Archie – an innovative new fintech acceleration partner – launches with a mission to scale the next generation of fintech disruptors that will define and lead the category.
With the belief that fintech founders need much more than financial backing to turn their ambitions into reality, Archie will identify and partner with a select portfolio of early-stage fintechs globally, working alongside founders to help supercharge their growth.
By investing intellectual capital and growth expertise into Series A & B firms at the most critical stage of their go-to-market strategy, Archie will improve the odds of high-potential fintechs breaking through and evolving from start-ups into sustained high-growth businesses.
Archie will initially focus on partnering with fintechs in Australia, the UK and the fast-expanding Middle East fintech market, where the team’s expertise, experience and networks are deepest and where they can help founders access global markets.
Led by one of fintech’s best-known serial entrepreneurs, Anthony Thomson (co-founder and former chair of Atom Bank, digital bank 86 400, and Metro Bank) with global tech and fintech leader Steve Brennen as founder CEO (Uber, PayPal, eBay & Zip), Archie brings together one of fintech’s strongest scale-up teams with deep expertise in delivering hyper-growth.
Archie will work side-by-side with fintech founders, deploying its team of experts to help supercharge partners’ growth, de-risk go-to-market strategies and maximise their chances of success.
Archie’s innovative new model will enable fintechs to superscale by offering:
- experience, expertise & toolkits to lever them into hyper-growth;
- operational support, developing and implementing Go-To-Market plans, leveraging Archie’s deep global fintech, banking and tech experience in strategy, marketing and sales in highly regulated markets;
- access to senior board advisors – including experienced Chairs & CEOs Anthony Thomson and Paul Pester – to strengthen governance and strategy; and
- access to the ARCHIE NETWORK to build partnerships, support capital requirements and recruit talent.
Offering a new partner model to accelerate fintech growth , Archie will invest its intellectual capital, go-to-market and growth expertise, along with the highly-prized ARCHIE NETWORK in exchange for equity.
This ‘equity first’ model is a key differentiator within the fintech ecosystem, designed specifically to ensure a true partnership with fintech founders, aligning all interests and focussing efforts on driving success.
Over the past twenty years, Archie’s team has been at the forefront of founding and scaling some of the world’s biggest brands and fintechs, including Uber, eBay, Paypal, Atom Bank and 86 400.
Archie’s senior team also includes fellow Co-Founders Tommy Mermelshtayn (global scaler and strategy, Zip and Equifax) and Richard McCandless (brand and performance optimisation, FCB and Publicis Groupe). While banking and tech veterans Fawaz Zu’bi (founder and CEO of global venture capital firm Silicon Badia) and Paul Pester (Chair of Tandem Bank, former CEO of TSB and Virgin Money globally, and founder of Loop) also provide expertise acting as Non-Executive Directors.
Archie launches at a critical time for the global fintech market.
Global fintech funding totalled $75bn in 2022 taking total funding to over $350bn since 2018 and the global fintech market is forecast to be valued at (US) $1.5 trillion by 2030, driven by the huge potential for new technologies and innovation to disrupt large areas of financial services.
While fintech’s early stages have been successfully powered by large pools of investment, Archie’s analysis shows that only a tiny proportion of start-up innovation realises its full market potential – with founders noting they need support beyond financial backing alone. And with market conditions hardening, now is the time for high-impact plans, with the correct deployment of capital and little room for second chances.
Co-Founder and Chair of Archie, Anthony Thomson says, “Fintechs are a force of good – for years they’ve disrupted the financial services industry, providing better products, services and experiences for customers. But despite many great ideas, too many have fallen short, having not had the support they need.
“Archie will change that. Our team is perfectly positioned to offer the real hands-on, senior support they need. And crucially, provide it now, with it being more important than ever for fintechs to use resources in the right way.
“The Archie model means our years’ of global expertise are embedded and our interests aligned – creating partners out of practitioners and ensuring founders and their fintechs reach the heights they should.”
Co-Founder and Archie CEO, Steve Brennen says, “Realising your dream and building a fintech isn’t easy. But truly scaling one is even harder. The Archie team has been there and done it, got the scars and the t-shirt.
“We have the know-how, expertise and experience of scaling global businesses. We’ll be able to parachute in and help founders develop and implement Go-To-Market strategies, avoiding the pitfalls and levering Archie’s deep experience in strategy, marketing, sales & governance across tech and fintech, as well as accessing the ARCHIE NETWORK to ensure access to the right talent, partners and finance.
“We know there’s appetite for support just like this and I’m excited to help the next generation of fintech disruptors reach their potential – and help founders have the best journeys in doing so.”
Archie will be launching through a series of events across the rest of 2023, starting in Dubai on 12 September 2023.
