Spains banking giant Santander spins out its fintech VC firm while doubling allocated funds to $400 million
Summary
Mouro Capital succeeds Santander Innoventures and will have $400 million in allocated funds after the bank doubled its current commitment. The decision to spin out its VC activities is another milestone in Santander’s four-year (2019-2022) €20 billion digital and technology investment plan. Ana Botín, Banco Santander executive chairman, stated: “The creation of our fintech venture capital fund in 2014 has allowed Santander to lead the industry in implementing new technologies, including blockchain, offering better services to our customers as a result. In the future, Mouro Capital will remain a key driver of Santander’s ambition to be the best banking partner to startups, generating tangible value through strategic collaborations. A few of those collaborations have been instrumental to key innovations over the past years, including the utilisation of Ripple’s technology within One Pay FX for real-time cross-border payments; the use of Nivaura’s technology for the world first end-to-end blockchain bond issuance (made by Santander); the delivery of end-to-end digitally enabled working capital solutions by Tradeshift; the enhancement of retail banking remote servicing experiences through Personetics technologies; and the utilisation of Crosslend as a platform for private debt mobilisation and regulatory capital optimisation.