Former Currencycloud co-founder Steve Lemon joins Volution as Partner

Former Currencycloud co-founder Steve Lemon as joined Volution, the UK based early-stage venture capital firm, as Partner. He will be responsible for sourcing and leading new deals, as well as supporting existing Volution portfolio companies. A successful sales leader with expertise in commercial partnerships, go-to-market strategy and execution, Steve brings with him over two decades of operational experience in fintech, FX and payments.

The appointment comes as Volution celebrates making its 11th investment in its current fund, with two exits secured and a number of active investment opportunities on the horizon. The firm aims to close its first fund at the end of the year.

Lemon joins Volution from Currencycloud, which he co-founded and most recently served as Vice President, Partners and Enterprise. He was directly responsible for originating, cultivating, and managing the Visa partnership, which led to the Series E investment and ultimately the acquisition of Currencycloud for $1bn. He also led all key enterprise client engagements including Santander, Bottomline, Hyundai, Transferwise, and Fiserv. Previously Steve was employee number five at HiFX, which was sold to Euronet for £150m, and rebranded to XE.COM. While at HiFX, Lemon built and ran the retail business spanning five countries, growing it from £0-20m revenue per year in three years.

Volution backs high-growth fintech and SaaS businesses that have the potential to become category leaders. A team of passionate founders and business builders, Volution invests in the funding gap after Series A, providing the right kind of funding and resource at the right time, to help founders break through and thrive. With deep sector specific knowledge in both fintech and SaaS, the Volution team seeks out great founders building transformative businesses that will define and shape the new economy. Their portfolio features some of the UK’s most exciting tech scale-ups, including Zopa, Flagstone, Signal AI and Cognism.

James Codling, Managing Partner at Volution said, “We are thrilled that Steve has joined the partnership at Volution. His operational experience as a co-founder of Currencycloud – one of UK fintech’s greatest success stories – will be invaluable for our portfolio founders as they grow and scale their businesses. Steve comes at a key moment for Volution as we look to close our first fund and grow our business to help more founders break through and thrive.”

Steve Lemon, Partner at Volution said, “I’ve always been interested in the investor side of the ecosystem. The support infrastructure of our investors was invaluable to us at Currencycloud in the early days, and so for me, being on the other side of the table isn’t just a new business opportunity, it’s payback to the community.

Volution’s current strategy of helping plug funding gaps between formal funding rounds really resonates: it’s challenging enough building a business without having to navigate the challenges and peculiarities of the funding market. You just want the right amount of capital, on a basis that makes sense, at the right time. Volution provides this. I hope to bring to bear the learnings, experiences and network contacts I collated over the last 1 3 years to add value to our portfolio companies.”