Anthemis Expands Partnership with Exponential Ventures, MMI Holdings’ Disruptive Innovation Arm, Beyond Investing to Build New Financial Wellness Companies
LONDON, April 18, 2017 – Anthemis, cultivators of change in financial services, and Exponential Ventures, the disruptive innovation arm of MMI Holdings, today announced the launch of an incubator dedicated to financial wellness. Based in London, the incubator will identify business opportunities, refine business models, source talent and scale financial wellness startups.
The financial wellness incubator between Anthemis and Exponential Ventures deepens an existing collaboration between the two firms. June 2016, Anthemis Exponential Ventures (AEV) launched with a mission is to invest in early stage companies that improve the financial wellness of individuals and SME’s.
To date, AEV has invested in four financial wellness startups, which include ABAKA, an intelligent savings platform that gives employers the potential to improve the financial wellbeing of their workforce; Monese, an online banking service that aims to provide better banking for individuals and businesses; Qapital, an everyday banking app that allows users to create goals and rules to drive saving habits; and Payoff, a financial wellness company applying science, psychology and technology to help members reinvent their relationship with money.
Industrial designer and serial entrepreneur Erica Young, who joined Anthemis in 2015, will lead the financial wellness incubator operational team and report to the Anthemis-Exponential Ventures executive board.
Dan Smith, Managing Partner, Exponential Ventures, said: “The pace of technological change, coupled with our ambition to deliver financial wellness requires us to think differently, to collaborate and co-create. Solving hard, intractable problems at scale needs world-class thinkers and doers to break down traditional product/market silos, navigate evolving regulatory landscapes and develop tech sophisticated in its ability yet elegantly simple for the user. Anthemis share our passion for financial wellness in its importance of reshaping financial services, and we’re delighted to extend our tightly knit partnership.”
Since its inception in 2010, Anthemis has been dedicated to helping incumbents navigate their entire innovation agenda. The Anthemis-Exponential Ventures financial wellness incubator represents the launch of Anthemis’ venture partnership product. Venture partnerships are a further evolution of Anthemis’ advisory offering as it responds to the changing needs of the financial services market:
- In 2013, Anthemis launched its talent practice, recognizing the critical role people play in adopting and advancing innovation.
- In 2016, Anthemis announced its first investment partnership, responding to the increasing interest large institutions have in engaging in corporate venture.
- Through venture partnerships, Anthemis can now provide incumbents with a turnkey incubator to build fintech businesses that are strategically additive and aligned to corporate objectives.
Anthemis Founder and CEO Nadeem Shaikh said, “At Anthemis, we have a front-row seat to the challenges all sides of the ecosystem face when driving innovation forward. And we know there is no ‘magic bullet’ that will solve a large institution’s challenge to transform its business to meet the demands of the information age. The venture partnership, like all of our services within our advisory group, help to instill new behaviors inside companies so that people – the real drivers of innovation – can come together to make change happen.”
For more information, please contact venturepartnerships@anthemis.com.
###
About Anthemis
Anthemis cultivates change in financial services by building, growing, and sustaining businesses committed to improving the world. Our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology and spirit of collaboration inspire everything we do. By creating fertile ground for entrepreneurs, institutions, researchers, academics, and visionaries to come together, we believe we can solve the financial services world’s most pressing challenges faster, better and for the benefit of all. Learn more at www.anthemis.com.