Citi Joins JP Morgan, S&P Global in VC Venture

Venture capital (VC) investment firm Illuminate Financial announced Wednesday (July 13) that it has entered a strategic relationship with Citi, who joins existing investors Jefferies, J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Börse Group and S&P Global as a limited partner in Illuminate Financial’s VC strategy.

Together, the investor group represents a unique combination of global financial institutions, which will further extend Illuminate Financial’s deep domain expertise and industry network, per the release. To date, Citi has co-invested in eight of Illuminate’s portfolio companies: Arteria AI, TransFicc, CloudMargin, Privitar, Genesis Global, Talos, Cosaic and Blockdaemon.

Founded by veteran finance executive Mark Beeston and operated with partners Alexander Ross and Rezso Szabo, Illuminate Financial focuses on early-stage FinTech and enterprise software companies.

“Citi has a strong track record of partnering with FinTechs to build digital solutions for our clients and believe this strategic investment will provide earlier visibility into new technologies and complement our direct investing program,” said Sandeep Arora, head of digital and chief investment officer of Citi’s institutional clients group.

To this, Mark Beeston, founder and managing partner of Illuminate Financial, added, “Citi has been an aggressive adopter of the innovative solutions offered by FinTechs and an active direct investor in 25% of our portfolio companies since we launched Illuminate’s first fund in 2015.”

“We are delighted to now add Citi to our roster of strategic investors, helping further catalyze enterprise FinTech adoption to the benefit of the whole eco-system,” he continued.

In the context of weak economic growth and recession fears the world over, investors are showing far more restraint and caution so far in 2022 than they have in recent years.

See also: Crypto’s Decline Drags Down Venture Capital Funding

Crypto platforms and other businesses exposed to crypto assets have been among the biggest losers of the current investment winter. Recently, Bloomberg reported data showing that investment in crypto firms was down 31% between Q1 and Q2 this year.