Financial Venture Studio, a VC focused on supporting and scaling fintech and finserv firms, has closed a second funding round of $40 million. The company still has a bullish stance on investing in the tech space despite this year's recessionary and other downturn concerns, and continues to invest in companies with a mission to improve personal and consumer financial products. Cameron Peake, Partner at Financial Venture Studio, joins Closing Bell to discuss the firm's recent fund raise, its portfolio and focus, bullish outlook, and more. 

Closing Bell

Finserv Focused Financial Venture Studio Raises $40 Million, Maintains Bullish Outlook on Tech Investing

financial adventure studio is closed a second round of funding and its own quest to help financial service and tech companies change the world of personal finance and how customers manage money, negotiate bank fees, pay rent And much more? The company has just raised 40 million as it continues to close deals and outperform amid recessionary fears, joining me now is Cameron peak partner at financial venture studio. Cameron, thanks so much for coming on the show. Congrats on your latest round, what are your plans to use this fresh funding for? Sure. Well, thanks thanks for having me. Um Yeah, so financial Venture Studio where a pre seed and seed stage fintech fund focused on bringing early capital and deep operational expertise to our portfolio companies. Um so if you think about financial services, a really tough market to enter um and we have kind of been through it before. I was previously the founder and ceo of a company called As Low, which a digital bank for small businesses. Um number of former founders and senior operators within our team. And our goal is to help our portfolio companies launch and grow more quickly. Um and so as we look at what's what's ahead, you know, we're just really bullish about continuing to invest in the future of financial services. Um You know, we've had a number of really exciting portfolio companies as part of our fund one, um We've had six exits to date are 2019 vintages up about four x. And so we think that model is working and we're just really excited to double down and help our portfolio companies launching grow more quickly Cameron in this current financial picture that we have concerns about a potential recession, what are you finding from potential clients that their biggest questions are that their biggest needs are when it comes to finances? Yeah. You know, I think we've, we've seen some statistics that have continued to play out. So, you know, there was a survey just from april of this year that found that only 44% of bank customers are happy with the personalization of services. We continue to see industries that haven't been digitized. So, you know, we have a portfolio company focused on, on digitizing payments for school districts. They're primarily paper checks and very slow to settle. And so there's a number of just outstanding issues that face both customers and businesses. Um, and so we're really excited to invest in the future generation of entrepreneurs that are tackling those big challenges. What do you look for in companies that you invest in? We look for a really strong entrepreneur again, we're very early, right? So at some stage people are coming to us in some cases with just as little as an idea. So we want a really strong founder, a strong team and because we think big, we want, we want to find people that, you know, want to transform the financial services sector. Um, and that aside, You know, it's, it's, it's really about betting on the team, but those are the primary things that we look for and in terms of more investments that you'll be making $40 million 5-10-year fund? We, we moved quickly. So we've already made about 10 investments this year. Um, you know, we are, you know, at a pace of just above about one investment per month. Um, and our initial check size is 250 K, so we expect to deploy fairly quickly and, you know, as I look at the landscape, um, you know, going back to your, to your question around recession, I also really see that impacting the supply of entrepreneurs. So, um, you know, when, when I was the ceo of as low, we saw a ton of new businesses created in the wake of layoffs coming out of covid and I actually expect to see the same thing happen here. So, you know, as companies unfortunately lay off their workforce, a lot of them have had this pent up desire to always start a new company against surveys that we did as we found that 96% of new businesses were created, not out of necessity, but because they actually had a deep seated desire to be founder. And so I see coming out of the, you know, kind of macro trends around layoffs, a whole generation of new founders emerging and we really want to be in a position to support them. What do you recommend to these founders? Cameron, helping them from the earliest stages take on some of these massive financial institutions with their own fresh ideas, of course, going up against some of these institutions with very deep pockets? Yeah, I mean, I think what I've always seen is kind of the innovator's dilemma at play, Right? So big institutions make a lot of money, They've created a lot of moats doing one sort of thing really well, but that often means that there's a smaller audience at play, that they're not really serving well. Um and so that's really the wedge, right, how do you find a segment of people that you can just delight and pull away from those big institutions in a way where it may cannibalize their actual business and they're not really going to invest. And so that's often what we're seeing, startups do, reinvent, you know, no fees, reinvent new sort of customer experiences, take advantage of that and grow while often times these bigger institutions are too slow to do that. Um and so that's what we always look for, right? How do you have a fresh new take on delivering a financial product to a market? Um in a way that, you know, the big the big players really aren't paying attention to. All right, Cameron, peak partner at financial Venture studio Camera, thanks so much for coming on and congratulations.