Investor Profile: Motive Partners — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Motive Partners is a specialist private equity firm focused entirely on financial technology, founded in 2016 and based in New York and London, with a Berlin presence through its venture team. It describes itself as combining investors, operators and innovators to build, back and buy the technology companies that enable the financial economy.

Thesis and focus

The thesis is that financial services will be rebuilt on modern software and data infrastructure, and that the winners will be companies that can sell to incumbents as well as disrupt them. Motive Partners therefore backs technology that improves how money is managed, moved, invested and insured, rather than consumer fintech fashions with no institutional buyer. Its five subsectors are banking and payments, capital markets, data and analytics, investment management and insurance,

Sectors and stages

Motive Partners invests across stages through two programmes. Motive Ventures focuses on early-stage fintech in North America and Europe, while Motive Capital focuses on growth and buyout investments in software and information-services businesses in the same regions.

Fund size

Motive Capital Fund 2 closed in 2022 with total capital commitments of $2.54 billion, including affiliated co-investment vehicles, above its original hard cap of $1.5 billion. More recently, the firm has described itself as managing approximately $4.8 billion in assets across its two investment programmes, Motive Ventures and Motive Capital.

Notable portfolio

Companies already partnered with Motive Capital Fund 2 at its close included InvestCloud, FNZ, Backbase, CAIS, Forge Global, BetaNXT, Trumid, Wilshire and Insurify.

Partners and leads

Rob Heyvaert is the founder and managing partner of Motive Partners, and Blythe Masters is a founding partner. The firm's model rests on its integrated team of investors, operators and innovators, supported by Motive Create, its in-house innovation capability, and an operating approach it calls its IOI model.

Programs, credits and perks

Motive Partners does not publish a public founder credits programme or an open accelerator. Its value-add is described as operating expertise, ecosystem access and innovation support through Motive Create, plus, for venture-stage companies, the Berlin, London and New York presence of the combined Motive Ventures team.

How to apply for funding from Motive Partners

Motive Partners does not publish an open application portal. Its own website lists [email protected] as its general contact address, and its New York, London and Berlin offices are listed on the same site. For early-stage companies, the relevant team is Motive Ventures; for growth-stage companies, it is Motive Capital. A strong introduction shows the financial-institution buyer, the regulatory or integration hurdle already cleared, recurring revenue or contracted demand, and why a specialist fintech investor will shorten the sales cycle.