a key part of our secret sauce, a real value, real impact.
We are also hugely grateful for the support of two new institutional LPs, British Patient Capital and KfW Capital in Germany who will join Isomer Capital and IPGL on the Fund’s LPAC.
We have made a quick start with 5 portfolio companies already in the fund, to name a few Aria, Lune, Ramify and DataMarked. All companies that we believe have the potential to be ‘category definers’ in Europe’s digital financial services future.
Going forward, 13books is delighted to announce the promotion to Principal of Meera Bissoondeeal, Nitya Gupta and Aleksandra Tyurina in recognition of their excellent contribution and performance.
Michael McFadgen, Partner 13books, said, “It is clear that European fintech entrepreneurs desire a sector-focused, founder-focused venture platform that has meaningfully impactful networks across the industry. We believe European fintech is entering a golden period, we thank our LPs and founders for their trust and look forward to supporting the next generation of pioneering fintech entrepreneurs”
