Capital threshold surpassed with funds from a special purpose vehicle dedicated to Black and Latinx investors
Finix, the payments infrastructure company helping vertical SaaS companies transform their businesses through payments, surpassed $100M in total funding, allocating 10% of its most recent funding round for Black and Latinx investors. Matching its financial growth, the company hired three senior executives to Chief Technology Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and Senior VP of Revenue roles.
Read More: HUBUC Teams up With IDEMIA to Provide Dynamic CVV MOTION CODE™ Card to Help Fight Fraud
“People too often focus on one aspect of diversity, but it’s not just about diversifying your employees, leadership team, or cap table—it’s about all of them combined,” said Richie Serna, CEO and co-founder of Finix
During its Series B, Finix facilitated a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to bring more than 80 traditionally marginalized investors onto its cap table. The company believes this is a tangible example of how early-stage, high-growth startups can increase representation in the venture capital ecosystem and work to close the racial wealth gap. A community has grown amongst the SPV investors, providing a recruiting and partnership advantage for everyone involved.
“The Finix SPV provides tremendous value. It allows talented, knowledgeable investors and operators from diverse backgrounds—especially Black and Latinx people—who have traditionally been excluded from investing early in rocketship startups to be able to do so,” said Tiffani Ashley Bell, Founder & Executive Director at The Human Utility and an SPV investor. “Finix’s success and the success of the SPV will open up capital for many more entrepreneurs and investors from underrepresented communities.”
Read More: Robotic Process Automation: Impact on Fintech and a Deep Dive into Top Global Providers
“Black and other Latinx entrepreneurs and investors were the first people to believe in me and to back Finix. I’m happy to pay it forward by creating this SPV, and I hope other founders will do the same,” Serna said. “During this process, we were also hiring for senior executive positions, and I’m grateful to have found leaders representative of our company culture with diverse backgrounds and experiences that align with our trajectory.”
Finix has brought on seasoned executives with experience building, operating, and growing some of Silicon Valley’s most notable companies to help it achieve its mission of turning every software company into a payments company. Finix’s new leaders include:
- Fiona Taylor, COO, is an operations executive with an impeccable resume. She spent a decade as an Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and another decade in the UK managing investment services and credit ratings throughout Europe. Fiona has spent the last fourteen years in the United States structuring and optimizing operations at technology companies. From Visa’s and Solar City’s IPO to Solar City’s acquisition by Tesla to her most recent role as Marqeta’s SVP of Operations, Fiona brings Finix a wealth of experience managing high-growth, global operations.
- Ramana Satyavarapu, CTO, was a founding member of Microsoft Office 365 and the head of engineering for Google Play Search. He led Software infrastructure Engineering at Uber and was most recently the Head of Data Platforms & Products at Two Sigma, a renowned quantitative hedge fund. He led pioneering data initiatives leveraged by 1,000+ engineers, researchers, and Two Sigma fund portfolios to drive oversize returns. At Finix, Ramana’s ability to deliver customer-focused products, harness complex data, and scale globally will be invaluable.
- Adam Boushie, SVP of Revenue, is an internationally experienced executive and entrepreneur who has invested more than 20 years building global technology companies. Before Finix, Adam was the Chief Revenue Officer for Gloo. Prior, Adam was an early employee at Google Cloud, where he spent eight years building and leading teams across the US, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. During his tenure, he helped grow Google Cloud to $8B in revenue. Adam has a proven track record of scaling businesses from a small startup to a global technology powerhouse. This first-hand leadership will be crucial as he helps accelerate Finix’s growth.
Read More: Mizuho And Line Raise Investment In build For New Smartphone Bank
