Fidelity International Strategic Ventures

🎇 Congratulations to Greenly | Certified B Corp, Moneybox and Smart Pension who have each been listed in this year's Sifted 250 list! See the full list and find out what it means to be included below. Well done to all the companies and teams included 👇 https://lnkd.in/dNpTsqn6?

Exciting to be giving a keynote on 'AI for Financial Services: Saviour or False Prophet?' at FinTech Connect! Also very much looking forward to a panel discussion with Lewis Z. Liu, Søren Rode Jain Andreasen and Mariano Giralt moderated by Ryan Browne! #fintech #venturecapital #ai

🥶🧊 Thanks to everyone who braved the Nordic cold and made it to our Slush investor breakfast co-hosted with Aquiline Capital Partners last week! Lots of activity, news, and emerging fintech themes to digest alongside some delicous food! Until next year 🥯 Marcello Melandri, Mauro Montemayor Olaizola #Slush #Fintech

2024 has been a defining year for stablecoins, with market cap peaking at $170bn📈. New entrants like PayPal’s PYUSD and First Digital’s FDUSD are gaining traction, while Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge marks a major step forward in embedding digital currencies with core financial services. One question looms large: is there a ceiling to this growth? Stablecoin issuers typically operate under a narrow banking model, holding reserves in safe assets like T-bills. Tether.io alone now holds $100bn in U.S. Treasuries, making it a top-20 holder. If stablecoins continue to grow at even half their recent rate, within four years, the top five issuers could hold $440bn in U.S. debt. In today’s terms, this would position them the 4th largest holder globally, just behind Japan, China and UK. 🌎 Such growth, however, holds risks⚠️. A sudden sell-off due to regulation or loss of confidence could spike yields and disrupt liquidity in short-term funding. Similarly, as capital shifts from traditional bank deposits to stablecoins, banks might have fewer resources to lend, impacting the money multiplier effect. A Federal Reserve Board study suggests this could lead to a contraction in the money supply if deposits increasingly move into reserve-backed stablecoins. It’s unsurprising that governments are paying close attention🧐. The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently discussed tokenising T-bills on a government-managed blockchain, while proposals like the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act and Lummis-Gillibrand Payment Stablecoin Act seek to establish regulatory clarity in the U.S. How can we mitigate stablecoins' growing influence on U.S. debt? One option is to limit large redemptions to prevent sudden sell-offs, although the decentralised nature of DeFi makes it challenging to control the redemption flows🔄. A more feasible approach might be capping the percentage of U.S. T-bills that stablecoin issuers can hold - a change that holds major implications. If U.S. T-bill holdings are restricted, billions of capital could be reallocated to assets like cash, non-U.S. government bonds, commercial paper, or reverse repos. We might also see the rise of bank-issued stablecoins (such as Societe Generale - FORGE ’s EURCV), backed by commercial deposits. Non-bank issuers might be required to hold a significant portion of reserves in tokenised bank deposits, therefore, giving banks enough ammunition to continue to lend, maintaining credit creation akin to a two-tiered CBDC model. This evolving landscape could create substantial opportunities for the startup ecosystem🚀. Key themes to watch include (see the comments section for a full analysis): • Stablecoin diversification: Reserve Liquity Fortunafi • Tokenised liquid assets: BlackRock Fidelity International • Yield enhancements: Hashnote Ethena Labs Ondo Finance • Infrastructure solutions: Kaleido Adhara • Liquidity management: August (prev. Fractal) M^0 Labs • Treasury management: Palm Coinshift

Our new Newsletter has dropped 👇

🚗💥⏰⬅️ Back-office transformation is here. Excited to share my latest article on how the evolution of the back office is shaping the future of finance. Fidelity International Strategic Ventures Philip Goffin ZILO™ James Devlin https://lnkd.in/dvMuMtdZ #fintech #backoffice #venturecapital

Exciting to see Conquest Planning Inc., Greenly | Certified B Corp and FINBOURNE Technology all included in this year's CB Insights Fintech 100 which recognises the most promising fintech startups and private companies globally!

🚨 Exciting news from the portfolio today: Moneybox secures a new £550m valuation!     The secondary sale welcomes two new investors to the cap table - Apis Partners and Amundi—who have made a combined investment of approximately £70 million. Moneybox was one of the first investments the team at Fidelity International Strategic Ventures made back in 2018. Since then, it’s been a pleasure to work alongside Ben and Charlie and see their vision - through hard work, strategic thought and dedication - come to fruition. Many strategy days, workshops and customer-obsessed insights later, Moneybox today sits as a market winner in the LISA and digital wealth management space and has become a household name helping UK retail investors save and manage their finances.   A few impressive headlines!   💰 2023 first full year of profitability 🦉 As of this year have over £10bn in AUA 🚀 Have seen 168% YoY revenue growth 📈 Scaled AUA per customer by 46%   Very excited to continue working with Ben Stanway, Charlie Mortimer, the rest of the Moneybox team (Karen Kerrigan, Cerrith Moore, Ben Miller-Bridgland) and new investors Adam Battersby & Aadit Gandhi as Moneybox continues to drive onwards.

Last year, Fidelity International selected Quantifeed to build a cutting-edge digital tool for designing and implementing their strategic asset allocation portfolios. This July, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures met with our CEO and Co-Founder, Alex Ypsilanti, to discuss the deployment process, and upcoming plans for the team. Learn more about the partnership in the link: https://lnkd.in/g3r6DbXN

📣 Portfolio update We're excited to share the acquisition of FX HedgePool by LMAX Group. This acquisition will enable LMAX to provide a broader suite of solutions and technology to institutions globally, allowing for greater FX liquidity and peer-to-peer matched swaps. Congratulations to founders Jay Moore and Emin Tatosian on this successful step, we wish you every success with this next stage! You can read more about or original investment into FX HedgePool alongside Information Venture Partners and NA Ventures (National Bank of Canada) here https://lnkd.in/exgpkM6D