Scott Price, Brian Murphy and Tony DiBenedetto settle into blue-clothed patio couches and chairs as the sun begins to dip. The trio occasionally sees a manatee ripple in the canal bordering Murphy’s Sunset Park home. They uncork a bottle of wine. Price, known amongst the group as having the most wine literacy, brought a 2007 bottle in honor of the year Murphy launched his multimillion-dollar Tampa cybersecurity company, ReliaQuest.
In FTV Capital’s early days, the internet itself was still in its infancy, a tech stock boom was underway on Wall Street and private equity’s role in growing tech giants had yet to emerge. More than two decades later, FTV is firmly at the forefront of enterprise technology investing with a focus on cybersecurity and
FTV Capital made an investment in Security Compass, a Canada-based provider of enterprise DevSecOps software solutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
While businesses have more sources of capital than ever before, from bank loans to initial coin offerings to alternative online investments, experts are urging small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to take a strategic approach to their fundraising efforts — often by combining a variety of funding sources to mitigate risk. Venture capital (VC) is not easily available to every startup, but this week, VC investors hinted at a big year ahead for the B2B FinTech space. In total, more than $1 billion was raised this week, with funds landing at an array of technologies from B2B payments to payroll to eProcurement.
The customer always comes first, and more than 30 million U.S. small- to medium-sized businesses are competing for that client relationship and sparking a wave of payment innovation. We’re seeing more businesses employing contactless/unattended payment systems, SMBs rapidly adopting integrated business management software & payment solutions and accelerating adoption of electronic payments (vs. checks) for B2B transactions.
Integrated vertical software with payment functionality, especially for small and mid-sized businesses, will continue to experience significant growth. As electronic payments grow towards ubiquity, the integration of payments into value-added software solutions provides tremendous value for businesses.
FTV's managing partners - Brad Bernstein & Richard Garman - moved up a spot to #5 in Institutional Investor's 2018 Fintech Finance 40.
"The best excel through collaboration. “Capitalize on our connections,” beckons the website of FTV Capital (see No. 5–ranked Richard Garman and Brad Bernstein). FTV has been cultivating its Global Partner Network of technology innovators and industry incumbents for 20 years. In the 12 months through September, FTV arranged more than 350 of what it calls “business development introductions” for portfolio companies."
When Chris Winship, partner of FTV Capital, paid $35 million in private equity funds for a slice of the digital gift card player Tango Card in May 2018, he did so with the expectation that he would quickly find a buyer.
It’s the equivalent of buying the Boardwalk property in the Monopoly board game when another player already owns the pairing property, Park Place, just to make money off their need to buy you out so they can start building hotels.
While Tango Card serves employers in the rewards and incentives industry, it is a purely digital gift card player that has a direct connection to the consumer so it can thrive in an increasingly mobile world. This is exactly the technology that Winship predicted that a physical gift card distribution giant would need to adapt to a growing market for digital gifting.
Brad Bernstein could see the role of advisers was changing. What was once an industry of investment managers and salespeople was shifting to financial planning. Driving the change was technology — automating and commoditizing many of the ways advisers traditionally added value for clients. Mr. Bernstein, 51, managing partner at growth equity firm FTV Capital, believed there was a demand for products that helped advisers better articulate their value to clients.
Institutional Investor ranked our managing partners, Brad Bernstein and Richard Garman, #6 in the 2017 Fintech Finance 40 for their company leadership and our firm's successful, enduring track record in the financial technology industry. "Let others get caught up in the fads, hype cycles, and volatility of technology investing. FTV Capital has been employing pretty much the same formula for nearly 20 years with remarkably steady results — better than steady, considering that it seeks out portfolio companies with at least 20 percent historical and near-term revenue growth."
