I hosted the second episode of Innovation in Finance: The podcast. This series, produced for Innovate Finance by BBCStoryWorks, explores the global FinTech ecosystem. In this episode we delve into the world of venture capital.
Listen to the Innovation in Finance: The Podcast now.
Three leaders from the venture capital sector discuss the important role of investment in the context of FinTech – and where it might be able to do more. What responsibility do investors have to improve diversity, inclusion and ESG in the sector? Is venture capital funding always the best fit for financial technology innovators, and if so, which type? And where do the experts think sound investments are being made as the world looks towards a ‘new normal’.
Joining this podcast will be:
Eileen Burbidge MBE is a Partner at Passion Capital, the pre-eminent early-stage technology venture fund based in London. She brings extensive operational experience to her investment activities gleaned from business and product roles at Yahoo!, Skype, Apple and elsewhere. On behalf of Passion, Eileen serves as non-executive director on a number of fast-growing SMEs including Monzo Bank and Digital Shadows. Eileen is also HM Treasury’s Special Envoy for FinTech.
Tim Levene is Co-Founder and CEO of the UK’s only publicly listed FinTech fund, Augmentum Fintech plc. As well as being an active FinTech investor, Tim is an experienced entrepreneur, having also co-founded juice bar business Crussh and betting exchange Flutter.com, the latter of which became one of the highest profile internet businesses in the UK after it merged with Betfair.com. Tim subsequently served as Commercial Director of Betfair.
Kester Keating runs early and growth stage equity investing for Barclays in the US. He invests in enterprise software and FinTech companies; recent investments rounds he’s led include TouchBistro and Cloud9, where he is also a board member. Early stage investing includes Barclays’ Lab programme focused on female founders and prior to this Kester worked as a consultant to financial services clients across Europe and the Middle East.
