Today, we are excited to announce the launch of Mouro Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs and startups ushering in a new era in financial services and enterprise software. The fund is the evolution of Santander InnoVentures into an autonomous investment firm. Like our namesake Mouro Island, located off the northern coast of Spain and whose lighthouse acts as a beacon for travelers to the Bay of Santander, we help guide teams as they build the businesses that transform the financial sector.

In 2018, we began to rethink how Santander InnoVentures could more effectively and efficiently be the preferred partner for entrepreneurs building the next generation of finance and technology companies — Mouro Capital is the result.

We're now @MouroCapital – a new, autonomously managed fund, built on the success of Santander InnoVentures. Find our most recent updates on our new channel! pic.twitter.com/Y6q2V6g9GA

— SAN InnoVentures (@SanInnoventures) September 11, 2020

In that sense, while we are a new fund, we are building on a rich heritage and extensive track record. Currently, we manage a portfolio of over 30 companies, some of which (Ripple, Tradeshift, and Upgrade) have reached unicorn status since or through our initial investment. We are also actively supporting up-and-comers such as CrossLend (a Berlin-based digital debt marketplace), Klar (the leading digital bank in Mexico), Trulioo (a Vancouver-based online identity verification company) and Securitize (a California-based primary issuance platform and lifecycle management protocol for digital securities) — four examples that demonstrate how global we are in our reach and investment thesis. As Santander InnoVentures, we successfully exited iZettle to PayPal and Kabbage to American Express, transactions which complement the senior team’s successful track-record, with prior investments in companies such as Bento, Coinbase, Docusign, EasyKnock, Fundbox, Lendio, Personal Capital, SumUp, Yotpo and Zibby (Katapult), just to name a few.

As Mouro, we now bring together the speed and agility of a traditional venture firm while amplifying the leverage and scale that Santander brings as a global financial institution. In addition, our access to a large and established global network of partners, potential customers and market experts will help startups scale and expand. We are confident this evolution to Mouro Capital will be more efficient and engaging for our ecosystem.

As part of this evolution, we have expanded our fund, with a current vehicle of $300 million and $400 million in total assets under management, to be able to support more entrepreneurs and bolder ideas.

Over the past two years, we have built out the Mouro Capital founding team, which now consists of nine people across the globe. Our team will continue to grow over time, adding more investors with diverse backgrounds for the benefit of our entrepreneurs, and providing more resources to make our entrepreneurs successful as they build their companies.

Our investment scope has also expanded. We are keen to meet teams building businesses across financial services, fintech and enterprise software. With our more flexible mandate and the ability to be faster and more agile, we will lead or follow in seed through growth financing rounds, writing initial checks of up to $15 million and reserving additional capital for future rounds.

As we launch Mouro Capital, we look forward to leveraging our experience, expertise and core values to be at the forefront of change by helping entrepreneurs build the next generation of technology and financial products. We are grateful to all that have made this evolution possible. We are excited to share the new Mouro Capital with the world and are looking forward to partnering with more entrepreneurs in the years ahead.

Source: Mouro Capital