Reinventure expands its senior team

Westpac-backed venture capital group Reinventure has snared Silicon Valley native Kara Frederick as a general partner.

Reinventure founders Danny Gilligan and Simon Cant. Picture: Hollie Adams

Westpac-backed venture capital group Reinventure has broadened its senior team, snaring Silicon Valley native Kara Frederick as a general partner alongside co-founders Danny Gilligan and Simon Cant.

The venture capital fund, in which Westpac has invested $100 million, said the appointment would assist the fintech’s portfolio companies to expand into the large US market.

Mr Gilligan said Ms Frederick — a former Goldman Sachs banker — would add “diversity of opinion, experience and perspective”, which was critical to investing. Mr Cant added: “Kara’s addition as the third partner will significantly build our capacity to support founders looking to expand into the US and ultimately find a US acquirer.

“Our partnership also now better reflects an increasingly diverse founder community, including an equal mix of male and female led start-ups in our second fund.”

Reinventure invests in fintech companies via seed raisings through to “series A” and higher opportunities, holding investments in 14 portfolio companies, including peer-to-peer lender SocietyOne and Data Republic.

In an interview with The Australian late last year, Mr Cant said their second fund was seeking to make more “non-consensus” investments, and bet on fintech start-ups that few others would in areas such as data, security, identity and trust.

Ms Frederick, who has worked in New York, San Francisco and Sydney, said Australia’s market was “coming of age” and rather than replicating Silicon Valley could excel in “areas that are natural strengths”.

“The high quality of founder talent, combined with the demand for fintech solutions at scale in market and beyond, means that Australia is well positioned to be a centre of excellence globally for fintech,” she said.

“Reinventure’s model, being an independent venture capital fund with the backing of ... ­Westpac, is differentiated in the market. (It) has the capital and expertise to help the fintech ­sector.”