Looking Ahead

A Note From Sean and Amy

When we started to build Anthemis, ten years ago, our mission and thesis were fairly ambitious. We set out to transform the financial system for the digital age by convening an ecosystem of incumbent players, entrepreneurs, market innovators and influencers. We committed relatively early to deploy human and financial capital diversely and inclusively. That had never been seen or done before. For us, if our hypothesis was right, the result would be a much more resilient, transparent, fair market system for all. Taking a look back at everything that’s happened in the world this year, we can all appreciate that our thesis, however prescient that it might have been at the time, is so incredibly relevant today.

Over the last decade, we have seen thousands of companies doing their part to drive change in the financial system. The pandemic has acted as a massive macro-accelerant for a lot of deep, underlying secular trends that have been developing for decades. Many of those are an inevitability as we transition from an industrial economy to an information economy. These trends include how we work, stay connected globally as well as where we occupy space. As we watch these trends evolve, take pride in the global ecosystem we have created and look to the future, we are excited about the position from which we will help continue to evolve this essential industry.

And with that position comes a great deal of responsibility. We often use the metaphor of finance as the nervous system of our society. Its health is crucial for building resiliency into our economy. Now, it has become even more pressing to make sure that we’re backing the right companies and entrepreneurs to ensure that this nervous system can support and include everyone. As we watch the trends in financial services interact with and drive impact in other industries including, big tech, healthcare and wellness, media and energy for example – a move from fin-tech and toward tech-fin, so to speak – we are excited to broaden and strengthen our ecosystem. And together, as we build resiliency, these businesses and teams will also work to counter some of the intrinsic societal negatives, like growing inequality, for instance.

We are proud to see that things we’ve been identifying for a decade – the need for more transparency, fairness, democratization and access in the system are starting to get the attention they deserve. And even more thrilled that a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in terms of who gets capital and who is hired is finally resonating in our space. We are hopeful as well that these “trends” will be here to stay!

Our Journey

2010

Nauiokas Park recapitalizes as Anthemis; makes seed-stage investments in automated wealth management pioneer Betterment and payments innovator Currencycloud

2011

First annual Anthemis Hacking Finance Retreat held in Méribel, France

2013

Early investment The Climate Corporation exits to Monsanto, heralding the birth of insurtech

2014

Anthemis creates venture studio in London

Early investment Simple, the first in a wave of challenger banks, sold to BBVA

2015

Anthemis opens North American headquarters in New York City

2016

Carlota Perez joins Anthemis as Academic in Residence

Portfolio company Fidor Bank exits to Groupe BPCE

Anthemis Venture Fund I (AVF I) raised

Anthemis establishes investment partnerships with UniCredit and Momentum Metropolitan Holdings

2017

Anthemis and Baloise Group establish investment partnership

Anthemis and Momentum Metropolitan Holdings extend investment partnership into venture partnership

2018

Amy Nauiokas and Sean Park ranked for fourth consecutive year in Institutional Investor‘s Fintech Finance 40

BBVA and Anthemis launch venture creation partnership

Hacking Finance digital and print magazine released

2019

Anthemis and Barclays launch the Female Innovators Lab in New York

2020

Anthemis announces pivotal move into venture growth in next step of its evolution.

Predictions From Our Investors

”While finance will be everywhere through the diffusion of embedded financial services, the resulting fragmentation and complexity for individuals and companies will drive back the need for aggregation, analytics and agent driven decision capabilities.”
Yann Ranchere

”As I predicted, Insurtech has hit an inflection point where its exit potential is surpassing other Fintech opportunities. Combined with heightened awareness of volatility (thanks to the macro-economic environment ushered in by the pandemic), business and individuals will look to take more and more risk off their balance sheets in 2021. Big opportunities will focus on digitalization of the whole value chain, climate resilience and performative SME products.”
Ruth Foxe Blader

”We expect financial inclusion to evolve ‘from poverty to legacy’. Going from spending wallets and day-to-day services to sustainably inclusive, more expansive products that help individuals build for a brighter future”
Vica Manos

”Apart from AI, technology trends will not determine the 10 year horizon, market trends will.”
David Galbraith

”Just as IPOs are an obvious lagging indicator of where capital has been invested, they can also be a useful leading indicator of where capital will flow in the next period. I believe that we can expect to see sustained elevated interest in insurance from venture investors in 2021 and beyond.”
Matt Jones

”Over the next decade, we expect to see more businesses built for underrepresented communities and/or female communities as consumers i.e. Black Neo banks, fertility financing companies. The industry will move towards a truly inclusive technology ecosystem.”
Katie Palencsar

”The next decade will see a lot of consolidation as larger players get more comfort with buying earlier stage companies.”
Farhan Lalji

”While 2020 will always be remembered for COVID-19, the minor changes we made this year will have profound impacts on the next ten years. We signed up for a dozen new streaming services, ditched our gyms, bulked up our home theaters, caved on that Nintendo Switch for the kids, subscribed to newsletters, and bought ring lights to look better on Zoom and TikTok alike. These impulsive reactions and purchases will fundamentally change the media industry and beyond.
Vinay Singh