BUSINESS WIRE – New York -Anthemis Group (“Anthemis”), a digital financial services venture capital and strategic advisory firm, has announced the first close of the Anthemis Venture Fund I (“the fund”). The fund will focus on early stage venture investments, providing pre-seed, seed and series A financing to digitally native financial services startups across North America and Europe. The fund is anchored by the European Investment Fund (“EIF”), as well as UniCredit, a leading European banking group.

Year-to-date for 2016, Anthemis has raised $285 million in capital across its platform from institutional investors and is actively investing in early stage through growth-stage financing rounds.

As an early mover in financial technology with a history of successful venture capital investing, Anthemis is well-positioned to identify companies with innovative, forward-looking, scalable business models. The firm has a decade of experience funding financial technology startups and the founders have spent their careers in the sector.

“Our enviable position of being truly expert in both financial services and technology, coupled with our history of investing in startups and advising financial services incumbents, sets us apart from others. The Anthemis team’s experience is becoming increasingly important as more money flows into the sector,” said Amy Nauiokas, Anthemis founder and president. “As competitive pressures in fintech continue to rise, it’s the focused experts with track records who will be the best partners for investors and entrepreneurs.”

“EIF currently supports over 400 private equity funds across Europe, including first-time teams. Anthemis is one of the earliest players in the fintech industry, which is a market with high potential. As both investors and advisors, with a broad geographic reach across Europe, Anthemis has a good strategy for SMEs which we are keen to support,” said Pier Luigi Gilibert, Chief Executive at the European Investment Fund.

“The Anthemis team is deeply embedded in the fintech industry and their proven expertise in finding new startups will add great value to our investment process,” said Marco Berini, Head of Group Innovation at UniCredit. “Our industry is constantly changing, and we want to keep pace with innovation so that we can create long-term value for our clients and stakeholders.”

“We’re excited to have secured this level of investment for our inaugural venture fund,” added Sean Park, Anthemis founder and chief investment officer. “As new firms continue crowding into the industry, our investment partners rely on our expertise and discernment to build a portfolio of truly transformative companies. From robo-advising, to insurance, to blockchain, our decade-long history of identifying early stage category creators within financial services was a vital factor in attracting such high caliber anchor investors for the fund.”

Anthemis holds more than 30 companies in its portfolio, including the automated wealth management platform Betterment, fundraising platform Artivest and on-demand insurer Trov. Successful exits include Simple, sold to BBVA for $117 million in 2014, and The Climate Corporation, acquired by Monsanto for $930 million in 2013. As part of its investment philosophy, Anthemis has built a global ecosystem consisting of startups, entrepreneurs, financial institutions, startup programs, regulators, and academic consultants.

The Anthemis Venture Fund I investment team is led by Sean Park, Amy Nauiokas and Yann Ranchere