Cambrian Ventures, a new early-stage venture capital firm led by former Andreessen Horowitz partner Rex Salisbury, today launched its inaugural $20 million fintech-focused fund investing at the angel, pre-seed and seed stage.
Among the fund's investors are some of the most influential entrepreneurs and operators in the fintech sector. This includes the founders of Nerdwallet, Plaid, Simple, Alloy, Modus, SentiLink, Jeeves, Betterment, Blend, Routable, Trim, LendUp, One, SoFi, Moonpay, LoanPro, Altruist, Melio, and more.
Through the fund, Salisbury will extend the Cambrian fintech community he established in 2016 to share resources, knowledge, and mentorship among industry peers to the next generations of visionary founders. Initially founded as a passion project outside of his day job as a software engineer at a fintech startup, Salisbury has quickly grown the community to a global network with over 15,000 subscribers, 4,000 meetup attendees, and a Slack community with 1,100+ fintech founders.
Prior to launching the fund, Rex was a founding partner of the fintech team at Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), a role he began three years after launching Cambrian in 2016. While at A16Z, he helped build the fintech vertical and invested in a number of deals including Deel and Tally, companies he had previously encountered in his work with Cambrian. In launching the fund, Salisbury is going back to the community roots, where he is able to help founders at the earliest stage.
“In seeing the positive and meaningful impact this community of experienced fintech founders and investors has had thus far, Cambrian's venture fund was a logical next step. There is a unique opportunity to mobilize the Cambrian community to facilitate vital connections while adding operational expertise and capital at the earliest and most critical stage of founder-market fit,” said Rex Salisbury, Founder and General Partner of Cambrian. “The fund aims to leverage the entrepreneurial experience, subject matter expertise, operational expertise, and industry insights within the Cambrian community to support the next generation of fintech entrepreneurs.”
“Rex has pioneered a new frontier for fintech entrepreneurs by harnessing the power of community around a fund structure,” said Andy Carra, co-founder of SoFi and investor in the fund. “Cambrian’s success to date is due to Rex’s passion, sense of camaraderie, and extensive belief in both fintech's potential and the power of community.”
Cambrian plans to invest in 30 companies, with investments of up to $500K at the angel, pre-seed, and seed stage within the fintech sector. Cambrian has made five investments over the last few months, including Keep Financial’s recent seed round. To date, Cambrian has assisted in matching more than 500 co-founders and investors and has helped members make key hires through its talent collective and referral job board.
“Cambrian is an ideal partner for us because they blend a community ecosystem with Rex, an investor with extensive experience in building and scaling fintech startups,” said Rob Frohwein, co-founder of Keep Financial and Kabbage, which was acquired by American Express in 2020."
"Rex's influence, reach, and ability to identify the next great entrepreneurs in fintech are impressive and made him a valuable asset at A16Z,” said Anish Acharya, General Partner on the A16Z fintech team. “We are delighted to see how he and Cambrian will continue to support the fintech ecosystem with the launch of this fund."