Building The Future Of Financial Services With BBVA
Technological revolutions happen when industries move from a phase of installation to one of deployment. At least, that’s one of the foundational pillars of Anthemis’ Academic-in-Residence, Carlota Perez’ theory on technological revolutions. For me, that was top of mind when I joined the firm earlier this year. I’d been trying to determine where exactly financial services were in those innovation and revolutionary curves, just how long those cycles are, and where are we are in the journey.
After spending the last ten years building companies in multiple industries and having seen them raise capital, build customer bases and acquisition experiences, my focus shifted when I joined Anthemis. I now had an understanding of the infrastructure shifts that are happening in the banking space, particularly the impact of PSD2 in Europe and open banking as a trend. Working with the Anthemis portfolio, in particular, companies like TrueLayer which are radically transforming banking infrastructure, helped me to pull my thoughts together and embark on my next phase: building companies that enable us to move financial services forward through innovation.
I’m convinced that the changes we’ll see in financial services in the next few years are going to be monumental, which is why I’m uber-excited about the partnership between BBVA and Anthemis we announced today. BBVA has been an innovator in the financial services space for a long time. Having built a global brand with experience and capability in fintech, they’ve made great acquisitions, investments, and partnerships across the world. They’ve also invested in their capability to build new businesses within their New Digital Business unit, which has invested in funds globally and has built some great projects and products internally in the money transfer, identity and SME space.
Bringing the Anthemis ecosystem — our reach and ability to spot and invest in trends that have changed financial services — together with BBVA’s brand, ability and scale is a remarkable thing. BBVA’s work with Propel in the US, their investment in Kai-Fu Lee’s Sinovation Venture fund, and now our partnership puts them in another league when it comes to financial services innovation.
Working with BBVA on building companies that change the world of financial systems is an exciting next step in the journey for myself, from building products to building companies, and also for the relationship between Anthemis and BBVA. Building companies from the ground up that will change financial services is an amazing challenge. It will require us to make bets as to where we are in the technological revolutions cycle for financial services and be imaginative in what the future holds for how people spend, save, invest and live.
Bringing a huge global brand like BBVA along on this journey is no easy feat. the teams at both Anthemis and BBVA have spent a lot of time together already and I know we’re going to succeed at building and investing in great concepts, founders and companies. I can’t wait to tell the world about the companies and products we build together.
