QED Quarterly Newsletter | Issue 3, Summer 2019

QED Investors partners, companies, and friends:

Despite having had a busy and productive last few months, and we have much news to share, it feels somewhat trifling at the moment. Our hearts are heavy from the recent, tragic passing of our Partner, Greg Mazanec. He was a trusted and ingenious colleague and friend with indomitable talent and verve.

We’ve laughed and cried celebrating Greg’s life and reflecting on his impact and contribution to our team. But our overwhelming feeling is a sense of loss. We miss him dearly. Our hearts go out to his wife, Elaine, and son, George. We will carry him around on our shoulders as we work to build on his legacy.

As our team grieves, we also understand the importance of continuing our work. The goal of our newsletter is to keep in touch with you, celebrate our portfolio companies, and share news about QED.

We didn’t want to miss this opportunity to celebrate Greg’s life and stay close to you.

Nigel

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made in Greg’s honor to Ashley Treatment, 800 Tydings Lane, Havre de Grace, MD 21078 or online here.

Portfolio Spotlight
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Red Letter Day for Wagestream, Closing £40MM Funding Round

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Wagestream recently announced a £40MM equity and debt funding round, marking one of the largest rounds for a financial wellness and financial inclusion company in the UK. We're excited to partner with Balderton and Northzone, who led the equity round, and Shawbrook, who led the debt.

It’s a critical milestone on Wagestream’s path to ending the payday poverty cycle, killing the payday loans industry, and encouraging straight-from-salary savings. Wagestream currently works with 120,000 UK employees at clients including David Lloyd, Rentokil PLC, Camden Town Brewery, Slug & Lettuce, and Carluccio’s, who now stream wages in real time.

QED is a co-founding investor in the company. Having invested through Belay, our formation-stage investing platform, many QED’ians have worked closely with management since inception – Bill Cilluffo, Yusuf Özdalga, and Greg Mazanec – helping the company grow from a seed-stage start-up into the dominant player in the space. As excited as we are about the fundraise, nothing makes us prouder than when we hear that customers love our portfolio companies. And we routinely hear that from employers and employees who use Wagestream. It’s a unique combination of high customer satisfaction, world-class leadership, rapid growth, and social good. We’re thrilled to be a part of their journey.

New QED Investments

We’ve welcomed eight new companies to our portfolio since our last newsletter, but currently we’re able to publicize only three of them. We’re extremely proud to be associated with these companies and look forward to publicizing the other five soon.

Based in São Paulo, Brazil, Escale is a performance-based, customer acquisition company that partners with Brazil’s largest brands to transform ordinary buying experiences into highly optimized and transparent conversion funnels. Escale is transforming the way that Brazilian families and small businesses connect with the most important products and services they need. Here’s more information about the company and funding round. Bill Cilluffo is leading the investment.

Loft, based in São Paulo, Brazil, is reinventing the process of buying and selling real estate in Brazil by leveraging technology and data to transform painful and bureaucratic processes into simple and delightful experiences. At Loft, you can sell your apartment instantly for a fair price or find your next perfect home ready for move-in. More information available here. Bill Cilluffo is leading the investment.

Based in San Francisco, Roger works on top of existing accounting software to automate financial processes like bill pay, approvals, receipt scanning, compliance, and bookkeeping with simple workflows anyone can set up and manage. Customers range from small to mid-sized businesses from virtually any industry to bookkeeping and major accounting firms. More information here about the company and the round. Matt Risley is leading the investment.

QED Company Milestones

CircleUp hired Neil Constable as its first Chief Investment Officer

ClearScore surpassed 10MM customers

Creditas raised $231MM

Current hits 400,000 active accounts

Flywire surpassed $10B in total payments volume, and CEO Mike Massaro was named EY Entrepreneur of The Year in New England

HouseCanary and Roofstock were named to the HousingWire 2019 Tech100 list of most impactful tech companies in the housing industry

Executive search firm and QED Belay company Lingua Franca hired Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore as CEO

Belay company MotoRefi closed a $4.7MM seed round

Nubank announced a $400MM fundraise at a staggering $10B valuation, and it’s expanding to Mexico

Ocrolus closed a $24MM Series B

Prosper CEO David Kimball won LendIt Fintech Executive of The Year

Remitly closed a $220MM Series E and made Forbes’s list of Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2019

QED News

QED Welcomes Lauren Connolley to the Partnership

We're thrilled to announce that Lauren Connolley recently joined us as a Partner. Lauren will focus on international investments, initially in Latin America, working with Bill Cilluffo, Mike Packer, and Yusuf Özdalga. Prior to joining QED, Lauren spent 15 years at Capital One, most recently as the executive in charge of the marketing and data technology to power credit card acquisitions. Lauren also was a Partner at Capital One Growth Ventures where she focused on opportunities in fintech and led the acquisition of Paribus.co, among other investments. Earlier, Lauren spent eight years leading credit and valuations teams across Capital One’s US Card businesses.

Lauren holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and English Literature from the University of Virginia. Welcome, Lauren!

NYCA/Bain Demo Day Knocked It out of the Park

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We were honoured to share the stage with our close friends at Nyca Partners and Bain Capital (thanks Hans and Matt) for the 3rd Annual Fintech Demo Day in May. It was a who’s who of fintech – with 170 guests and 15 companies presenting, including QED companies Arachnys, HouseCanary, Ocrolus, Lendeavor, and Signifyd. Banks, fintechs, and many more turned out to network and learn. We’re excited to do it again next year.

Ken Chenault to Keynote our CEO Summit

A sincere thank you to the inestimable Ken Chenault, who plans to keynote our CEO Summit in October. He’s the former chairman and CEO of AmEx and now chairman and managing director at General Catalyst. Ken is a font of wisdom and a legendary leader. It’s sure to be a fascinating and valuable session for our CEOs.

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Frank’s at it Again – This Time, Speaking Truth to Power in “But We Have a Relationship...”

Our very own fintech junkie has turned out a number of blogs recently, but none more widely read than “But We Have A Relationship...” Frank put banks on notice, eloquently explaining the erosion of “Relationship Banking.” He also wrote a three-part post where he dives into the evolving VC investing landscape entitled: Ramblings About VC Investing. For these and more from Frank, visit his blog, Confessions of a Fintech Junkie.

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We Announced our White Paper on Falling Barriers to Entry in Fintech at LendIt

Thanks to Matt Risley, Matt Burton, and Laura Bock, who published a white paper at LendIt this year – Falling Barriers to Entry In Fintech …and the Toolbox Enabling Fintechs – the first part in a series identifying opportunities, risks, and infrastructure partners for fintechs. It’s a must-read blueprint for fintechs’ path to success.

QED has been Active in the Fintech and Venture Communities...

Frank has been busy – between investing, blogging, recording a podcast with Wharton Fintech, and sitting down with Bloomberg at the Future of Fintech Conference, he also was named to Forbes’s Midas List of Top Tech Investors

Matt Burton worked the podcast circuit, appearing on Bank On It and Fintech Insider to discuss Belay, our formation-stage investing platform, trends we’re seeing, and more

Amias Geretyspoke on a panel at the FDIC Fintech Conference about whether fintechs are disrupting banks and how banks can partner with fintechs, joined The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum for a podcast on macroprudential policy, and blogged about data science and how our portfolio company Ocrolus uniquely leverages proprietary data to create value for lender customers

Yusuf Özdalga launched a blog, wrote a case study on Wagestream, and won Money20/20 Europe’s reverse pitch competition

Mike Packer also entered the fray, discussing our LatAm portfolio on the Crossing Borders Podcast

Nigel Morris was named to CB Insights’ list of The Top 100 VCs

Asks, Feedback, & Opportunities

QED Companies are Constantly Hiring! Below are a Handful of Featured Openings.

Commercial Head with experience in banking, Operations Head with experience in credit and online funnels, and Insurance Head at Coru (Mexico City, MX); contact Iamtheone@coru.com to apply or for more information

Chief Risk Officer at Credijusto (Mexico City, MX); contact talent@qedinvestors.com to apply or for more information

CFO with capital markets experience, General Counsel, VP of Engineering (Richmond, VA or San Francisco, CA), and Head of Servicing (Richmond, VA) at Mission Lane; contact eric.nelson@missionlane.com to apply or for more information.

VP of Sales and Lead UX Designer at MotoRefi (Arlington, VA)

VP of Product,VP of Solutions, and Head of Finance at Ocrolus (New York, NY)

Chief Marketing Officer at QuintoAndar (São Paulo, Brazil); contact erica.jannini@quintoandar.com.br to apply or for more information

Head of Risk at Reserve Trust (Denver, CO)

Head of Growth at Tienda Pago (Mexico City, MX)

VP of Engineering at Wagestream (London, England); contact pw@wagestream.co.uk to apply or for more information