Key Takeaways
- • Clocktower Technology Ventures (CTV), the venture capital arm of Clocktower Group, launched its first venture capital fund dedicated to financial services innovation in Latin America, targeting a $25M strategy with a first closing already held.
- • CTV has invested in 96 fintech companies across North America, Europe, and Latin America since its 2015 launch, and has made 8 investments in the Latin America region to date.
- • The Latin America fund has already completed 4 undisclosed investments, with portfolio holdings including Flink, Habi, Kushki, and ontop.
- • Named investors include Hirtle Callaghan, an outsourced investment office managing approximately $18 billion, and hedge fund CIOs Alan Howard, Philippe Jabre, Glen Kacher, and John Burbank's Passport Foundation.
- • CTV expects the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate the shift away from brick-and-mortar financial services in Latin America, citing World Bank data showing a large share of the region's population is underbanked or unbanked.
Summary
Clocktower Technology Ventures ("CTV"), the venture capital investment arm within Clocktower Group, announced the launch of its first venture capital fund dedicated to financial services innovation in Latin America, according to a Business Wire release dated March 31, 2021. The firm has already held a first closing and is targeting a $25M strategy. The company is based in Santa Monica, California, and has been investing since its 2015 launch across insurance, payments, personal finance, lending and credit, asset management, real estate finance, and banking.
CTV says the Latin America fund will apply its global investment model to capture technology-driven trends in the region and invest opportunistically across financial services. Ben Savage, Partner at CTV, said fintech will be at the vanguard of technological innovation in Latin America, creating openings for new companies to displace or disrupt what he described as an oligopoly of established financial institutions that has not provided adequate access and service.
According to the World Bank, a large portion of the Latin American population is underbanked or unbanked. CTV expects the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the shift away from brick-and-mortar financial services. The firm has made 8 investments in the region through its fund activities, including its second flagship fund's investments in Flink (a neobank and commission-free trading platform), Habi (an iBuyer and listing service), Kushki (a digital payments processor), and ontop (an automated taxes, payroll, and onboarding service for employers). The Latin America fund has separately made 4 undisclosed investments.
Key investors named in the release include Hirtle Callaghan, an outsourced investment office for families and institutions managing approximately $18 billion, and hedge fund CIOs Alan Howard, Philippe Jabre, Glen Kacher, and John Burbank's Passport Foundation. The release notes that references to these entities do not constitute endorsement by CTV.
CTV says the Latin America fund will apply its global investment model to capture technology-driven trends in the region and invest opportunistically across financial services. Ben Savage, Partner at CTV, said fintech will be at the vanguard of technological innovation in Latin America, creating openings for new companies to displace or disrupt what he described as an oligopoly of established financial institutions that has not provided adequate access and service.
According to the World Bank, a large portion of the Latin American population is underbanked or unbanked. CTV expects the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the shift away from brick-and-mortar financial services. The firm has made 8 investments in the region through its fund activities, including its second flagship fund's investments in Flink (a neobank and commission-free trading platform), Habi (an iBuyer and listing service), Kushki (a digital payments processor), and ontop (an automated taxes, payroll, and onboarding service for employers). The Latin America fund has separately made 4 undisclosed investments.
Key investors named in the release include Hirtle Callaghan, an outsourced investment office for families and institutions managing approximately $18 billion, and hedge fund CIOs Alan Howard, Philippe Jabre, Glen Kacher, and John Burbank's Passport Foundation. The release notes that references to these entities do not constitute endorsement by CTV.
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