Former AMEX Ventures Managing Directors launch debut fund to identify and access game-changing business development opportunities for early-stage fintech companies
Vesey Ventures, an early stage venture firm that invests in companies transforming financial services, announced the close of its debut fund totalling $78 million. Vesey Ventures was founded by three former Managing Directors at AMEX Ventures, Dana Eli-Lorch, Lindsay Fitzgerald and Julia Huang, and will invest in early-stage fintech and enabling technology companies where opportunities for early partnerships with financial incumbents exist. Based in the United States and Israel, the fund has already made several notable investments including Coast, Cyrus, Grain, Equi and Proper.
With nearly a decade of experience investing together and establishing partnerships for fintech companies, Eli-Lorch, Fitzgerald and Huang are uniquely positioned to identify and access game-changing business development opportunities for their portfolio. The founding team has a track record of investing in early fintech winners like Melio, Plaid, Stripe, and Trulioo and has established more than 100 partnerships between startups and financial services institutions. Vesey Ventures combines the best of their backgrounds – deep domain expertise in traditional financial services and a unique understanding of the startup ecosystem – to identify, fund and scale the next generation of great companies.
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“Financial incumbents still own the crucial pieces startups need to succeed – infrastructure, capital, licenses and customers – and we’ve seen first hand how the most successful fintech companies were built in partnership with incumbents,” said Founding Partners Dana Eli-Lorch, Lindsay Fitzgerald and Julia Huang. “We created Vesey Ventures to give our portfolio companies a competitive edge early on by bridging the gap between the companies in need of new technologies and those building them. Partnerships can be a game-changing part of a fintech company’s growth story and we have an unparalleled track record of delivering these for our founders.”
In addition to every Term Sheet, Vesey Ventures issues a ‘Strategy Sheet’ to every portfolio company outlining how the firm will leverage its extensive network of strategic investors and advisors to act as a company’s first business development team. As industry insiders who have operated for years at the intersection of finance and technology, the firm specializes in identifying partnerships and providing strong access points within the financial services ecosystem to make them happen.
“Partnering with Vesey Ventures has been jet fuel for Coast” said Coast Founder and CEO Daniel Simon. “The team immediately showed a deep understanding of my business and identified the tactics they could deploy to move the needle for us. They put it on paper right away, and they’ve delivered. They had innovative, actionable business development ideas that helped shape our go-to-market strategy. They found us the right hires and advisors when we needed them. They are indispensable to fintech founders.”
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“Business development in the financial industry is not just a nice to have, it’s a need to have, and Vesey Ventures are the type of insightful, strategic partners you want at the table,” said Trulioo Co-Founder Stephen Ufford. “Founders working in banking, payments, data networking and compliance will find the team’s expertise to be unmatched. Vesey Ventures know the decision makers, they can make connections and they have experience. They are relentless when it comes to business development and never gave up on helping Trulioo acquire our first major banking customer.”
Israel serves as a critical market for a number of Vesey Venture’s focus areas including early-stage fintech, enterprise software, cybersecurity and data & AI. The team previously invested in a number of Israeli companies including BioCatch, Melio, and Next Insurance, and the fund has already invested in two Israeli-based portfolio companies. With offices in the US and Israel Vesey Ventures is well positioned to help local startups partner, expand and commercialize in the US.
The founders previously made early investments in some of the world’s most successful fintech companies including Stripe, Plaid, Toast, Melio, Trulioo, Signifyd, iZettle, FalconX, Menlo Security, BioCatch, and Codat.
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