If you keep up with financial technology, you know that the community is a tight-knit group of enthusiasts that includes all sorts of people.
A few players have emerged with special knowledge and expertise in the space over the years. For the past two and a half years, a newsletter called "This Week in Fintech" has been publishing, growing its subscriber base to over 10,000. He spent the past two years at Google, heading up business development and strategy, as well as serving as a mentor through Techstars. Milanovi has helped build and grow the global fintech community. In addition to publishing the newsletter, Milanovi sponsors meetups all across the globe so that thousands of fellow fintech friends can meet up.
Milanovi's fintech ambitions have been helped by inclusion. He was a researcher at the center for the study of poverty and inequality. He is a contributor on topics such as building products that improve the lives of inmates.
While Milanovi has invested as an angel in the past, he is now taking the plunge to full-time investing with a new early-stage fund.
The global community that Milanovi is building, especially since he believes that it is an incredibly powerful lever for startups, is something that Better Tomorrow is very fond of.
He said that there is an incredible global opportunity that others aren't seeing.
The Fintech Fund is located in Lagos, Nigeria.
Goldfinch, 3Box, Ponto and Paysail are some of the companies that have been backed by the Fintech Fund.
The goal is to make this kind of community fund, rather than an undifferentiated out-of-the box venture fund.
The 120-person fintech syndicate is a part of the Fintech Fund. The fund gives members of the syndicate the chance to double-down on the fund's investments with the founders.
The new fund has a quantitative commitment to inclusion. It has an explicit target of 25% or more of its dollars and total number of investments going to founders from underrepresented background. Milanovi does not plan to set a quota or target for the syndicate, but is measuring the composition of the syndicate on a quarterly basis in an effort to continuously ensure representation and inclusion.
If founders are looking for hands-on investors, they will find it in The Fintech Fund.
There are a lot of funds that will write large checks.
Milanovi will continue to provide resources to founders through his newsletter and events because he believes investing in a company's success should be more than money.
The community can help you decide between two vendors you're considering or make a referral for a head of product that you're looking to hire.
Liam Burke and Nicole Alonso said they have been impressed with Milanovi's background and understanding of the landscape since their first meeting. The company, which uses stable coins to enable instant, global B2B invoicing and payments, recently raised a $4 million seed round led by Uncork Capital.
The berserk pace of fintech investing outshines the global VC boom
We are excited by the breadth and diversity of experience the fund'sLPs bring to the table and look forward to tapping into the support they provide to founders, including advisory work, domain expertise, and access to their vast network.
Milanovi said the VCs that are opting to be LPs in this fund don't view it as direct competition.
He said that they want to focus on collaboration.
Milanovi doesn't subscribe to that philosophy.
I believe we can all win together as a network and I think this fund is a way for everyone to win together.
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