The Fintech Finance 40: Amy Nauiokas and Sean Park

Currently ranked: 7
Previously ranked: 6

Like other fintech financers, Anthemis Group is always looking out for “the next new thing,” as chairman and chief investment officer Sean Park puts it. Home lending and small to medium-size enterprises, Park and president Amy Nauiokas say, are two areas that have yet to take full advantage of available technological efficiencies. Seeing financial wellness as an emerging theme, Anthemis Exponential Ventures, in a joint initiative with South Africa’s MMI Holdings, has made several investments along this line (example: Payoff, which applies behavioral and data science to “improve your relationship with money”) and launched a wellness-focused incubator last year in London. With Park based in Geneva, Nauiokas in New York, and CEO Nadeem Shaikh in London, the firm has made more than 60 investments; has close to $500 million under management; and is currently deploying Anthemis Venture Fund I, which had its first close in September 2016 (examples: Arthena in the art market and kWh Analytics in solar energy risk management).

Park and Nauiokas caught the fintech wave ahead of many others. Formerly of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Cantor Fitzgerald, respectively, they were making seed investments in 2008 and scored on early bets such as Betterment, Climate Corp. (sold to Monsanto Co.), and Simple (now part of Spain’s BBVA). In 2010, with former First Data Corp. executive Shaikh, they founded Anthemis, combining venture investing with an advisory business, led by Shaikh, that helps incumbent institutions absorb and work with disruptive innovations.