MiddleGame Ventures will back B2B and B2B2C fintech startups.

MiddleGame Ventures, which focuses on financial services innovation at early-stage fintech startups, closed its $165 million Fund I MGV fund. The fund will invest in startups transforming financial services from “analog to digital, and from centralized to decentralized.”

The venture capital firm looks to fund startups in North America or Europe in the sectors of banking, asset management, insurance, payments, and regulators. In MiddleGame Venture’s view, the second wave of fintech innovation will be a tsunami compared to the first wave.

Founded in 2018 by Pascal Bouvier, Michael Meyer, and Patrick Pinschmidt, MiddleGame Ventures (MGV) is based in Luxembourg.

MiddleGame Ventures: Fund I MGV

Anchor investors in Fund I MGV include The Luxembourg Future Fund (LFF) and the European Investment Fund (EIF). Other investors include institutions, strategic and family offices, and S&P Global.

“Our investors agree that specialist funds with experience working with entrepreneurs, incumbent financial institutions, and regulators are best placed to thrive in an environment characterized by financial and technological cross-currents and significant regulatory constraints,” said Pascal Bouvier, co-founder.

The fund remains open to additional institutional and private investors, however. A final closing will take place later in 2020.

MGV has already invested more than $300 million in early-stage financial services companies. These include Ripple, Tandem Bank, SimpleSurance, Coverhound, and CompareAsia.

MiddleGame Ventures also owns and operates NadiFin, a Luxembourg-based growth stage accelerator for European startups.

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