Illuminate Financial closes $100m round with backing from JP Morgan and Barclays
London-based VC firm Illuminate Financial has closed a $100m round with backing from JP Morgan Chase and Barclays.
The fund, which is Illuminate’s second, was anchored by Deutsche Borse and IHS Markit, with additional backing from Draper Esprit and family offices.
It was launched in early 2019 before closing in January 2021. “It has been a true fundraising marathon with Brexit deadlines and Covid shutdowns being major events outside our control that we had to contend with,” the firm said in a blog post.
Illuminate was founded in 2014 by City veteran Mark Beeston with a focus on backing software companies that provide services to big financial institutions. Since then it has invested in everything from crypto to wealth to ESG.
“[We are] not yet post-Covid but feeling like there is light at the end of that tunnel with a whole series of new opportunities to find and challenges to overcome,” Beeston said. “Working out how to deploy this capital whilst also working out what everyone’s “new normal” will become and how it will impact change.”
Illuminate has already made 7 investments from the new fund with an eighth about to close. It has already secured its first exit from the new fund before the announcement after Paypal’s acquisition of Tel-Aviv based digital asset security company Curv, earlier this month.
Illuminate’s portfolio includes low code development startup Genesis, data privacy software Privitar, and compliance startup RegTek.