< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

Civic boosterism and job creation are core missions of the Partnership Fund for New York City, which was founded in 1996 by KKR & Co. co-chairman Henry Kravis and has channeled more than $135 million into some 150 for-profit and not-for-profit entities. Given the fund’s Big Apple focus, it stands to reason that financial enterprises would be among the beneficiaries; microfinance organization Grameen America and derivatives market operator trueEX Group are currently in the portfolio. Led in a more inventive direction by president and CEO Maria Gotsch, the fund became one of the earliest — and remains among the most vocal — promoters of the new wave of fintech innovation. It even takes some credit for popularizing the term, having established the FinTech Innovation Lab in New York in 2010. The motivation was “to make New York City the capital of fintech, not just finance,” says Gotsch, 49, a Harvard Business School MBA who was with investment bank BT Wolfensohn before joining the Partnership Fund in 1999. A joint effort with Accenture — the consulting firm’s capital markets practice leader, Robert Gach, is co-founder — the fintech-acceleration lab has been replicated in Dublin, Hong Kong and London, bringing selected start-ups into contact with industry executives and venture capitalists for mentoring and exploration of ongoing business dealings. Gotsch says one of the labs’ distinguishing features is their “long tail” — the lasting relationships that are kindled by the 12 weeks of boot-camp-like intensity. And she takes pride in the market’s validation of the graduates, such as the September acquisition of BillGuard (class of 2012) for $30 million by online lender Prosper Marketplace. Gotsch recalls: “When we were setting up, people asked, ‘What is fintech?’ Not anymore.”

 
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 Solana vs. Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: How Do They Compare? Sponsored by CME Group April 29, 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