If you're looking to start a fintech company, there are new, smaller, early-stage funds looking for investment opportunities. Founded by Anthony Dannon (pictured above), Rerail can be described as a microfund, a solo GP fund or an angel fund.
Danone has been an investor for the past 10 years. He started his career at Anthemis Group in London in 2014, where he worked on some interesting rounds, including TrueLayer's seed round.
He quickly climbed the VC ladder and became a partner at Speedinvest, with a particular focus on fintech. He invested in promising startups such as Primer and Wayflyer.
“I like the concept that fintech is horizontal rather than vertical. It is a support function for any market. So instead of thinking about neobanks, lending, payments, thinking about healthcare, insurance, logistics, trade. please,” Danon told TechCrunch.
In 2021, he began discussions with Carmen Alfonso Rico to launch a joint fund. “Carmen and I started VC around the same time, so we were friends,” Danone said. “And we realized that our supportive investors were also seeing the same thing. On the one hand, these VCs are all friends that we grew up with. The moment we're not competing with them, they're very engaged…and on the other hand, we can leverage that to our founders.”
They launched Cocoa about three years ago as a small, early-stage fund aimed at investing like angel investors. Cocoa is never the lead investor, but it can bring in other investors to get the startup off the ground.
After making 35 investments, when it came time to decide what to do next, the two decided to part ways and raise separate funds. Mr. Cocoa's investment thesis was not fintech-specific and therefore not appropriate for Danone. He wanted to focus more on fintech and fintech-adjacent startups, not just in Europe.
“Our strategic focus was a little off, so we said, 'This is a difficult decision, but let's make the next decision separately,'” Danon said. He did not want to say more about the future of Carmen Alfonso Rico (and Cocoa). “Carmen is working on what's next,” he said.
Sources who work with Alfonso Rico told TechCrunch that she continues in her role as Cocoa's founder, actively investing and further developing the company.
Which brings us to Rerail, a fund with a $20 million goal. Danone has already achieved an initial closing price of about $20.5 million, slightly exceeding that goal. He's going to go a little higher than that, so the final number will probably be a little higher than that. “A large part of the LP base is founders and executives, and this is very core to the DNA and all the value I bring to the table,” Danone said. “But I also have some institutions.”
Danone plans to invest between $200,000 and $500,000 depending on the size of the funding round. He made his first investment in Rerail, but doesn't want to reveal the startup's name yet.
In addition to Danone's founder network and ability to bring investors to the cap table, he also looks forward to providing valuable advice to founders just starting out.
“I never pretend to know more than the founders. I learn from them, but they speak the same language,” he said. “And when it comes to networking and focus, I hope to be able to open just about any door.”