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Founded in 2017 by Dan Kimerling, we exclusively focus on financial technlogy investments with interests in payments, lending, insurance, regtech, risk mananagement, capital markets, trade finance, personal finance, savings, marketplaces, and much more. Deciens support entrepreneurs leading the digital transformation of long-standing institutions by collaborating with companies like Chipper Cash, the largest African fintech, Treasury Prime, the leading banking as a service company, and Therma, which helps measure, monitor, and protect climate sensitive supply chains around the world. Deciens seeks visionary founders at the earliest stage of their company's life. We support our founders with advice, expertise, relationships, and, yes, capital. We seek to be the first material capital invested into companies of consequence. They tend to have increasing returns to scale, deep moats, and operate in winner take all markets of substantive size.

Illuminate Financial is a thesis-driven venture capital firm dedicated to enterprise fintech and B2B software companies building technology solutions for financial services. We find, fund and support the best entrepreneurs solving real problems for financial institutions. Building an enterprise software company and selling solutions into financial institutions is hard. Large financial firms know they need to adopt new technology solutions to remain competitive and compliant, but they struggle to filter and identify the best companies that are fit for purpose. Bridging this gap requires more than just patient capital to help with this challenge. It needs the support of a trusted partner who can help make the right introductions to the right people at the right time. At Illuminate, our deep networks and partnerships with key industry participants across banks, infrastructure providers, asset & wealth managers, exchanges and established vendors allow us to gain real insight into what the industry needs and help portfolio companies achieve their full potential. We understand the challenges founders face. We have been the entrepreneur, the vendor, the industry executive and the end consumer. We are an independent sector specialist investor.

DB1 Ventures’ vision is to be a strategic partner of choice for early-stage to growth-stage fintech start-ups along the capital markets infrastructure value chain. Through targeted start-up investments, we aim to gain access to innovations and technologies that are core or adjacent to Deutsche Börse Group’s strategy, generate attractive investment returns and add strategic value to the growth plans of our portfolio companies. Our mission DB1 Ventures considers itself as Deutsche Börse Group’s “eyes and ears” in the global venture capital and fintech ecosystem. Its focus is set on areas of strategic interest to the Group to help the company drive innovation. Investment strategyGeography agnostic €5–25 million investment size Active investment philosophy Minority, significant minority stakes Lead and co-participate in investments Return targets: 1) Financial KPIs; 2) Strategic value Focus on early-stage to growth-stage companies (post-Series A) Fintech start-ups, with a specific focus on capital markets infrastructure Value proposition We help early-stage and growth-stage start-ups scale better from a technical and business connectivity perspective by working closely with our product, technology and operations teams. We provide connections to the financial world from issuers to intermediaries, traders and investors, who appreciate our neutrality and the high quality of market services we provide. We understand what it means to operate within the capital markets space and can help start-ups strategically with our expertise and connections to relevant players in the space. We bring the experience and brand of one of the largest market operators – a strong brand in the industry, standing for quality, independence, reliability and innovation.

Impression Ventures invests in early-stage startup companies that are disrupting all aspects of financial services. We are seed investors in some of North America’s fastest growing fintech companies such as Wealthsimple, Symend, Owl, Afficiency and so many more. That’s the technical description of who we are but there’s so much more to what we do! We take an active role in investing into late-Seed and early Series A companies. We provide strategic value to our portfolio companies - 20 to date - as well as all our Limited Partners, including two of Canada’s largest banks. We are now on our fourth fund, have funded one fintech unicorn and we are ready to find the next! Diversity is the key to our investment philosophy & innovation. We continue to build an inclusive network & community, forging strong connections with our internal team, our Limited Partners and the Fintech companies in our portfolio. We strongly believe that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment, better investment decisions, which in turn delivers better results. At Impression Ventures we encourage unity & inclusion, and our company culture is free of discrimination regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes you unique. What We Invest InFinTech Specialist: Our firm only backs startups that are changing the bread and butter of the financial services industry. Whether you are supporting financial transactions, making insurance products more accessible, or helping consumers make better financial choices, we would love to talk to you. Late Seed and Early Series A: We invest in late Seed and early Series A rounds. Our initial investments range from $1M-$2M into $2M+ rounds. We support high-growth startups that must demonstrate a complete product for us to participate in the round. Lead Investors: We lead (or co-lead) our initial investments with simple, founder-friendly term sheets. We want to position our portfolio companies for successful future growth without complicated strings attached. Active Investors: Borrowing from our years of accumulated experience and our connections within financial services, we like to roll-up our sleeves and help our founders build excellent businesses.

We propel early-stage fintech startups in the UK and EU. Our comprehensive view of the fintech landscape has seen us back ambitious entrepreneurs solving global problems in financial services, and the connected sectors influencing the future of financial services for companies, societies and everyday people. Our approachA carefully curated team: Our team is tightknit, fast moving and vigilant for every chance to add value. Building trust from day one: We aren't just sporadic board attendees; we live and breathe the ambitions of our founders. Sector specialists: We leverage our sector-focussed networks and resources to create maximum impact as quickly as possible. Committed to the journey: We continue to support our companies through multiple rounds of further funding, injecting tangible value adds at every step. Is Outward the right partner for you? Our sweet spot is companies: raising £1-6m based in the UK or EU with global ambitions showing clear evidence of traction with a mission driven team FAQsIn terms of revenue milestones and other KPIs, at what stage does Outward invest? We do not have rigid must-haves on revenue and business traction. As no two businesses are the same, we look at multiple and diverse data points to build conviction on the need for a product or service to exist. You may have a small number of customers yet you have amassed engagement data indicating product/market fit. You may have minimal revenue yet your launch customer(s) are influential and evangelical about your product. How much does Outward typically invest in the first investment round? Our initial entry investment is £750k to £1.5m in funding rounds of £1m to £10m. We reserve the majority of our funds to make follow-on investments in our portfolio companies. Does Outward take a lead investor role? As decisive, first-mover investors, we are experienced at performing a lead investor role in coordinating other investors in the funding round. That said, our approach is always collaborative and our priority is to ensure the best outcome for the investee with minimal fuss. As such, we are equally happy to co-lead or follow terms set by a lead investor depending on the round composition. What does the typical investment process look like? We are a small and nimble team, and as such, we try to keep our investment process as streamlined as possible. Initial conversations with founders will be focused on building conviction on these five questions which may take place over 1-3 calls: 1) Why will this team succeed? 2) Why is this market attractive? 3) Why does this product need to exist? 4) Why could this company become a category leader? 5) Why does Outward VC need to invest? Once the investment team is confident, we invite founders to a meeting with all seven team members. Following this, we will debate internally and come to a decision on whether or not to invest. Who are Outward’s Limited Partners? The fund’s cornerstone Limited Partners are two international financial institutions – Investec Bank and NIBC (Blackstone Group). In addition, our Limited Partners comprise a range of institutions, family offices and private investors, many of whom have extensive global networks in financial services. How do you help and support founders post-investment? Post-investment, our mission is to provide tailored support to our portfolio companies. This includes new hires, commercial partnerships, board construction, positioning for the next funding round, and marketing support. To ensure we understand the needs of the business, a Board Observer right is a part of our investment terms. Before choosing us as an investor partner in your business, we ask that you speak with the founders in our portfolio to understand Outward’s pragmatic and high-impact approach to adding value post-investment. What is Outward’s definition of fintech or ‘connected fintech’? A quick review of Outward’s existing portfolio should give a flavour of our broad definition of fintech. Our mission is to empower start-ups seeking to be the most important fintech companies in the world. We cover the full range of financial services from banking to capital markets to asset management to insurance, and our portfolio is equally weighted across B2B and B2C. In addition, we also actively seek out adjacent and connected sectors that we believe will have a key role shaping the future of financial services.

We partner with phenomenal entrepreneurs who have the vision and drive to reinvent financial services, investing from the earliest seeds of startup life to businesses scaling for growth. We support leading companies across all sectors of financial services, including lending, credit & banking, payments, insurance, capital markets & investments, personal finance, enterprise financial stack and real estate finance. Our distinctive approach to fintech venture capital is crafted around a curated network of global macroeconomic thinkers and investors. Launched in 2015, Clocktower Ventures is the technology investing affiliate of Clocktower Group, a global macro investment firm. We are based in Santa Monica, CA and invest worldwide.