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The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Lawrence Wintermeyer, Innovate Finance

No. 34

34
Lawrence Wintermeyer
Chief Executive Officer
Innovate Finance

On July 30, London-based membership association Innovate Finance issued UK FinTech 2020, a manifesto for establishing Britain as “the undisputed center for financial services technology and innovation.” Prime Minister David Cameron weighed in that day with an endorsement of the plan, echoing sentiments voiced 11 months earlier by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne at Innovate Finance’s public launch. That kind of support is priceless for Lawrence Wintermeyer, 50, who as CEO of Innovate Finance since March is presiding over one of the fintech world’s most ambitious and aggressive advocacy organizations — an ecosystem in itself. Its formation last year, with funding from City of London Corp. and Canary Wharf Group, was “pretty prescient, looking at where fintech is now,” says Wintermeyer, a digital strategy expert who for the past seven years has run a private advisory business, Capstone Management. Innovate Finance bills itself as a bridge among commercial entities, regulators and policymakers, dedicated to smoothing the development and financing of fintech start-ups with a U.K. connection. “That lobbying is focused not just on political policy but on U.S. institutional venture capitalists to invest [in London], because most of our large institutional investors are U.S.-based,” Wintermeyer says. Innovate Finance holds so-called curated events to put entrepreneurs and their ideas in front of investors, and it stresses continuity. “Typically, hipsters go into an accelerator and get some money and coaching and end up at a demo day,” Wintermeyer says. “Quite often we’re the organization that’s around after that hoopla is over.” Earlier this year Innovate Finance created a membership category for pre–Series A start-ups. Other members include entrepreneurs, financial institutions and strategic partners such as incubators and accelerators. One of the last group is Level39, in London’s Canary Wharf district, launched with the help of Wintermeyer’s predecessor, Claire Cockerton, who is now chair and CEO of ecosystem consulting firm Entiq.


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
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

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