Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. We want to,
Speaker 1: as we teased, uh, talk a little bit more about
Speaker 1: venture capital. We love talking about it and we did
Speaker 1: so earlier this week. As we mentioned with Alan patrick Off,
Speaker 1: he's targeting areas that play into aging and older society.
Speaker 1: Our next guest has a focus to Tim, which includes
Speaker 1: cultivating and really funding women and specifically their businesses. Women
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs back with us as Amy no Yaka. She's co
Speaker 1: founder and CEO at the digital financial services investment firm Anthemis.
Speaker 1: She's also founder and CEO of media production company Archer Gray,
Speaker 1: also behind the launch of the Female Innovator's Lab, which
Speaker 1: is a collaboration between Anthemis and Barkley's. And she is
Speaker 1: on the phone in New York City. Um. Amy, great
Speaker 1: to have you back with us. How are you. I'm
Speaker 1: really well. Thank you so much for having me back.
Speaker 1: It's good to talk to you guys. We talked to
Speaker 1: any Think back in November of I mean the pandemic.
Speaker 1: I've got to start with that. What's been the hacked
Speaker 1: on your world? VC investing? Give us some context and
Speaker 1: inside if you could. Yeah, well, it's I mean, it's
Speaker 1: been it's been crazy, right, I mean, it's for so
Speaker 1: many ways. And I think last time I was on,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about kind of you know what
Speaker 1: what what some of the things that we might be
Speaker 1: kind of reckoning with kind of as as the world
Speaker 1: starts to reopen and such. But I think that, look,
Speaker 1: the last couple of years of venture capital has been unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I think that the year, you know, from the pandemic,
Speaker 1: new year after it's it's been the biggest years venture
Speaker 1: capital I've ever seen. The entire industry is deploying capital
Speaker 1: like it's never has before. And the factor that Anthemis
Speaker 1: is focused on, specifically, fintech has been the hottest spector
Speaker 1: known to known to a man, woman, and child. And
Speaker 1: and it's really interesting, right because we've been doing this
Speaker 1: um at Anthemis for almost you know, going on like
Speaker 1: a decade and a half now, and to find out
Speaker 1: for the first time that we're you know, the things
Speaker 1: that we've always thought important, right, investing in the service
Speaker 1: of trying to make change happen in the financial system,
Speaker 1: focusing on the route founders you know, investing for impact.
Speaker 1: All the things that really mattered to us have now
Speaker 1: become kind of the de facto conversation. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's crazy that that we're getting as much attention, but
Speaker 1: also that the world is starting to finally pay attention
Speaker 1: that the things that are so important for systemic change.
Speaker 1: So in a lot of ways, I'm you know, I
Speaker 1: hate to say it, but I'm I'm feeling really bullish
Speaker 1: on on where where um the world stands from my perspective. Well,
Speaker 1: you have dozens of companies that you've invested on, including
Speaker 1: companies like Carta and Better Meant Easy Health, Fluidity, Goji,
Speaker 1: Happy Money, and more. I'm I'm wondering if if there
Speaker 1: can ever be, in your opinion, too much venture capital
Speaker 1: funding out there, and and and the reason I ask
Speaker 1: is is it because you could be throwing good money
Speaker 1: after bad? Yeah? I think it's about is there too
Speaker 1: much money? We're you know, we're kind of all dealing
Speaker 1: with this sort of capital wall that that's sort of
Speaker 1: upon us in the private equity space generally. But it's
Speaker 1: about whose money, you know, who whose hands is that
Speaker 1: money in? And you know, one of the trends that
Speaker 1: we've been watching really closely, and you guys have probably
Speaker 1: seen it since you dig into venture capitalists. What's been
Speaker 1: happening with a lot of these um, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of mega rounds. I think there was around today where
Speaker 1: where one of the company's fanatics was a Series A
Speaker 1: at ten billion valuation, right, so, you know, being these
Speaker 1: kind of big investors like the Soft Banks of the
Speaker 1: world and the and the Tiger Gold was coming in
Speaker 1: and really just pumping up and getting founders excited about
Speaker 1: um the idea that they could be, you know, tomorrow
Speaker 1: a billion dollar company, and we're all out for building
Speaker 1: really great, fantastic companies in it. As an investor, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, we love a unicorn as as well
Speaker 1: as the next. But the reality is, you know, particularly
Speaker 1: when you're deploying capital at the earliest stages you know,
Speaker 1: seried seed precede a B, even C, you need to
Speaker 1: focus on what's really you know, how how a venture
Speaker 1: company can really scale, and that's about building resiliency. Right.
Speaker 1: If you're giving a founder a check, um, you know,
Speaker 1: with no product, no market, no customers, no launch, and
Speaker 1: you're saying, hey, here's a hundred million dollars and we're
Speaker 1: going to value you immediately it's at five hundred million,
Speaker 1: go off and do it. There's a lot of danger
Speaker 1: that that sort of know what are they going to do?
Speaker 1: How are they going to spend that money? Are they
Speaker 1: going to deploy it respectively? How quickly are they gonna
Speaker 1: hire people? How do you maintain a good culture, hire
Speaker 1: the right people, hire for value, the alignment. It has
Speaker 1: got money burning a hole in your pocket. Still with
Speaker 1: us on the phone in New York City. Hey, Amy,
Speaker 1: you're talking about you know, fintech. Obviously that's your area
Speaker 1: where you guys are focusing on. Scott Minored. He's part
Speaker 1: of a story that is among our most right on
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg today. It's where Arsenal Bossk talked to a
Speaker 1: bunch of well known Wall Street names about the next
Speaker 1: big risks for investors, and he is concerned. His number
Speaker 1: one risk is the sustainability of the global payment system.
Speaker 1: And he's also looking at, you know, concerns about hackers
Speaker 1: and so on. So far as we increasingly when it
Speaker 1: comes to our personal and you know, institutional financial world,
Speaker 1: increasingly we are digital and digitizing all of this. How
Speaker 1: do you think about that in terms of investing and
Speaker 1: and kind of account for those worries those risks potentially. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, it's so incredibly important, and you know, as
Speaker 1: a the fintech investor, that's that's gonuld be something that
Speaker 1: that that we pay attention to all day, every day.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the challenges um certainly that
Speaker 1: that we're seeing is, you know, in the hype of
Speaker 1: of all the you know, you asked earlier about how
Speaker 1: much money is coming to the sector, and you know,
Speaker 1: if that's going to places responsibly, I think you have
Speaker 1: to be really careful that that not only the companies
Speaker 1: you're backing understand how important it is to operate and
Speaker 1: regulated markets and to focus on things like security. Because
Speaker 1: there's just so much money floating around that it gets
Speaker 1: to a point where people might just say, well, that
Speaker 1: will just be something I think about on the side,
Speaker 1: But this is the real deal, right, And when we're
Speaker 1: back a company, a lot of times you're starting with
Speaker 1: ideas that haven't yet fully formed themselves and so their
Speaker 1: systems are not mature. But you've got to be conscious
Speaker 1: if you're gonna build a startup using technology and financial services,
Speaker 1: that it operates in an already you know sort of
Speaker 1: regulated and and and you know, it's the space I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, I guess I'm trying to try
Speaker 1: to to to to sort of think about some of
Speaker 1: the you know, big billion billion dollar companies that we've
Speaker 1: heard about that have made some you know, haven't really
Speaker 1: been so great about playing attention to how they're protecting
Speaker 1: their customers and their consumers. And it does worry me,
Speaker 1: worry me very much. I mean, for people aren't familiar
Speaker 1: to just give us some examples of of instances like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, are you talking like established publicly traded companies already?
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the companies that are started by founders
Speaker 1: that have us certain attitude and ego and tubris about
Speaker 1: what they've created and how the companies that they've created,
Speaker 1: um you know, can help change the world, so to speak.
Speaker 1: And that's great, We're all for that anthemis, but I
Speaker 1: think that there you've got to be careful that if
Speaker 1: those companies aren't paying attention to the way that you
Speaker 1: build a company inside of a very highly regulated financial system,
Speaker 1: and they don't have the experience, they aren't surrounding themselves
Speaker 1: as governors and advisors that can help support that um
Speaker 1: it can be really dangerous and could put consumers in
Speaker 1: a really difficult spot. How do you think you're invested
Speaker 1: in stock twits? You know, we have talked so much
Speaker 1: about robin hood. We've talked about you know, the retail
Speaker 1: investor really taking the institutional investors and sophisticated investors UM,
Speaker 1: you know, for a ride, certainly this year. How do
Speaker 1: you think that continues to evolve and disrupt trading? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you have to. I think as a as
Speaker 1: a venture capitalist, you have to look for UM founding
Speaker 1: teams that are authentic and who know what they're doing,
Speaker 1: but also who aren't afraid to take good guidance and
Speaker 1: advice UM, which is one of the ways an investor
Speaker 1: can be really valuable. And if all you're looking for
Speaker 1: as a founder is the quickest way to get to
Speaker 1: a billion dollar valuation, by nature of the type of
Speaker 1: money you're getting or who you're getting it from, you're
Speaker 1: not likely to be paying attention to the stuff that
Speaker 1: are really going to create resiliency in a company and
Speaker 1: therefore security and safety in a company. Right, You're not
Speaker 1: gonna be paying attention to the most important stuff. Evaluation
Speaker 1: is the only thing on your mind so you know,
Speaker 1: as investors, I think we we always say it starts
Speaker 1: with the founder. You know, who are we backing. Are
Speaker 1: they willing to take advice? Are they willing to hear
Speaker 1: difficult things? Are they willing to kind of go with
Speaker 1: the sort of e and flow of it not always
Speaker 1: being the way they want it to be? And that
Speaker 1: makes it big, makes a big difference in how resilient
Speaker 1: a company gets. Hey, we gotta ask you. Got to
Speaker 1: ask you about each toorro because this is another this
Speaker 1: is another company and for people who aren't familiar with it,
Speaker 1: it's a competitor to Robin Hood. UM very popular outside
Speaker 1: of the United States, two million users in a hundred
Speaker 1: and forty countries. UM, give us the latest on you Toro,
Speaker 1: and you are investment in it, especially in the context
Speaker 1: of retail trading growing so much. Yeah, each Ur is
Speaker 1: a company that we invested in very very early. UM.
Speaker 1: I think we were we were one of their first
Speaker 1: investors back in two thousands, gosh maybe twelve uh. And
Speaker 1: and I'm really really delitious on what that team has
Speaker 1: built and what they're doing. And and yes, they are,
Speaker 1: you know, similar to Robin Hood in so much that
Speaker 1: they are aligned along um supporting democratization and access to
Speaker 1: the financial markets for the retail investor. But what Yawning
Speaker 1: and the team have built is a phenomenal back end um,
Speaker 1: highly secure, highly conscious of the market that it's it's
Speaker 1: it's sitting in and I think it's some you know,
Speaker 1: a company that we were quite proud to back early days,
Speaker 1: and we're really excited to see kind of where he
Speaker 1: goes from here. You're the real deal when it comes
Speaker 1: to it. Just talking about where you're going. Hey, talk
Speaker 1: to us about the expansion of the Female Innovator's Lab.
Speaker 1: You've done this into the UK and Europe. Uh, what's
Speaker 1: going on? Tell us the demand and the and the
Speaker 1: fruits of the f hurts. It's super exciting. I mean,
Speaker 1: as you guys well know, you know, investing in diverse
Speaker 1: founders has done something we've done from the very beginning.
Speaker 1: But sometimes in doing so you run into kind of
Speaker 1: snags that things just aren't happening fast enough. And that's
Speaker 1: precisely why we started the Female Innovator's Lab, is that
Speaker 1: two years ago we kept getting frustrated about all the
Speaker 1: sort of people saying, oh, there aren't enough women to
Speaker 1: invest in it's a pipeline issue, etcetera, etcetera, And none
Speaker 1: of it felt very honest to us. And so we said,
Speaker 1: all right, let's let's let's go ahead and figure out
Speaker 1: if this is really a problem, if there's a pipeline problem.
Speaker 1: So we launched a very specific vehicle that invests exclusively
Speaker 1: in women in financial services, but very uniquely at the
Speaker 1: earliest stage of their company. So this is prec this
Speaker 1: is you know, come to us with an idea, We're
Speaker 1: gonna help you build it, We're gonna help you map
Speaker 1: it UM and then we're gonna help you get ready
Speaker 1: to launch it UM and and so we've had a
Speaker 1: lot of successes, seen over hundreds of companies UM in
Speaker 1: the last two years. And last week we announced that
Speaker 1: we are moving from not just employing capital in the
Speaker 1: US market, but we're going to be deploying as well,
Speaker 1: doubling the size of the business in UM the UK
Speaker 1: and Europe. So it's it's great. We've we've had a
Speaker 1: lot of success with it UM, building out some really
Speaker 1: amazing company, finding some really great women UM and and
Speaker 1: you know, fifty percent of those women are also women
Speaker 1: of color, which I think UM. You know, goes to
Speaker 1: the other points that people always say is that there
Speaker 1: just aren't enough women or people of color in the
Speaker 1: market to invest in. And I'm calling I'm calling the
Speaker 1: BS on that one. I love that you call the
Speaker 1: BS on that one. Do you stay in touch and
Speaker 1: come back and let us know how that growth of
Speaker 1: the lab, the Female Innovator's Lab, how it's going. And uh,
Speaker 1: some of the entrepreneurs that you're seeing. We love checking
Speaker 1: in with you. Amy New Yorkus, she's good founder CEO
Speaker 1: of Anthemus Group on the phone in New York City,