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The 2016 Fintech Finance 35: Jonathan Korngold

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1. Jonathan Korngold
Head, Global Financial Services Sector
General Atlantic
Last year: 5

As exciting and transformative as the current wave of financial technology innovation may be, “a false sense of bravado” one to two years ago clouded many strategists’ and investors’ vision of the long-term big picture, according to Jonathan Korngold. Long-term and big picture are defining characteristics of global growth equity firm General Atlantic, which was formed in 1980 and which Korngold, its New York–based head of financial services, joined in 2001 after working in principal investments and M&A at Goldman Sachs Group. In the past year the team that Korngold has been leading since 2012 made more than $1 billion in new and add-on financial services and fintech investments; the sector is General Atlantic’s biggest, accounting for nearly a third of the total portfolio. Irrespective of the hype cycle, the fintech momentum is accelerating: Korngold points to such highlights as a majority stake in commodity news and data provider Argus Media, announced in May and valuing that company at nearly £1 billion ($1.2 billion); and the sale of portfolio company OptionsHouse, announced in July, for $725 million to E*TRADE Financial Corp. The 42-year-old Harvard MBA, who previously oversaw the firm’s health care sector for seven and a half years, says the advantage is going to those able to “differentiate long-term winners from me-too or narrow niche companies — between long-term solutions and point solutions or widgets.” General Atlantic identifies what Korngold terms “secular trends” in such areas as cross-border payments and “insure tech”; looks out over a ten- to 15-year horizon, so it is not locked into typical five- to seven-year venture capital or private equity holding periods; and has a group of about 20 people with deep financial services expertise across a global footprint of 12 offices, among which insights and perspectives are cross-pollinated. “We’ve been on the ground in Mumbai for 15 years,” Korngold notes as context for the firm’s 2015 investment in IIFL Wealth Management, which then had $12 billion in client assets. Eyeing what he calls “huge opportunities to upgrade decades-old solutions” in the insurance industry, General Atlantic in June joined Genstar Capital and TA Associates in investing in Hartford, Connecticut–based software company Insurity.


The 2016 Fintech Finance 35

1. Jonathan Korngold
General Atlantic
2. Matthew Harris
Bain Capital Ventures
3. Jane Gladstone
Evercore Partners
4. James Robinson III & James
Robinson IV
RRE Ventures
5. Steven McLaughlin
Financial Technology Partners
6. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park
Anthemis Group
7. Richard Garman &
Brad Bernstein
FTV Capital
8. Gerard
von Dohlen
Broadhaven Capital Partners
9. Darren Cohen
Goldman Sachs Group
10. Hans Morris
Nyca Partners
11. Meyer (Micky) Malka
Ribbit Capital
12. Maria Gotsch
Partnership Fund for New York City
13. Barry Silbert
Digital Currency Group
14. Jay Reinemann
Propel Venture Partners
15. Mariano Belinky
Santander InnoVentures
16. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena
SenaHill Partners
17. François Robinet
AXA Strategic Ventures
18. Vanessa Colella
Citi Ventures
19. Michael Schlein
Accion International
20. Kenneth Marlin
Marlin & Associates
21. Rumi Morales
CME Ventures
22. Alastair (Alex) Rampell
Andreessen Horowitz
23. Steve Gibson
Euclid Opportunities
24. Fabian Vandenreydt
SWIFT
25. Vladislav Solodkiy
Life.SREDA
26. Gardiner Garrard III
TTV Capital
27. Nektarios Liolios
Startupbootcamp Fintech
28. Lawrence Wintermeyer
Innovate Finance
29. Bina Kalola
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
30. Hyder Jaffrey
Fintech Innovation
31. Calvin Choi
AMTD Group
32. Janos Barberis
FinTech
Hong Kong
33. Jalak Jobanputra
Future Perfect Ventures
34. Sopnendu Mohanty
Monetary Authority of Singapore
35. Oskar Mielczarek
de la Miel
Rakuten
FinTech Fund

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