London-based asset supervisor Fasanara Capital Ltd. has secured a new $500 million enterprise capital fund to invest in fintech and Web3 pioneers. It gives fresh cash to seize the market opportunities that exist at a time when investors are pumping funds as they are in a crypto mania.
Crypto-focused fund
The tech-enabled hedge fund identified the opportunity in tech and in lending to fintech before most other asset managers. This is the third fund raised by Fasanara Capital and it intends to back early-stage tech startups. It was announced by the CEO of the company that the new fund will be open to new external investors. The firm is keen on investing in crypto companies that intersect with trading. Also, other firms are seeking to bolster their crypto-investing capability, including Marshall Wave, a hedge fund.
Fasanara Capital provides financing to firms, including cryptocurrency exchanges and digital lending businesses. What sets Fasanara Capital apart is its performance, track record and scale of operations in both digital lending and digital assets (crypto and DeFi). The fund manager estimates that across its fintech portfolio, it will see total community volumes of lending reach $45 billion this year, showing the scale of opportunity in the industry currently.
Francesco Filia, CEO of Fasanara Capital said, “The European asset management industry is on the brink of a huge tech-led transformation and Fasanara Capital has been at the forefront of this change, both as a digital lender and trader of alternative assets. Over the past eleven years we have developed a deep understanding of the fintech ecosystem, have financed more than $30bn of digital loans and receivables and have had the opportunity to invest in some of the preeminent digital technology startups in the market.”
€250M fintech fund
In September 2021, asset manager and technology platform Fasanara Capital announced the closure of the €250 million fintech fund. The European Investment Fund (EIF) made a cornerstone investment in Fasanara European Alternative Crowdlending Fund, under the Private Credit Tailored for SMEs Programme of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). This fintech fund was aimed at investing in working capital financing for European businesses, representing more than 100,000 jobs across Europe.
In March this year, Fasanara Capital made two significant hires to its team with the aim to strengthen deal origination and support the launch of a new fintech-focused VC fund. Firstly, it appointed Raj Dutta, appointed as Chief Commercial Officer. The next hire is Alex Lawrence, who joins Fasanara as Head of Origination – Emerging Markets. They were hired to keep its momentum and growth trajectory going, confident that these two key hires will help propel the company as a leading force in digital finance and fintech asset management.
Fasanara Capital: A heads up!
Fasanara Capital was launched in 2011 led by CEO Francesco Filia, as an inventive, tech-powered investment house, looking at disruptive new technologies to advance the legacy financial infrastructure. The data-driven investment firm has over 150 employees and handles over $3.5 billion in assets under management.
In three years of venture investing, Fasanara Capital has funded 29 companies at seed to Series A across Europe. Prior to this round, the company has raised nearly $550 million across two venture funds to back tech companies. Of its current portfolio companies, two have reached unicorn status after closing their most recent funding. These new unicorns are consumer-electronics rental startup Grover and buy-now-pay-later company Scalapay.
It employs 152 people in London, with more than 100 people in its growing tech team. It helps bridge the gap between credit-starved SMEs and European institutional investors looking to support new technologies in ways that are sustainable, scalable and empowered by data.
