Santander Bank allocates more funds to fintech operations

London-based Santander InnoVentures, a fintech venture capital fund of Santander Group has announced that it has secured a further amount of $100 million for fintech investment.

According to the official release, the fund is set to deploy a total amount of USD 200 million in financial technology startups in minority stakes. This commitment builds on Santander’s ‘Fintech 2.0’ philosophy of collaboration and partnership with start-up companies. It has also projected the bank’s goal of remaining at the forefront of innovation in the financial services industry.

“A deeper investment in our Fintech fund represents Santander’s success in investing in disruptive new technologies that will help our transformation towards being the best bank for our customers – in the simple personal and fair way they expect and deserve today,” Ana Botín, Group executive chairman of Banco Santander said. “Santander remains committed to the UK and excited about its Fintech enterprises.”

The funds have been already invested globally since its start in 2014 in a series of market-leading fintech startups. These include SigFig (wealth management), Ripple, Digital Asset, Elliptic (blockchain), Kabbage (companies financing), among others.

“The fund is an essential part of Santander’s broader innovation strategy. Our $200 million total investment, demonstrates the group’s commitment to innovation, and to the role of InnoVentures as a catalyst for transformation, by finding and partnering with technology companies that allows us to bring the next generation of services to our customers, globally,” Peter Jackson, senior executive vice president and head of Innovation at Santander said.

Santander InnoVentures launched our $100 million fund in July 2014 to get closer to the wave of disruptive innovation in the FinTech space. It aims to support the digital revolution to make sure Santander customers around the world benefit from the latest know-how and innovations across the Banking Group’s geographies. The fund is part of the Santander Group’s broader innovation agenda, in which the company helps FinTech companies to grow from a very early stage (i.e. seed) to a more mature stage.