A Trio of PayPal Veterans Launches New Venture Firm
A new early-stage venture firm, Infinity Ventures, has raised $158 million to invest in fintech startups globally. The firm is led by a trio of alumni from PayPal Ventures: Jeremy Jonker, Jay Ganatra, and Mario Ruiz. The founders left PayPal in May 2021 to start their new venture, with the first close happening last June and the final close taking place in October 2021.
Expanding Beyond Payments
The decision to leave PayPal was driven by a desire to expand beyond investing in payments-focused startups and "zero in on infrastructure and commerce enablement." This shift is particularly relevant given the resilience of the infrastructure sector within fintech, despite the global venture slowdown. As Jonker noted, "despite decades of fintech growth, supporting infrastructure hasn’t necessarily kept pace."
Focusing on Infrastructure
Infinity’s inaugural fund aims to address "the biggest hurdles" in today’s financial infrastructure: access, utility, flexibility, and cost. The firm plans to invest in about 25 companies out of the fund, with an average check size of $500,000 to $8 million in pre-seed to Series A rounds.
Inaugural Portfolio Companies
Infinity has already backed 11 companies across the U.S., Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Some notable portfolio companies include:
- Glean: An accounts payable solution with a "brain"
- Mendel: A Mexican corporate spend management startup
- Neo.tax: A company helping other businesses get R&D tax credits
Emphasizing Early-Stage Investments
While the investment thesis hasn’t changed since Infinity started last year, the trio is now emphasizing earlier-stage investments, such as pre-seed and seed rounds. This shift reflects the changing market conditions.
Limited Partners
The firm declined to name its LPs (limited partners), stating that they are a mix of prominent fintech executives, family offices, and large institutional investors.
Background with PayPal Ventures
Before starting Infinity Ventures, Jonker, Ganatra, and Ruiz were part of the team at PayPal Ventures. They backed companies like Plaid, Divvy, and Acorns during their tenure at PayPal. They also led M&A transactions for Venmo, Braintree, Honey, Hyperwallet, Xoom, Swift Financial, and iZettle. Additionally, they executed growth equity investments in companies such as Mercado Libre, GoJek, Pine Labs, and Uber.
Vision for Infinity Ventures
In a statement, Jonker said: "Over the last decade, the fintech industry has innovated consumer and business applications at a rapid pace, with intuitive design and sleek functionality that have been truly life-changing in terms of access, transparency, and convenience. We see a massive opportunity investing in key infrastructure, making fintech apps and services more scalable and secure."
Support for Founders
Infinity Ventures aims to provide more comprehensive support for founders, including help with negotiating contracts, formulating product roadmaps, delivering on partnership and client opportunities.
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