The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Hans Morris, Nyca Partners

No. 10

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< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

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10
Hans Morris
Managing Partner
Nyca Partners

There is a message embedded in Nyca Partners’ name. Hans Morris, who founded the firm in July 2014, fused the abbreviations of New York and California to represent “bringing together the expertise of both Silicon Valley and Wall Street.” Morris has worked in both places, knows how their venture capital cultures differ and believes Nyca can help them work better together. “If you’re an entrepreneur and go to a top VC firm and start talking about [futures commission merchants] or straight-through processing or some rule from the CFTC, they won’t know what you’re talking about,” says Morris, 56. “To be able to do that off the top of your head is very advantageous.” Nyca’s aim is not to supplant the Silicon Valley establishment but rather to partner with those firms, he adds. Morris served as COO of Citigroup’s investment bank during a 27-year career with that company; as president of Foster City, California–based Visa at the time of its $18 billion IPO, in 2008; and as a managing director of New York’s General Atlantic (see Jonathan Korngold, No. 5). Nyca got off to a fast start and has made more than 20 investments so far, among them money-transmission app company Abra and cybersecurity innovator Centripetal Networks. Managing partner Morris looks mainly for A- or B-stage start-ups in payments, credit and what he calls digital advice (robo-adviser SigFig Wealth Management is in the portfolio). He also sees opportunity in the financial industry core infrastructure, but for now he is wary of blockchain, in which “I see lots of issues that merit caution,” including overvaluations. The iron law of new businesses — that most will fail — still applies, says Morris, adding: “What will be helpful to fintech start-ups is having expert advice. The details help explain the difference between good ideas and successful ideas.”


The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

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1. James Robinson III
& James Robinson IV
RRE Ventures

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2. Jane Gladstone
Evercore Partners

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3. Matthew Harris
Bain Capital Ventures

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4. Steven McLaughlin
Financial Technology Partners

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5. Jonathan Korngold
General Atlantic

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6. Richard Garman &
Brad Bernstein
FTV Capital

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7. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park
Anthemis Group

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8. Thomas Jessop
Goldman Sachs Group

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9. Meyer (Micky) Malka
Ribbit Capital

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10. Hans Morris
Nyca Partners

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11. Maria Gotsch
Partnership Fund for New York City

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12. Marc Andreessen
Andreessen Horowitz

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13. Barry Silbert
Digital Currency Group

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14. Jay Reinemann
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria

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15. Mariano Belinky
Santander InnoVentures

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16. François Robinet
AXA Strategic Ventures

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17. Vanessa Colella
Citi Ventures

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18. Alan Freudenstein & Gregory Grimaldi
Credit Suisse
NEXT Fund

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19. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena
SenaHill Partners

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20. Rodger Voorhies
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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21. Michael Schlein
Accion International

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22. Kenneth Marlin
Marlin & Associates

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23. Rumi Morales
CME Ventures

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24. Mark Beeston
Illuminate Financial Management

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25. Vladislav Solodkiy
Life.SREDA

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26. Fabian Vandenreydt
Innotribe SWIFT

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27. Derek White
Barclays

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28. Alex Batlin
UBS

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29. Jeffrey Greenberg
& Vincenzo
La Ruffa
Aquiline Capital Partners

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30. P. Howard Edelstein
REDI Holdings

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31. Nektarios Liolios
Startupbootcamp FinTech

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32. Roy Bahat
Bloomberg Beta

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33. Andrew McCormack
Valar Ventures

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34. Lawrence Wintermeyer
Innovate Finance

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35. Janos Barberis
FinTech Hong Kong


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