Fintech specialist Altai Ventures closes sophomore fund at $53m

Altai Ventures, a fintech investor that has backed at least one unicorn, has closed its second fund at $53 million, beating its $50 million target.

Fund II’s limited partners include Bain Capital Ventures, Century Equity Partners, and companies in property and casualty insurance, life insurance and retirement, insurance brokerage and commercial banking. At least 17 investors participated in the fund, which had a minimum ticket size of $500,000 and officially began fundraising in December 2021, according to a regulatory filing.

Altai, based in Westport, Connecticut, filed a Form D for its debut fund in February 2021. Fund I had a target of $8.7 million but had not raised any capital at that time. There was no subsequent filing.

“Financial institutions represent a multi-trillion dollar industry that is still at the early stages of technological transformation,” firm founder Oleg Ilichev said in a statement. “Now that we’ve closed on this new fund, we’re looking forward to working with inspiring entrepreneurs and our strategic LPs to solve some of the biggest challenges in financial services.”

Altlai invests in seed and Series A rounds for companies focused on fintech, insurance technology and enterprise software for financial services.

“One of the things that attracted us to Altai is that our investment philosophies are very much aligned,” said Matt Harris, a partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “What also attracted us to Altai was their operating experience and knowledge of the insurtech space. We’re looking forward to collaborating with them on early-stage opportunities and incubations in this area.”

Altai has invested in 20 companies, according to its website. The star of its portfolio is Newfront, a maker of software for insurance brokerages. Newfront raised $200 million in a Series D round that valued the company at $2.2 billion in April 2022, according to PitchBook.

The firm is also an investor in EvolutionIQ, which makes insurance claims processing software that can detect fraud, and Lula, which makes insurance technology for vehicle rental and sharing companies.