🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The fund’s backers can become customers for its portfolio

• Illuminate Financial includes eight large financial institutions, including Citi and HSBC, among its investors. For enterprise fintech startups, that creates a built-in group of possible buyers 1.
• Those investors also sit in the market these software companies need to win, which gives portfolio firms a strong set of sales connections as they grow 2.
• Illuminate has moved beyond its early-stage focus with its first fund aimed at series B and later-stage companies after more than a decade in early-stage fintech investing 1.
• Its 2015 fund ranks as the top European venture fund for distributions, according to Cambridge Associates, an investment benchmarking firm 2.

A way to cut risk in enterprise fintech sales

• Enterprise fintech companies often face long sales cycles in financial services. This structure can work like an outsourced corporate venture capital arm, giving banks a shared way to back and assess new tools 1.
• The approach could speed up adoption because Illuminate understands how financial institutions buy and roll out technology, said BNP Paribas 2.
• If it works, similar funds could spread to other regulated sectors with a small number of large enterprise buyers.