< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

If insurance, compared with banking and securities, is the financial technology laggard, a sleeping giant just beginning to stir, then AXA is breaking the mold. This past February, on the heels of a €950 million ($1.1 billion) commitment to digital growth initiatives, the €91 billion-in-revenue insurer announced the formation of AXA Strategic Ventures, a €200 million, Paris-based, multinational venture capital fund, with longtime AXA group executive François Robinet as chairman. “Insurance has always been technology-intensive, but it is old technology,” says the 48-year-old, who is scouting out potentially transformative innovations for the insurance, asset management and health care sectors. AXA Strategic Ventures already had five portfolio companies at its official launch, resulting from a France-centric pilot dating back to 2013, called Seed Factory. Among recent additions to those early holdings — which included FundShop and Particeep in portfolio management and crowdfunding, respectively — are Brooklyn, New York, online insurance start-up PolicyGenius and San Francisco–based mobile benefits platform Limelight Health. “We operate as a stand-alone, independent fund,” Robinet says, adding that he is still in the early stages of building out a global team beyond Paris, New York and San Francisco (where AXA Lab opened, to be closer to emerging Silicon Valley trends and potential high-tech alliances, in 2013). “Financial services in general, and insurance in particular, are being disrupted by digital innovation,” says Robinet, an actuary and former AXA chief risk officer. “We want to have as many tools as possible to capture innovation.” Since 2008, Robinet has been a director of MicroCred Group, which funds emerging-markets microlending and is part of the “financial inclusion theme” that he views as ripe for technological advancement.

 
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