In a few short years, Ribbit Capital has managed to establish themselves as the new “it” venture capital firm in the world of financial technology. They maneuvered to lead or participate in a series of the latest and hottest fintech startups. And it looks like this trend is going to continue.
Ribbit Capital was founded in 2012 by Meyer (Micky) Malka with a first fund of $90 million. Micky has been somewhat of a financial wizard since the age of 19. He founded a company known as Patagon.com, which was the first online brokerage for financial services in Latin America. That company sold for $700 million.
Through Ribbit Capital, Micky has proven clairvoyant picking an uncanny number of home runs, which include Coinbase, Robinhood, Root Insurance and others. To say his fund investors took notice would be an understatement, they continued to invest and today Micky is on his fourth fund and targeting to raise $420 million.
The firm invests globally in unique individuals and brands who are aiming to disrupt financial services. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Ribbit believes the category is profoundly under-innovated and is looking to support visionary entrepreneurs who are at the forefront of revolutionizing the way money moves.
Boldly stating its “Mantra” on its web site it begins with the following:
“The Internet has reached in, grabbed, and made the world we once knew totally unrecognizable. Yet the world of finance is, sadly, totally recognizable. The way we transact, save, borrow, invest and manage our money has barely advanced. Yes, there has been some recent innovation– we’re proud to have invested behind many of the intrepid entrepreneurs who are leading the charge – but it is far from enough.
In short, we are still at the beginning of the beginning. Case in point: less than 1% of all loans in the world are made online. (Yeah, you heard us right). We’re all stuck in a financial time warp.
And just like newspapers, travel agents, hotels and taxi companies have been turned upside down from outside the cozy confines of their industries, don’t expect banks to lead us out of the warp. They’ve proven themselves either unable to create internal environments where innovation can flourish – or simply unwilling to change even though it’s best for their customers.
Ribbit Capital is a global investment organization with one single, relentless mission: to change the world of finance. When we look back at our mantra from the day we launched in 2012, the beliefs and values motivating our mission have not changed.”
