The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Justin Brownhill and Neil DeSena, SenaHill Partners

“We put our money where our mouth is,” one of SenaHill Partners’ mantras, could apply to any number of firms at various stages of the fintech investing cycle. What distinguishes New York–based SenaHill is its hands-on, merchant-bank-like team of “founders and operators of technology businesses,” saysJustin Brownhill, 44, the “Hill” of SenaHill. “We are able to see things a little differently” when identifying disruptive innovators and imparting essential been-there-done-that wisdom. A former Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette banker; an investor in and executive of the Lava Trading platform, which Citigroup acquired in 2004; and CEO of the Receivables Exchange from 2007 to 2012, Brownhill formed SenaHill in early 2013 withNeil DeSena. “We have been on both sides of the table,” says DeSena, 51, who started the REDI institutional trading business at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg in 1992 and, after Goldman Sachs Group bought the execution and clearing brokerage in 2000, was global head of REDI Products through 2006, before pursuing investment opportunities on his own. Managing partners Brownhill and DeSena, along with partners Gregg Sharenow (ex-COO of National Discount Brokers, acquired in 2000 by Deutsche Bank) and Kyle Zasky (co-founder of EdgeTrade, part of KCG Holdings since 2008), represent “multigenerational experience” that compounds the value of the checks they write, which tend to be less than $1 million, Brownhill says. The portfolio includes AIREX Market, a data repository that claims to be democratizing distribution of financial reports and apps; WealthForge, a private investment infrastructure that will power the SenaHill Portal, a soon-to-launch online listing of co-investment opportunities; capital markets blockchain developer Symbiont; and recruitment site untapt. DeSena is excited by the blockchain, and not just because it is “the new black. It will attract more people into financial technology and help the industry solve its talent issues.”