Former Amex executives raise $78M for early-stage fintech fund

Vesey Ventures announced Thursday the closing of its $78 million debut fund aimed at helping startups break into the financial industry and accelerate growth.

The firm was founded by three former CEOs of Amex Ventures, Dana Eli-Lorch, Lindsay Fitzgerald and Julia Huang. The trio’s goal for Vesey is to give the portfolio companies a competitive advantage by offering access to the diverse network at an early stage.

“We identify innovative, actionable business development ideas designed to shape a company’s go-to-market strategy and meaningfully move the needle for them,” Fitzgerald told Banking Dive via email. “We only invest in startups that we believe we can support meaningfully through our experience and our network, both of which are financial services-centric. Any startup that can benefit from this network is fair game.”

Vesey issues a “Strategy Sheet” in addition to each term sheet to each portfolio company, outlining its plan to leverage its network of strategic investors and advisors to serve as the startup’s first business development team, she said.

“We put the plan on paper, because we deliver. We don’t know of another company that does this,” she noted.

The firm has a mix of limited partners, including institutional and individual investors, founders of top fintech companies, CFOs and leading financial institutions, according to the co-founder.

The fintech fund likes to partner with corporate venture capital, which gives its portfolio companies opportunities to work with a diverse network of investors rather than being siloed, Fitzgerald said.

Typically, the firm likes to invest earlier than corporate VCs and guide the companies to the right partners who can help create value for them, she said.

Fitzgerald believes the next decade will be defined by established companies partnering with startups, and Vesey will play an important role in bringing together incumbents and innovators to help founders build companies and transform financial services.

“Early relationships with established companies are an accelerator for building winning products, achieving product-market fit and driving rapid customer adoption in fintech,” she said. “Bringing together incumbents and innovators, our firm is structured to help founders bring their vision to life, faster, through equity investments and targeted business development.”

After starting up early last year, Vesey has invested in companies such as Coast, Grain, Proper, Cyrus and Equi, the firm said in a statement.

The trio met 10 years ago at Amex’s headquarters on Vesey Street in New York – hence the name Vesey Ventures.

While at Amex, they helped fund several fintechs, including Stripe, Plaid, Trulioo and BioCatch, according to the press release. They also helped establish over 100 partnerships between startups and financial services.

Overseas office

Vesey has an Israel connection, as one of the founders, Eli-Lorch, is based there.

The venture firm wants to continue exploring the country’s growing fintech and cyber security space. The founders have been active in the Israeli fintech ecosystem since their Amex days, Fitzgerald said.

It already has two Israeli-based portfolio companies, and Fitzgerald claims the firm is the only US fintech fund with an office in Tel Aviv.

“We are the only ones well-positioned to help local startups partner, scale and commercialize in the United States,” Fitzgerald said. “Israel continues to be one of the fastest growing technology hubs in the world and serves as a critical market for a number of our focus areas, including early stage fintech, enterprise software, data security data and AI. The billions invested in Israeli startups is a testament to the country’s leadership in cybersecurity, fintech, enterprise software, AI and data infrastructure.”