In a February restructuring, Spanish banking giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria shuttered its $100 million BBVA Ventures arm and relaunched it as a stand-alone spin-off, Propel Venture Partners. “It’s not your typical corporate venture fund,” says Jay Reinemann, who led BBVA Ventures as the parent bank’s executive director of strategy and corporate development and is one of three partners at San Francisco–based Propel. (The other partners, Ryan Gilbert and Thomas Whiteaker, also made the transition from BBVA Ventures.) Motivating the change were U.S. regulatory limits on bank investment positions. As an independent firm, Propel can make seed investments and go north of 5 percent in any financing round. Its sweet spot: Series A and Series B participations of $5 million to $15 million. “We’re trying to lead investments instead of just being a follower,” says Reinemann, 47, who joined BBVA in 2011 and formerly headed Visa’s corporate ventures and strategic alliances group. “We’ve got a brand-new fund, and we’re actively hunting.” Propel made its first lead investment in July: a $7 million Series A round for Burlingame, California–based 401(k) platform Guideline Technologies. In August, Propel participated in a $4.5 million seed round for San Francisco’s Brave Software, which has developed a web browser with a built-in Bitcoin-based micropayment system. There were three other seed financings earlier in the year: online car dealer Drive Motors, home insurer Hippo, and identity-theft protection system Civic Technologies. At the time of Propel’s launch, BBVA allocated an additional $150 million, which will be directed toward European opportunities through a London office expected to open late this year. Reinemann says Propel, currently with seven employees, is actively hiring and aims to close five to ten new investments a year. “We’ve seen our deal flow more than double since we launched,” he says.
 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 |