Fitch Group

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.

The Genferberg Group is a pinnacle of excellence in Switzerland's financial landscape, distinguishing itself as a leading provider of private equity and venture capital services. Renowned for our deep-rooted expertise and unwavering commitment, we cater to a sophisticated clientele, including qualified private and institutional investors seeking bespoke investment solutions. Our reputation is built on a foundation of strategic foresight and a relentless pursuit of innovation, managing a diverse and highly innovative portfolio of ventures across various sectors.

BNY Mellon has the pre-eminent capital markets platform, integrating data, technology, and investment solutions – placing the Bank in a leading position to meet the evolving and complex needs of financial institutions. To build on this strong foundation and capture emerging opportunities, the Bank recently launched Growth Ventures. A new business that focuses specifically on identifying, developing, and executing break-out commercial opportunities that are adjacent to BNY Mellon’s strategic priorities, but ‘more-than-incremental’ to existing solutions. Growth Ventures is the Bank’s platform for investing in and standing up new businesses. These businesses integrate existing capabilities into new commercial models, deliver new capabilities to market often through partnerships with clients and other industry stakeholders, and enter new markets in unique ways that benefit clients and the overall ecosystem. Growth Ventures also includes BNY Mellon’s market-leading software and data management business, with approximately $45 trillion in assets under data management and proprietary technology infrastructure that is a foundation for a broad suite of analytics, services, and solutions. Growth Ventures is bringing to market a new business to deliver solutions to the alternative investment ecosystem. The business will leverage, connect, and enhance existing capabilities across BNY Mellon’s Investment Management, Wealth Management, Asset Servicing, Pershing, PershingX, and Data & Analytics offerings while also developing a number of new products and features to support a broad set of clients. In doing so, these solutions will deliver a one-of-a-kind integrated ecosystem and superior end-to-end client experience. The specific markets being targeted are measured in trillions of dollars and with revenue pools measured in billions – yet they are generally viewed as nascent and on the precipice of accelerating growth.

Our initial investment ranges from $0.5M – $2.0M and we concentrate all of our time, capital, networks and resources on a limited set of long-term partnerships. We work in the areas of Intelligent Systems, Financial and Commerce Infrastructure, Asset Management and Capital Markets, Climate Fintech, Insurance, and Wealth Management.

With decades of combined experience in financial services, regulatory agencies, and startups, we are more than just investors. We bring industry expertise and operational knowhow to each company we partner with, and are committed to embodying our core values of excellence, diligence, and collaboration in everything that we do. We are early partners to founders creating a sustainable and positive impact on the financial system. If you are building a company in lending, payments, capital markets, data analytics, financial infrastructure, crypto or asset management, please reach out to us.