Venture Capital Job – Associate Partner – Cedar IBSi Capital

Cedar-IBSi Capital (www.cicapital.vc) is the Venture Capital brainchild of global management consulting firm, Cedar (www.cedar-consulting.com), and global FinTech market intelligence firm, IBS Intelligence (www.ibsintelligence.com).

The fund is structured to follow a classic LP-GP model

Cedar-IBSi Capital will leverage the strong knowledge and intelligence backbone of Cedar-IBSi’s 30+ year track record in global financial services and technology research and consulting. The $50-75 million fund will build a portfolio of 25-30 companies and invest $1-2 million in FinTech disruptors in the B2B and B2C space across Europe, GCC and India.

The fund brings together the research, intelligence, experience, and network of Cedar-IBSi’s three decades of digital transformation experience across markets. Access to proprietary deal flow via Cedar-IBSi’s FinTech Lab will also be natural. Portfolio companies will have the unique advantage of accessing more than just capital from the Cedar-IBSi platform, in the form of access to in-house FinTech strategy experts, global networks and offices, data sandboxes, a wide global banking network, and more.

About Cedar-IBSI Capital

• FinTech focused fund with a strong lens on B2B, Banking infrastructure, and Personal Finance
• 75% of deployment in India, 25% to be deployed between GCC/UK
• Fund to strongly leverage our own in-house Cedar-IBSi FinTech lab (founded in 2017)

• Strong advisory board to play the role of an enabler. Current formally mandated advisors are:

1. Bobby Parikh (Bobby Parikh Associates, founder – BMR Advisors, board member – Infosys, Former board member – HDFC)
2. Pradip Shah (Founder – HDFC and CRISIL, Chairman – Pfizer India, Advisor – World Bank)
3. Sandeep Chouhan (Former CIO – Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Advisory board – Gartner, Accenture, Oracle, FinTech hive, Former CEO & COO – Mashreq bank and ADIB)
4. Felipe Martinez, CIO and board member, Revolut Bank
5. More being added

Role context

• Play a significant role in the build out of the fund (including fundraising), leveraging the group’s long global track-record and prominence in the FinTech/FS research and advisory space
• Be a key “face” of the fund and interact with senior leaders in the growing Financial Technology industry
• Have a strong appreciation/leaning towards the B2B FinTech space
• Lead/co-lead investments in 15-20 companies whilst playing an active role in all aspects of the investment process
• Play a global role. Interact with clients and lead deals in Fund 1 focus geographies – India, GCC and UK
• Get 24/7 access to, and leverage Cedar-IBSi’s global team of expert analysts and consultants across geographies, with wide expertise in the Financial Services/ Technology world
• Opportunity to build a global fund platform from scratch and lead and manage teams
• Upon success of fund 1, play a key role in the capital-raise and leadership of subsequent funds (with potential for there to be funds cutting across other sectors)

Role responsibilities

• Operate with a strong entrepreneurial spirit
• Contribute to the build out of the fund platform. Including the participation in LP roadshows, team build-out, and overall fund strategy
• Lead deals from beginning to close, whilst managing a dedicated fund team, and working actively with the global Cedar-IBSi team in areas they can add value
• Stay in-tune with BankTech/FinTech trends and happenings, leveraging the existing powerful Cedar-IBSi knowledgebase
• Work actively and familiarize yourself with Cedar-IBSi knowledge platforms, to aid in building a strong ear-marked source of investment targets
• Participate in/attend Cedar-IBSi and other industry events, interact with industry leaders in the relevant markets
• Participate in organization-building activities, including recruiting, training, planning, processes and intellectual capital
• Leverage your current existing relationships to help build a pipeline of targets
• Attract, manage, train and mentor other team members

Qualifications and experience

• 10+ years of early stage investing experience, with a significant proportion of this being in tech. FinTech will be a huge advantage.
• Strong understanding of the technology sector (with a good understanding of the FinTech sector and landscape)
• Strong understanding of the seed/series A/VC investing landscape, including experience in end-to-end investment processes
• Past fund-raise/working with LP experience is a bonus
• Strong relationships and network in tech/VC space
• Global experience would be an added advantage
• Team building and people management skills are important
• Strong system, compliance and process adherence

About IBS Intelligence

Established in 1991, UK-headquartered IBS Intelligence (IBSi) is the world’s only pure-play Financial Technology focused research, advisory, and news analysis firm, with a 30-year track record and clients globally. We take pride in covering 2,000+ financial technology vendors globally – the largest by any analyst firm in this space. www.ibsintelligence.com

• Global tier 1 clients who rely on IBSi as being their “Analyst partner” through the year across a variety of service lines and IBSi offerings
• Global clients include McKinsey, BCG, Accenture, KKR, Bain Capital, Warburg Pincus, Temenos, Oracle, Infosys, TCS, BNP Paribas, RBS, Santander, amongst others. 60% of IBSi’s global clients are BankTech and FinTech companies of different shapes and sizes
• Large research portfolio consisting of reports covering 12 key Financial Technology areas. Global subscribers include Consultants, FinTechs, PE/VC funds, and others.
• In-depth research coverage of 2,000+ FinTechs globally. The largest by any analyst firm in this space
• Strong intelligence-as-a-service (IAAS) vertical, often referred to as the“CAPIQ/Bloomberg terminal for BankTech & FinTech” in the form of IBSi Galaxy, a proprietary insights portal that is subscribed to by global consultants, investors, bankers and technologists
• Strong research team consisting of researchers with deep functional and topical expertise and knowledge. This strength is further aided by Cedar’s strong management consulting team, consisting of Financial Services/tech experts
• Global editorial team consisting of journalists and writers with relevant experience. Weekly podcasts on Spotify and other channels
• 21+ years of running the IBS Journal, one of the world’s only Financial Technology-focused monthly publications with global subscribers and advertisers
• Daily Financial Technology news portal on the IBSi website.1.5 million + pageviews annually.
• Strong and popular events vertical, in the form of 7 global events hosted by IBSi annually. 1,000+ cumulative senior attendees. An example of a recent IBSi Core Banking conference here
• Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab in the UAE, providing a “soft-landing” to global FinTechs looking to tap into the booming GCC FinTech landscape. Members of the Cedar-IBSi FinTech lab are often looking to raise capital and rest on Cedar-IBSi for strategic guidance. This is a proprietary and exclusive deal-sourcing channel for the fund
• IBSi’s annual Sales League Table is considered to be the global industry barometer ranking leading Financial Technology suppliers. This IP has existed for 21+ years and is regarded highly.
• IBSi’s annual globalFinTech Innovation Awards uses proprietary frameworks to rank the most innovative FinTechs every year and is widely covered.
• IBSi’s annual globalNeo-Challenger Bank awards uses proprietary frameworks to rank the most innovative digital banks every year and is widely covered.
• Access to the Cedar Consulting (group company) network. Cedar has a 30+ year track-record in the global consulting world with a strong focus on Financial Services. Cedar’s consulting teams are multi-cultural and possess experience in working with leading banks globally on technology strategy. The cross-pollination of knowledge and hands-on experience between Cedar and IBSI is valuable. For more information www.cedar-consulting.com.

About Cedar Consulting

Cedar is a global consulting, research and analytics group with a 30-year track record. The firm has worked with over 200 financial services clients globally and is a specialist in this industry. The firm was originally co- founded by Prof. Kaplan of Harvard Business School, the co-creator of the Balanced Scorecard. Cedar helps clients transform in areas of strategy, process, strategic human capital, and business technology.

Across industries, Cedar works with clients to deliver breakthrough strategy & performance management, with their Balanced Scorecard thought leadership. The firm’s heritage includes being part of the former $1 Billion Renaissance Worldwide, whose leadership included the creators of the Balanced Scorecard, the world’s leading strategy execution and performance management system. The Economist recognized it as one of the most seminal business ideas in the last 75 years.

The firm’s specialist Financial Services practice offers innovative consulting, analytics, research and accelerator Lab offerings. Their expertise on these areas covers all aspects of a financial services firm’s business model. Cedar truly focuses on assisting clients in an integrated fashion – from formulation all the way to strategy execution.

With hundreds of consulting projects executed globally over the years, across industry sectors, Cedar’s experienced team is known for execution excellence and will successfully make strategy & innovation work for their client organizations.

For more – www.cedar-consulting.com

Locations: London, Mumbai, Dubai, New York