The fund plans to invest in 30 companies, with investments of up to $500K at the angel, pre-seed, and seed stage within the fintech sector.
Rex Salisbury, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has founded a new early-stage venture capital firm, Cambrian Ventures, which has launched its inaugural $20 million fintech-focused fund investing at the angel, pre-seed, and seed stage.
The fund has gathered a number of influential entrepreneurs and fintech specialists as investors, including the founders of Nerdwallet, Plaid, Simple, Alloy, Modus, SentiLink, Jeeves, Betterment, Blend, Routable, Trim, LendUp, One, SoFi, Moonpay, LoanPro, Altruist, and Melio.
Cambrian will leverage Rex Salisbury’s, resources, knowledge, mentorship, and global network of over 15,000 subscribers, 4,000 meetup attendees, and a Slack community with 1,100+ fintech founders.
Prior to Cambrian, Salisbury spent three years as a founding partner of A16Z, where he helped build the fintech vertical and invested in a number of deals including Deel and Tally.
The new venture fund plans to invest in 30 companies, with investments of up to $500K at the angel, pre-seed, and seed stage within the fintech sector, having already invested in Keep Financial’s recent seed round. Cambrian claims to have assisted in matching more than 500 co-founders and investors, to date.
Rex Salisbury, Founder and General Partner of Cambrian, said: “In seeing the positive and meaningful impact this community of experienced fintech founders and investors has had thus far, Cambrian’s venture fund was a logical next step. There is a unique opportunity to mobilize the Cambrian community to facilitate vital connections while adding operational expertise and capital at the earliest and most critical stage of founder-market fit. The fund aims to leverage the entrepreneurial experience, subject matter expertise, operational expertise, and industry insights within the Cambrian community to support the next generation of fintech entrepreneurs.”
Andy Carra, co-founder of SoFi and investor in the fund, commented: “Rex has pioneered a new frontier for fintech entrepreneurs by harnessing the power of community around a fund structure. Cambrian’s success to date is due to Rex’s passion, sense of camaraderie, and extensive belief in both fintech’s potential and the power of community.”
Rob Frohwein, co-founder of Keep Financial and Kabbage, commented: “Cambrian is an ideal partner for us because they blend a community ecosystem with Rex, an investor with extensive experience in building and scaling fintech startups.”
Anish Acharya, General Partner at A16Z, added: “Rex’s influence, reach, and ability to identify the next great entrepreneurs in fintech are impressive and made him a valuable asset at A16Z. We are delighted to see how he and Cambrian will continue to support the fintech ecosystem with the launch of this fund.”
