< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

In mid-2013, Rumi Morales got wind of plans within CME Group to make strategic investments of $500,000 to $5 million in promising start-ups, and she jumped at the chance to be part of them. Then an executive director in international corporate development and finance — a role that included overseeing the Chicago-based futures market giant’s investments in exchanges in Brazil, Dubai, Malaysia and Mexico — Morales joined the new CME Ventures team, led by Mark Fields. The objective, as Fields articulated it: “to harness the power of entrepreneurship and the rapid pace of technological advancement to grow our industry and our business.” When Fields left CME Ventures in April to become CEO of one of its portfolio companies, San Francisco–based secure-messaging-app developer Wickr, Morales succeeded him as head of the unit. “I joined financial services because of venture capital,” says the 39-year-old executive director, who between 1996 and her move to CME in 2010 worked in private equity and venture investing with Petra Group and Beechtree Capital; spent seven years in the U.S. and Asia with Goldman Sachs Group; and ran her own, Singapore-based research boutique, Malmora. In addition to Wickr, CME Ventures has five portfolio companies: 1QB Information Technologies (quantum computing), Dwolla (real-time payments), Nervana Systems (machine learning), Powerlytics (financial analytics) and Ripple (cryptocurrency). “These are technologies that can be applied to the financial services industry in perhaps three to five years’ time,” explains Morales, a Wellesley College graduate and New York University Stern School of Business MBA. “We are really trying to take early looks at technologies that we think will have a far-ranging impact on our overall ecosystem.”

 
The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

1. James Robinson III & James Robinson IV RRE Ventures 2. Jane Gladstone Evercore Partners 3. Matthew Harris Bain Capital Ventures II Communities on Infrastructure Sponsored by IFM Investors May 16, 2025 4. Steven McLaughlin Financial Technology Partners 5. Jonathan Korngold General Atlantic

6. Richard Garman & Brad Bernstein FTV Capital 7. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park Anthemis Group 8. Thomas Jessop Goldman Sachs Group 9. Meyer (Micky) Malka Ribbit Capital 10. Hans Morris Nyca Partners

11. Maria Gotsch Partnership Fund for New York City 12. Marc Andreessen Andreessen Horowitz 13. Barry Silbert Digital Currency Group 14. Jay Reinemann Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria 15. Mariano Belinky Santander InnoVentures

16. François Robinet AXA Strategic Ventures 17. Vanessa Colella Citi Ventures 18. Alan Freudenstein & Gregory Grimaldi Credit Suisse NEXT Fund 19. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena SenaHill Partners 20. Rodger Voorhies Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

21. Michael Schlein Accion International 22. Kenneth Marlin Marlin & Associates 23. Rumi Morales CME Ventures 24. Mark Beeston Illuminate Financial Management 25. Vladislav Solodkiy Life.SREDA

26. Fabian Vandenreydt Innotribe SWIFT 27. Derek White Barclays 28. Alex Batlin UBS 29. Jeffrey Greenberg & Vincenzo La Ruffa Aquiline Capital Partners 30. P. Howard Edelstein REDI Holdings

31. Nektarios Liolios Startupbootcamp FinTech 32. Roy Bahat Bloomberg Beta 33. Andrew McCormack Valar Ventures 34. Lawrence Wintermeyer Innovate Finance 35. Janos Barberis FinTech Hong Kong