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The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Jonathan Korngold, General Atlantic

No. 5 History is repeating — or, to be more precise, evolving — at General Atlantic.

5
Jonathan Korngold
Head, Global Financial Services Sector
General Atlantic

History is repeating — or, to be more precise, evolving — at General Atlantic. The New York–based growth-equity firm was in the thick of the dot-com generation, helping to guide companies like E*Trade Financial Corp. and Priceline Group toward long-term viability, and it’s still going strong. William Ford, who was closely identified with the earlier successes, was elevated from president to CEO in 2007; Jonathan Korngold has been head of the global financial services sector since 2012. For Korngold, a Harvard Business School MBA and Goldman Sachs Group alumnus who joined the firm in 2001, ten years after Ford did, it’s not technology alone but also “the level of regulation that is driving massive change” in the financial industry. As capital-constrained banks pull back from certain markets, “huge swaths of the financial services sector are no longer economically viable to be served by traditional institutions, which also often struggle to adapt their business practices to the rapidly changing preferences of the consumers.” Therein lies opportunity for upstart companies to fill the breach. A case in point is nonprime consumer lending. Marketplace lender Avant, for which General Atlantic led a $325 million Series E financing in October, is “uniquely capable” of serving this segment “in a fair and transparent manner” through innovative technology and underwriting techniques, says Korngold, 41, who is joining the Chicago-based company’s board. He’s bullish on payment services: Two GA investments, Amsterdam-based Adyen and Sweden’s Klarna, fall into the category of “e-commerce enablement”; the former, which supports transactions in 187 currencies, is the global payments partner of Airbnb and Uber (both GA portfolio companies). Korngold stresses the global view and nature of the strategy, and the approximately 20 team members in the Americas, Europe and Asia who support it.


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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