Lucas Timberlake
Founder & General Partner at Fintech Ventures Fund
New York City Metropolitan Area
Overview
Work Experience
Co-Founder & General Partner
2016 - Current
Fintech Ventures Fund ("FVF") is an investment firm hyperfocused on supporting founders building businesses with capital markets, lending, and insurance use cases. We take a "private equity" approach to fintech investing, which means that we: - Prefer technology-enabled challengers in established verticals - Prioritize sustainable growth and profitable unit economics - Optimize for growth through capital stack optimization. As such, we often support our portfolio companies by extending the first institutional credit facilities from an affiliated financing vehicle We've invested over $38 million into 18 portfolio companies and have helped our founders secure over $2.7 billion in follow-on financing from leading institutional investors. Follow-on strategic investors into FVF's portfolio companies include Amazon, Apollo, Blackstone, Credit Suisse, Fairfax Financial, Ford Motors, Greenlight Re (founded by David Einhorn), Jefferies, KKR, Macquarie, Mass Mutual, Northwestern Mutual, and Rockefeller Capital Management. Our portfolio companies have also raised venture capital/growth equity from Drive Capital, Edison Partners, Goodwater Capital, Hudson Structured Capital Management, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund), Montage Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Yamaha Motor Ventures. Members of the FVF portfolio have successfully exited to strategic acquirers, including Neuberger Berman, a subsidiary of Visa, and The Zebra. Portfolio companies include: AIO Logic Avinew Battleface Groundfloor Instantor (Acquired by Tink/Visa) Kredit IOU Financial (Acquired by Neuberger Berman) Marble (Acquired by The Zebra) MaxRewards Momnt (fka Artis Tehnologies) PAXAFE Pull Logic Quera Computing Redkik Startsure Steady Marketplace Upfront (fka Fund That Flip) Vero Technologies (dba Lever Auto) Vint
Pre-seed/seed venture capital fund with hyperfocused on fintech and insurtech
Board Member (Acquired by Neuberger Berman)
2019
- Formerly publicly traded (IOU - TSX), acquired by Neuberger Berman in September 2023 - Member of the Remuneration/Resources Committee - Led multiple investment rounds - Co-investors include Neuberger Berman, Palos Management, and subsidiaries of Credit Suisse and Apollo Global Management - Over $1.5 billion financing deployed
IOU Financial focuses on providing small businesses with investments, loans, and advisory services.
Raised $137,888,040.00 from Fintech Ventures Fund, Neuberger Berman and Fintech Ventures Fund.
Board Member
2020
- Member of Board of Directors - Co-Led Seed Round - $49M in follow-on VC financing from co-investors which include Drive Capital, Greenlight Reinsurance (founded by David Einhorn), Fairfax Financial, Hudson Structured Capital Management, IDC Ventures, and Alumni Ventures
Seed Round Lead Investor
2020
Board Observer
2023
Seed Round Lead Investor
2020
Board Member
2020 - 2023
(fka Artis Technologies) - Member of Board of Directors - Led Seed Round - Over $500M in debt and equity raised from co-investors that include TruStage Ventures (CUNA Mutual's venture arm), ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America), Jefferies, KKR, Macquarie, New York Life, Rockefeller Capital Management, Saluda Grade Ventures, and Yamaha Motor Ventures. Angel investors also include the co-founder of Angel Oak Mortgage and senior bankers from KBW/Stifel.
Momnt is a financial technology platform that offers point-of-need lending solutions to businesses.
Raised $33,000,000.00 from TruStage, Saluda Grade and Rockefeller Capital Management.
Board Member
2019
- Led Series A Round - Member of Board of Directors - $34 million in follow-on equity investment, which includes participation from 7,000 retail investors (via Seedinvest, Wefunder, and GROUNDFLOOR's platform). - Company has sold over $1.3 billion (with $1.1 billion in capital returned) in SEC-qualified real estate debt/equity securities to nearly 250,000 registered users - Co-investors include Blackstone, Medipower (a publicly traded REIT, led by Yair Goldfinger, Founder of ICQ), Olive Tree Capital, senior executives from Bain Consulting and HIG Capital, and the former President/CEO of Worldpay
Series A Lead Investor
2016
GROUNDFLOOR is a crowdsourced real estate investing and lending platform that makes private capital markets open to all.
Raised $81,403,492.00 from Medipower and E. Mackey.
Seed Round Lead Investor (fka Fund that Flip)
2016
Board Member
2016 - 2019
(fka Fund that Flip) - Led Seed Round, Member of Board of Directors (Partner is currently on Board) - Co-investors include Edison Partners, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (Remarkable Ventures), Founder Institute, GPO Fund, MassMutual Ventures, Bayview Asset Management, Sandhill Angels, and Tribeca Early Stage Partners - Over $35 million in follow on VC financing and $2 billion in capital committed/deployed on platform - Handed over Board Seat in 2019 to Partner, Serguei (who remains on BOD)
Upright is an end-to-end real estate investment platform.
Board Member
2021
- Led Pre-Seed and Seed Rounds, Member of Board of Directors - Co-investors include Altari Ventures, New York Angels, Plug and Play, Silicon Badia, Waterfall Asset Management, and strategic angel investors that are co-founders of Linear Financial Technologies (fka Fundation), OpenLending, and On-Site (acquired by Realpage)
Seed Round Lead Investor
2021
Steady Technologies provides technology platform for residential property managers with institutional-grade financial solutions
Raised $505,900,000.00 from Waterfall Asset Management.
Board Member
2023
Seed Round Lead Investor
2022
- Led Seed Round - Co-investors include several other fintech co-founders and Wall Street veterans
AIO Logic is a financial technology company that provides loan management, SaaS solutions, market research, and commercial lending services.
Board Observer
2023
Seed Round Lead Investor
2022
Board Member
2022 - 2023
- Co-Led Seed Round, member of Board of Directors - Co-investors include 186 Ventures, Altari Ventures, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Green Egg Ventures, Impression Ventures, Riverpark Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, and the SuperAngel.Fund
Kredit develops a central communication for settling credit card debts and resolving debts.
Raised $3,315,999.00 from RiverPark Ventures and Fintech Ventures Fund.
Seed Round Investor
2024
Pull Logic is a SaaS platform that addresses lost sales due to stockout for the retail industry.
Raised $175,000.00 from Silicon Road Ventures, Pax Momentum, Fintech Ventures Fund and Silicon Road Ventures.