In Institutional Investor’s fourth annual ranking of fintech finance’s power players, Oak HC/FT’s general partner Patricia Kemp (alongside managing partner Annie Lamont) was ranked 24—up one spot from the prior year. That’s not surprising given Kemp’s success (along with third co-founder and general partner Andrew Adams) in the five years since Oak HC/FT was founded.
The Greenwich, Connecticut-based venture capital firm was founded in 2014 by three Oak Investment Partners alumni. The 27-person firm now boasts $1.1 billion under management with investments across the health care and fintech sectors. Their current portfolio is comprised of approximately 30 companies.
Speaking to a reporter at 2018’s Money 20/20 USA conference, Kemp expanded on Oak HC/FT’s strategy. The firm focuses on technology-driven companies in the health care and fintech sector, with approximately 80 percent of its investments going to growth-stage companies and the remaining 20 percent allocated to earlier stage investments. When asked about the importance of artificial intelligence technology for the companies Oak HC/FT invests in, Kemp replied that about half of their portfolio companies utilize AI, but that “every company should be making use of AI.”
Indeed, data and artificial intelligence are common to many of Oak HC/FT’s portfolio companies. For example, included in the firm’s portfolio are Kasisto, a company that utilizes conversational AI for customer services, and Urjanet, which provides data aggregation for utility and energy data.
For Kemp, this investment focus builds upon 15 years of experience masking investments in growth- and early-stage companies focused on financial services technology. Prior to her time as venture partner at Oak Investment Partners, Kemp oversaw operations and marketing for Cendant as well as held positions at Merrill Lynch and Hewlett Packard. She received both her Bachelor of Arts and MBA degrees from Stanford University.
In addition to Kasisto and Urjanet, Kemp’s current active investments include Feedzai (which provides payment fraud management and anti-money laundering services), Pagaya (which utilizes machine learning and big data within the institutional money management space), and on-demand insurance platform Trov.
