Mouro Capital Research
Investment Thesis
Mouro Capital is a London-based venture firm that invests only in fintech and the infrastructure around it. Its tagline is "Smart Capital for Fintech Innovators" and it describes itself as backing entrepreneurs who are reshaping the financial services of tomorrow. The firm began in 2014 as Santander InnoVentures, the corporate venture arm of Banco Santander, and was spun out in 2020 as an independently managed firm under the Mouro name. It has been investing since 2015 and is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
The third fund thesis, announced in May 2026, concentrates on capital markets, wealth management, AI-driven financial infrastructure, and the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) space, where the partners see opportunity tied to enterprise AI adoption. Insurtech is flagged as an area that is underserved by venture and where the firm expects to double down. Gottschalk framed it as AI-native financial infrastructure: real-time payments, programmable money movement, identity and data platforms. Coverage of the fund also lists digital identity infrastructure and AI-enabled financial tools as areas of interest.
Stage Focus
Mouro describes its focus as early to growth stage. Press coverage of Fund III says it backs founders from seed through Series C. The portfolio spans very early companies such as Alinia and Burbank through later growth rounds such as Creditas, Upgrade and Ripple.
Check Size
The firm does not publish check sizes on its site, so none is recorded here. Fund III is $400M, which implies initial checks from low single digit millions upward, but that is an inference and not a disclosed figure.
Lead Tendency
Not stated publicly. Partners hold board seats at several companies (Manuel Silva Martínez at a55, Bonify and Crosslend; Chris Gottschalk at Upgrade, Blueprint and Trulioo) and observer seats at many more, which suggests it often takes a governance role, but there is no clear statement on leading versus following. Mouro says it has a 66% follow-on rate for its founders.
Recent Activity
- May 2026: announced a $400M first close of Fund III, committed in full by Banco Santander. Total commitments since 2015 now exceed $1 billion. The firm said it intends to open the fund to outside investors for the first time.
- Seven investments had already been made from Fund III at announcement, including ElevenLabs (conversational AI with a financial services agent focus), Sakana AI (Japanese AI company modernising banking processes), Alinia (AI deployment within regulatory and policy frameworks) and Burbank (payment infrastructure shaped by regulatory and commerce shifts).
- The site also shows a Forage investment post (June 2026) and a Burbank post (April 2026).
- Fund status: actively deploying.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio page lists 53 companies, including several exits and two IPOs. Mouro cites 26 exits at an average 4x return on invested capital, and says it is in the top 10% of global VC managers by returns.
- Exits and IPOs shown on the site: iZettle (acquired by PayPal for over $2B), Kabbage (acquired by American Express), Curve, Decent, AutoFi, Blueprint Title, Bonify, Crosslend, Kriya, M^ZERO, Nivaura, Roostify, Vesttoo, Visible Alpha, plus IPOs for Cyngn and Securitize.
- Active names: Creditas, Upgrade, Ripple, TrueLayer, Klar, Socure, Trulioo, DriveWealth, Digital Asset, Elliptic, Personetics, SigFig, Tradeshift, Byrd, Payjoy, Skyflow, ElevenLabs, Sakana AI.
Team
- Manuel Silva Martínez, General Partner. Strategy and investor relations; investing in fintech since 2010, formerly BBVA Ventures in San Francisco; moved to London in 2015.
- Chris Gottschalk, General Partner. Based in the US; formerly Principal at Blumberg Capital and investor at Menlo Ventures.
- Francesco Pasti, Partner. Leads European initiatives; close to Burbank, CaptureNow, Hyperlayer and xFarm; formerly GSMA and Finalta.
- Rafael Esteban Correa, Partner. Europe and Latin America; Santander veteran; close to a55, Bonify, Creditas, Personetics, Securitize and Klar.
- Álvaro Meliá Navarro, Chief Financial Officer.
- Jitendra Dhageya, Chief Risk & Compliance Officer.
- Bhavya Sharma, Principal, Research & Strategic Projects.
- Chloe Chan, Head of Research & Insights.
- Elitsa Angelova, Chief of Staff.
- Catherine Passmore Jones, General Counsel.
- Bernardo Serôdio and Cedric Van Duffel, Senior Associates.
- Matthew Griffin, Associate in the San Francisco office.
Decision Process
Not published. The firm operates as a partnership with two General Partners and two Partners, with research, partnerships and portfolio functions supporting deal work.
Founder Preferences
The firm says it brings fintech expertise, a global network and a track record of early to growth investments. It emphasises partnerships between portfolio companies and financial institutions, and its anchor investor Banco Santander is a potential channel for distribution. Founders with regulated or infrastructure-layer fintech and AI products fit best.
Geographic Focus
Europe, North America and Latin America, with teams in London, Madrid and San Francisco. The portfolio includes companies from the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and the US.
Gaps
Check size, lead tendency, decision timeline and warm-intro requirements are not published. Individual deal dates for Fund III investments were not found. The firm's own insight and news posts could not be read directly.