Illuminate Financial

Introducing our latest thesis on WealthTech Infrastructure🚀 We believe the wealthtech stack of the future will be highly interoperable, modular, and flexible to meet the needs of investors and advisors of all forms. In this thesis deep dive, we unveil the current composition of the advisor’s tech stack and how we see this evolving to meet customer demands.  Read our deepdive here: https://lnkd.in/e3mbbMkm   If you are a founder, like-minded investor or operator with thoughts on this space we would love to chat with you. Reach out to Charlton Hook, CFA to discuss!   #wealthtech #fintech #thesis #wealthmanagement

And that's a wrap #ClimateWeekNYC 2024! 🌍⚡ Illuminate Financial kicked off the week co-hosting a Carbon Markets breakfast with J.P. Morgan, BeZero Carbon and Bloomberg which was masterfully moderated by our very own Alexandra Gheorghe. Read Alex's reflections here: https://lnkd.in/eYepPpfE

Please join us in congratulating Hugo Hazon on his promotion to Associate! Hugo has been an integral part of our team, demonstrating exceptional dedication, a love for meeting new founders and a passion for early-stage investments. It is a pleasure to work with you - thank you for all the energy and drive you bring to Illuminate Financial! #promotion #illuminatefinancial #venturecapital

Introducing our latest thesis on Lending Verticalisation 🚀 The current model of generic lending products for consumers and businesses is facing significant challenges from a new wave of innovative fintech start-ups embracing verticalisation, offering product features tailored to specific industries or needs, using first-party data in underwriting, and distributing via embedded vertical workflows. In our thesis deep dive we explore the key drivers for this change and how verticalisation is set to change lending forever and redefine how credit is accessed. If you are a founder building in lending (including infrastructure layer, alternative data, AI process automation etc.) or a like-minded investor thinking about lending, we would love to chat with you! Reach out to Sheng Wang to continue the conversation. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/edH2bcuB #lending #embeddedfinance #fintech #SME

Will you be at New York Climate Week '24? 🗽 We will! 🌍 Meet Alexandra Gheorghe, Rezso Szabo, and Julie McCrimlisk from our team to learn more about our sustainable finance investment thesis. It's a busy week but we would love to connect with founders and investors who will be in town! #climateweeknyc #nycw #illuminatefinancial

Offsite Number 8 complete ✅ Our annual offsite has long become a cornerstone of Illuminate’s DNA and culture and in 2024 we gathered in Cascais in Portugal as our largest group ever, 22 in person (23 in total). Taking people out of their day-to-day routine has a powerful effect on their ability to focus and think differently but most importantly it brings our 3 geographies together to renew our bonds and reenergise our teams. The Farol Hotel and TEN 80 EVENTS LTD hosted us impeccably and allowed us to focus on some fantastic subject matter alongside brainstorming, focus groups, content creation and team building activities. Our Theme this year came from the legendary Fat Boy Slim ‘Right Here, Right Now’ and facilitated a rich and varied agenda including: * Discussing intrinsic motivators and the importance of Purpose, Mastery and Autonomy. * Deep dives into our specialist investment themes, pipeline process, deal sourcing, AI strategy and ESG policies. * Collective enjoyment over ice creams, kayaking and sea swims as a global team. * Brand archetypes discussions alongside testing our brand alignment (which certainly fostered some healthy debate about the plan ahead!) * Laughing our socks off whilst making fake Illuminate TikTok videos to bring people together and bond. *Celebrating Illuminate’s 10-year anniversary by taking a sensational Catamaran trip from Cascais to Lisbon. An enormous thank you to our Chief of Staff Rachel Townend without whom none of this would be possible. Offsites are a valuable tool for organisations looking to develop their teams, foster collaboration, and drive innovation, especially with remote teams and a global presence. If you want to read more about Illuminate offsite then please read our blog below or get in touch with us direct on LinkedIn. https://lnkd.in/ee-g8iPn

Introducing Illuminate Financial’s Latest Thesis on Energy Trading 🚀 The global electricity trading market is forecast to increase by $111.34 billion between 2023 and 2027. We have identified several key areas of opportunity across the landscape including: - The next generation of power markets - The role that battery assets have to play in rewiring traditional financial commodity markets - How volatility creates challenges, but also opportunities If you are a founder building or a like-minded investor thinking about this space we would love to chat with you. Reach out to Alexandra Gheorghe to continue the conversation. Read our deepdive here: https://lnkd.in/eWXrAJSN #energy #energytransition #sustainablefinance

Yesterday evening we hosted a Mission Critical AI Get Together in Paris alongside our friends at Felicis. The room was packed with founders, operators and investors all driven by a passion for building in this industry. Thank you to our panellists Mathieu Galtier (CEO at Entalpic), Jean-Louis Quéguiner (CEO at Gladia), and Jean Philippe Vert (Co-Founder at Bioptimus) We'd love to hear from you if you're a founder in this space. Get in touch with Hugo Hazon.

🤗 Join us in Paris for an exclusive event uniting researchers, engineers, operators, and founders passionate about AI innovation and its real-world applications! 🤗 Co-hosted by Felicis and Illuminate Financial, we’re thrilled to bring together founders and technologists tackling some of the most impactful and mission-critical challenges — from developing new drugs and chemicals to improving the productivity of engineers and customer support teams. If you're based in Paris and interested in AI solving "Mission Critical" problems, feel free to join us! We will be bringing together researchers, engineers, operators and founders across the ecosystem for a night of discussion and drinks. So far we have some great organisations attending, from large startups like Hugging Face and OpenAI to emerging names like Entalpic and Gladia and institutions like BNP Paribas. Apply here - https://lu.ma/2z1gam4v Gabriella G. Rezso Szabo Rosie Zehtab Jean-Louis Quéguiner Mathieu Galtier

Illuminate Financial’s Latest Thesis on SME Financing in Emerging Asian Markets 🚀 #SMEs are the backbone of the global economy. There are approximately 400 million registered SMEs globally, representing more than 90% of businesses and accounting for over 50% of global employment. The numbers are even more pronounced in emerging #APAC countries, where SMEs are the primary source of employment and income that contribute between 40% and 60% to the GDP of Asian economies. However, SMEs face an enormous #fundinggap of ~$5.7 trillion, which hinders their impact on the global economy. We are seeing the following trends and opportunities in the space, including - “Verticalization” as a Key Differentiator: players with verticalized financing products will have a better chance to stand out. - “Consolidation” Becoming Inevitable: more and more consolidation activities to ensure lower cost of capital & establish market leadership Read Ting Yan's deep-dive here: https://lnkd.in/g-ZidPHs #smefinancing #fintech #APAC #CFO #SME