The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Amy Nauiokas and Sean Park, Anthemis Group

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< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

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Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park
President &
Chief Investment Officer
Anthemis Group

Technology may be disruptive or revolutionary, but be careful about pinning those labels on Amy Nauiokas and Sean Park. Although they lead one of the trailblazing fintech-specializing venture capital firms, they are in business to ease pain rather than cause more, bringing to bear two decades of executive experience and “knowledge of how markets work,” says Anthemis Group president Nauiokas, 43. Their expertise is available to both entrepreneurs and incumbents facing “systemic changes in the financial system and the massive impact of regulatory reform,” she adds. The London-based firm’s approach has a historical antecedent; chief investment officer Sean Park, 47, calls it “a modernized model of late-19th–early-20th-century merchant banks.” Just as those institutions helped usher corporations through the upheavals of industrialization, “we are living in a time of rapid change, uncertainty and complexity in which broad and deep networks of talent are drivers of value,” he says. Nauiokas, formerly CEO of Barclays Stockbrokers and a Cantor Fitzgerald partner, and Park, who built Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein’s digital markets division, started predecessor firm Nauiokas Park in 2008. They formalized the advisory side of Anthemis under CEO Nadeem Shaikh, a former First Data Corp. president. They were ahead of the pack in key fintech subsectors, investing early in “challenger banks” Moven and Simple, robo-advice pioneer Betterment, blockchain enabler Eris Industries and insurance and asset management play Trov. Nauiokas, who recently returned from a five-year detour into entertainment financing, says, “Trend-spotting and being there first is important, but it’s not just about the companies in the portfolio — it’s what ties them together.”

The 2015 Fintech Finance 35