Augmentum Fintech

QED is the premier VC in the fintech space. We are operators well regarded for our expertise, engagement, and empathy. We invest in businesses that disrupt and empower. Fintech is about leveraging the best aspects of technology – mobile adaptation, optimising data, agile tech build, and heightening rapid learning – to make financial services better for consumers – through driving adoption, reducing friction, and creating transparency. Fintech is doing all of this rapidly, cheaply, and in modular/flexible form. But at its core, it’s about solving a problem for a user. Our Philosophy On their own, small hurdles are often easy to overcome. But stacked together, many small hurdles can present an overwhelming challenge, even for the best founder. We call this .8^5. It’s our job to help companies improve their chances of success. Back to Basics If you know anything about us, you will know we are fanatically focused on unit economics. Curious about the other principles we hold near and dear? Our Investment Criteria We invest in early-stage, disruptive financial services companies in the U.S., U.K. and Latin America. Our initial investment size typically is around $5M with significant reserves for follow-on. We keenly focus on talent. To build conviction around an investment, the company must have amazing leadership. This means that management is balanced and transparent, open to advice, and focused on unit economics. After all, Fintech is hard and we strive to work with CEOs who innately understand this. Founders who think they know all the answers are subject to stumble. We focus on companies who are unrelenting. Fintechs need to push through constant challenges in order to be true disruptors. The business must solve a real problem or create a palpable benefit for the user.Beware of technology zealots in search of a problem to solve. We are customer first in our thinking. The business must be thoughtful about managing opportunity and risk. Solving a narrower problem well is less risky, but often has less upside, than solving a bigger problem with a larger TAM. QEDis also hypothesis driven. We develop hypotheses, evaluate the universe of companies in the space, and apply full-court press to convert the best we can find. If we don’t reach a deal with a company we believe in, or if we don’t find one, we test further. Sometimes we will build it ourselves or assemble a team to build it and fund them from day zero. In that case, we tap into theCapital One diaspora – a now global network of industry leading business-builders with expertise in all aspects of financial services. We have had great success doing this through our Belay platform, building companies such as ClearScore, Wagestream, minu, MotoRefi, and two other companies that will be announced later this year, and we have scores of ideas in the pipeline.

Haymaker Ventures has an ambitious vision for fintech. One could argue there’s never been an easier time to start a company. But there’s also never been a harder time to start a great company. We at Haymaker know the importance of staying intellectually nimble. As Mike Tyson famously said: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” We believe that, done right, fintech not only offers more, faster, and cheaper choices, but also provides better choices. It allows individuals to start businesses, manage risk, participate in the global economy, and create opportunity where legacy financial services have failed. The potential for disruption is enormous, especially considering that many customers don’t have a lot of good financial choices to begin with. Coming out of the financial crisis, our team saw opportunity in a nascent industry built on new technology to tackle these problems. As COVID-19 drove more of the economy online, the result has been unprecedented investment and adoption in the space. Rather than adding marginal value to existing infrastructure, the next generation of fintech winners could command huge markets built on embedded fintech products and platforms that extend more broadly than traditional applications of financial services. These fintech winners will be defined by durability - commitment to being different in a way that lets them thrive across cycles and survive multiple economic regimes where others failed or gave up. Durable businesses require aggressive pivots, efficient operations, and nimble exploitation of new tactical opportunities. They require entrepreneurs that plan in decades and dream of changing the world: relentless and committed, cunning and wily, and just plain tough.

It targets disruptive technologies that have the potential to impact ING’s business and ensure customers and clients get access to best-in-class services. Based in Amsterdam but shadowing ING’s geographic footprint of 41 countries, ING Ventures is a €350 million fund that not only drives innovation within ING, but also helps entrepreneurs with hands-on support, know-how, scaling expertise and access to our distribution network. Who/what: €350m fund to support the acceleration of ING’s innovation strategy Strategy: Hands-on investor targeting growth stage (Series A/B) ventures Focus: Global mandate concentrating on fintech and adjacent markets Initial ticket size: €250k – €10m with capacity to support in follow-on rounds How we add valueGrowth: Access to a broad international distribution network of around 40m clients across 41 countries Expertise: In-depth product expertise and market know-how to help entrepreneurs scale their business Support: Hands-on support with operational challenges, business operations and corporate governance

We invest in promising financial technology, commerce and infrastructure startups and provide them with access to the resources, relationships and deep industry expertise they need to grow and succeed. PayPal Ventures is the global corporate venture arm of PayPal. We invest for financial return, in companies at the forefront of innovation in fintech, commerce enablement, digital infrastructure, and crypto/blockchain technologies. Through the expertise, experience, and vast network of PayPal Ventures – and the companies we invest in – we are helping to bring transformative solutions to market faster. Why partner with PayPal Ventures?Trusted Brand PayPal is a global digital payments platform and one of the most dynamic and valuable brands in the world. Companies that choose PayPal Ventures benefit from the credibility that comes with being backed by one of the world’s most trusted brands, supporting engagement with customers, partners, regulators, and other investors. Global Experts in Payments A seasoned team of specialists across PayPal, with years of relevant experience, will be at your fingertips to help navigate payments, credit and other product choices, technical decisions, regulatory complexity, and how to scale your business into new sectors and markets. Ventures The PayPal Ventures team draws from the deep collective experience of PayPal to connect the dots in ways that others cannot and we utilize this knowledge and insight to help our portfolio companies navigate their own journeys. Given that we are a financial investor with a corporate support network, PayPal Ventures is uniquely structured to help you grow your business and tackle your biggest challenges.

Propel is investing in founders creating “the new economy.” The financial services sector is the primary driver of many economies, and opportunities to enable, accelerate, deliver, and secure value exchange are immense and diverse. Propel invests primarily from Pre-Seed to Series A in the Americas with initial check sizes from $250k to $5M with follow-on capital much higher. Portfolio companies include Coinbase, Nomad, Neon, Guideline, Groww, SumUp, Newfront, and Safebooks. Propel is headquartered in the SF Bay Area with a workspace in Jackson Square.

At Coinbase, we’re committed to creating an open financial system for the world. We can’t do it alone, and we’re eagerly rooting for the brightest minds in the crypto ecosystem to build empowering products for everyone. We provide financing to promising early stage companies that have the teams and ideas that can move the space forward in a positive, meaningful way. We’re taking a long term view of the space, and we believe that multiple approaches are healthy and good. Our goal is simply to help the most compelling companies in the space flourish