Santander launches fintech pledge to strengthen UK sector
In an announcement made by Banco Santander, the company reported its launch of Mouro Capital. The bank’s new autonomously managed venture capital fund.
The venture capital fund will focus on fintechs and other similar businesses linked to the financial services industry. Mouro Capital will succeed Santader’s Innoventures taking on its existing portfolio to manage, with a US$400mn available funding, following the bank doubling its current commitments to the industry.
The launch of Mouro Capital marks another key milestone for the bank’s four year US$23.7bn digital and technology investment plan. The company aims to accelerate its digital and commercial transformation to maintain operational excellence, improve customer experience and drive innovation for its services.
Mouro Capital’s mission is to provide its expertise in the fintech industry, global network and track record to early and growth stage startups around the world.
Deployments of capital will be across Europe and the Americas, with initial investments of up to US$15mn with further follow up reserves.
“The creation of our fintech venture capital fund in 2014 has allowed Santander to lead the industry in implementing new technologies, including blockchain, offering better services to our customers as a result. Innoventures has almost doubled the cash invested, despite being relatively young for a venture capital fund. Our goal is to build on that success, and by increasing our investment, while giving greater autonomy to the fund, we can be even more agile and further accelerate the digital transformation of the group,” commented Ana Botín, Banco Executive Chairman at Santander.
“By becoming more autonomous, we will gain agility, attract entrepreneurial talent to the investment team, and further align to our entrepreneurs’ success. We are eager to keep on delivering strategic value to Santander, enhancing our partnership and working with our portfolio companies to support the bank in shaping fintech innovation,” added Manuel Silva Martínez, general partner of Mouro Capital.
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