Blockchain technology is hot and Mariano Belinky, managing partner at Santander InnoVentures, the Spanish bank’s strategic VC fund, knows it.
Well-versed with the London FinTech scene and with $100m to play with, Belinky has already made three investments in blockchain companies: Ripple, Digital Asset Holdings – which is headed by former Wall Street executive Blythe Masters – and Elliptic.
“We are very pragmatic and tangible about what we want to do with blockchain and everything revolves around our customers, what they need and how we can help them,” Belinky told Tech City News.
Investing in blockchain
The fund’s current focus, Belinky explained, is on international payments, attributable to the fact Santander is currently present in 27 countries.
“When we were looking at the companies that had a solution that was good enough and had good traction with other banks and regulators, Ripple very quickly became the obvious answer,” he explained....