On today's Equity Podcast, Mary Ann Azevedo speaks with Flourish Ventures co-founders Tilman Urbeck, Emmalyn Shaw, and Arjuna Costa about a variety of topics, including the evolution of their investment thesis over the past five years and the trends they're most excited about. We also hear their thoughts on M&A deals in fintech, AI, founder wellness, and more.
The three founded Flourish Ventures in 2019, which currently has $850 million under management and raised a $350 million fund in October 2023. Flourish invests globally, backing fintech startups in the U.S., Africa, Asia and Latin America. Notable investments include digital bank Chime, Brazilian neobank Neon (previously sold for $1.6 billion), embedded finance startup Unit, and African payments infrastructure company Flutterwave.
As investors in emerging markets, the firm has noticed an interesting phenomenon: repeat founders.
“One of the things we're finding really encouraging is that we're backing second-time entrepreneurs within our portfolio,” Costa said. “The maturity of the founders and the level of thoughtfulness they bring to their second journey is really impressive. We've been expecting that for a long time in Silicon Valley and New York, but it's really encouraging to see it starting to happen in markets like Indonesia, India, Brazil and Mexico.”
One thing the team hasn't done is jump on the AI bandwagon – they're treading the space carefully.
“It would be surprising for us to voluntarily bet on a pure-play AI fintech company as a standalone business opportunity,” Shaw said. “It would have to be something that's built into the core of our services to streamline certain processes.”
She added: “In fact, the more we rely on AI, the more we have to ask ourselves: What about our defenses?”
On the M&A front, Shaw acknowledged that activity is picking up.
“As this activity continues, we expect to see further M&A activity coupled with opening up opportunities for fintech IPOs,” she said.
For even more valuable insights, listen to the full podcast.
Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo and posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and allcasts.
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