Vesey Ventures launches $78m fund, highlighting power of well-connected investor team

Vesey Ventures, a venture firm focusing on financial services solutions, has closed its debut fund totaling $78 million. The fund was founded by three former managing directors at AMEX Ventures, Dana Eli-Lorch, Lindsay Fitzgerald and Julia Huang, and will invest in early-stage fintech and enabling technology companies where opportunities for early partnerships with financial incumbents exist.

With a successful track record of investing in fintech success-stories like Stripe, Plaid, and Trulioo, the firm’s founding team aims to bridge the gap between start-ups and financial services institutions to give its portfolio companies a competitive edge. The firm specializes in identifying partnerships and providing strong access points within the financial services ecosystem to make them happen.

“Business development in the financial industry is not just a nice to have, it’s a need to have, and Vesey Ventures are the type of insightful, strategic partners you want at the table,” said Trulioo co-founder Stephen Ufford. “Founders working in banking, payments, data networking and compliance will find the team’s expertise to be unmatched. Vesey Ventures know the decision makers, they can make connections and they have experience. They are relentless when it comes to business development and never gave up on helping Trulioo acquire our first major banking customer.”

Partnerships started by Vesey’s founders

Vesey’s founders have established more than 100 partnerships between start-ups and financial services institutions, and the fund combines their deep domain expertise in traditional financial services and a unique understanding of the start-up ecosystem to identify, fund and scale the next generation of companies. The founders previously made early investments in some of the world’s most successful fintech companies including Toast, Melio, Signifyd, iZettle, FalconX, Menlo Security, BioCatch and Codat.

“Financial incumbents still own the crucial pieces start-ups need to succeed – infrastructure, capital, licenses and customers – and we’ve seen firsthand how the most successful fintech companies were built in partnership with incumbents,” stated the founders in a press release. “We created Vesey Ventures to give our portfolio companies a competitive edge early on by bridging the gap between the companies in need of new technologies and those building them. Partnerships can be a game-changing part of a fintech company’s growth story and we have an unparalleled track record of delivering these for our founders.”

Daniel Simon, founder and CEO of the Vesey-funded start-up Coast, noted the value presented by the team given their expertise. “Partnering with Vesey Ventures has been jet fuel for Coast,” he said. “The team immediately showed a deep understanding of my business and identified the tactics they could deploy to move the needle for us. They put it on paper right away, and they’ve delivered. They had innovative, actionable business development ideas that helped shape our go-to-market strategy. They found us the right hires and advisers when we needed them.”

The fund’s investments are not only limited to the United States, but Israel also serves as a critical market for a number of Vesey Venture’s focus areas, including early-stage fintech, enterprise software, cybersecurity and data and AI. The team previously invested in a number of Israeli companies including BioCatch, Melio and Next Insurance, and the fund has already invested in two Israeli-based portfolio companies. With offices in the US and Israel, Vesey Ventures is well-positioned to help local start-ups partner, expand and commercialize in the US.