Cedar-IBSi Capital

BankTech/B2B FinTech-focused Venture Capital by the world’s thought-leaders in FinTech

About Cedar-IBSi Capital

Cedar-IBSi Capital is India’s only early-stage FinTech venture capital fund, primarily focused on B2B FinTech/BankTech and founders building infrastructure technology for the global BFSI industry.

The fund is the brainchild of global management consulting firm, Cedar (www.cedar-consulting.com) and global FinTech market intelligence firm, IBS Intelligence (www.ibsintelligence.com). The group also runs Asia’s only FinTech Lab with a strong track-record of accelerating 49+ B2B FinTechs (www.cedaribsifintechlab.com).

Cedar-IBSi Capital is independently structured and follows a classic LP-GP model.

Cedar-IBSi Capital will leverage the deep knowledge and intelligence backbone of Cedar Consulting and IBS Intelligence’s 30+ year track record in global financial services and technology research and consulting. The $30-40 million fund will build a portfolio of 10-15 companies with a strong focus on the BankTech and B2B FinTech space, hoping to create value for founders in multiple strategic areas beyond capital.

The fund brings together the research, intelligence, experience, and network of Cedar Consulting and IBS Intelligence’s three decades of digital transformation experience across markets. Access to proprietary deal flow via Cedar-IBSi’s FinTech Lab (www.cedaribsifintechlab.com) will also be natural. Portfolio companies will have the unique advantage of accessing more than just capital from the Cedar Consulting and IBS Intelligence platform, in the form of access to in-house FinTech strategy experts, global networks and offices, data sandboxes, an expansive global banking network, and more.

Fund Registration Details

Category: Category II Alternative Investment Fund

Registration Number: IN/AIF2/22-23/1185

Investment Manager: Cedar-IBSi Ventures Private Limited

Pillars of Strength

B2B FinTech/BankTech Focus

  • An under-leveraged opportunity and is core to the evolution of the wider FinTech ecosystem
  • Cedar-IBSi’s strong competitive advantage lies in our 60+ year research and consulting track-record in the BankTech space
  • Allow the fund to focus on profitable and scalable technology businesses with clear unit economics

Strong ability to add value to founders & portfolio cos.

  • Subject matter expertise
  • Access to Cedar-IBSi ecosystem
  • Banking network
  • Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab
  • Visibility with the right audience
  • Global expansion support
  • In-house mentorship

In-house FinTech Lab

  • Cedar-IBSi’s FinTech Lab has been home to 49+ well-recognized FinTechs since 2018
  • Marketplace model and cohort programs help FinTechs boost growth across areas
  • Multi-region lab between the GCC, India, and Europe
  • $700 mn+ successfully raised by past and current lab members

Strong competitive edge across the investment process

  • Multiple proprietary sources of founder relationships and deal flow ​
  • 100+ in-house FinTech experts to supplement the due-diligence process
  • Significant ability to create value and operate portfolio companies, leveraging Cedar-IBSi’s platform

We are FinTech super-specialists

  • 30+ year track-record of transforming 300+ banks and globally whilst driving business and FinTech strategy​
  • Trusted advisor to 500+ global FinTechs across segments on product, growth, and market strategy​
  • Proprietary research and data portals on FinTech players and trends. 4,000+ FinTechs profiled by our teams​
  • In-house team of FinTech experts and consultants. 500+ years of cumulative experience

Exclusive access to targets, founders & deals

  • 1-1 relationships with founders
  • 100+ FinTechs screened weekly by Cedar-IBSi
  • Proprietary FinTech directories
  • FinTech lab members
  • Research Coverage

We are the fulcrum of global FinTech

  • 360° research coverage
  • Daily news coverage, leadership interviews, & conversations
  • Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab
  • Annual IBSi League Tables and rankings
  • Annual global events & knowledge conferences

Strong fund manager network

  • Global clients & network
  • Strong educational institution associations
  • Active business networks
  • Associations with key industry bodies

Unique Founder Value-Add

Cedar-IBSi Capital can make capital work, owing to the expertise and credibility of the platform

Cedar-IBSi Global ecosystem

Cedar-IBSi’s knowledge and people infrastructure to be leveraged in areas of mentorship, intelligence, on-ground insights and global research and advisory experience

People and Organization

Cedar-IBSi to play a role in attracting industry talent, design performance management frameworks, and use our proprietary Balanced Scorecard expertise in driving effective organizational performance

Product and Technology

Assist product and technology teams in areas of product reviews, benchmarking, gap analysis, and future roadmap design, keeping in mind our understanding of whitespaces

Competitive Intelligence

Fund portfolio companies to gain unique insight on competitor performance, tactics, and strategy across markets and product types. This is a strong area of knowledge for Cedar-IBSi.

Revenue
Expansion

Play a significant role in the revenue growth story of portfolio companies via high-conversion client introductions to global banks and big-techs, guidance on pricing strategy, and access to IBSi’s lead-gen intelligence

Market and Geography Expansion

Assist portfolio companies in our proprietary frameworks around market-entry strategy and opportunity assessment, along with partner-search and identification in new countries

Visibility and Positioning

Leverage Cedar-IBSi’s digital and physical clout to help portfolio companies get positioned in front of technology buyers and users, via Cedar-IBSi events, thought-leadership, editorial content, and much more

Access to Growth Capital

The Cedar-IBSi platform has a strong ability to attract and bring the next round of strategic investors (tech, banks, other) for our fund portfolio companies who are seeking to raise their next round

Investment Philosophy

Leveraging more than 60+ years of research and advisory experience, the fund will heavily focus on B2B FinTech, with a double-click on banking infrastructure/BankTech, which is a strong knowledge competitive advantage of the fund and our platform

B2B companies inherently have stronger unit economics leading to profitability in a relatively shorter timeframe, with limited grey-area metrics. We will also have a clear playbook on defining traction and metrics in the B2C space.

Entering companies at an early-stage is relatively less “risky” for Cedar-IBSi Capital in light of our strong understanding of the technologies and opportunities. Our ability to value-create for the portfolio is also stronger. This excites us.

Cedar-IBSi is a trusted advisor to large technology firms who are often seeking to acquire/invest in emerging players. Especially in the B2B space. This is promising and strong exit channel for Cedar-IBSi Capital’s portfolio companies. Our access to banks who are seeking to make acquisitions is also natural.

Banking infrastructure/technology is often taken for granted and requires a strong understanding of the use-cases and technology. This is our strong competitive advantage. Multiple successful Indian banking infrastructure companies have grown in our FinTech lab and relied on the Cedar-IBSi platform to grow and build products.

Strong knowledge, framework, and people resources within our internal ecosystem can be leveraged and help us identify the “winners”. Our formal fund Operating Partners are a strong asset.

Fund Investment Thesis

Ticket
Size

  • USD 500K to USD 1 Mn cheques

Geography

  • India

Investment Themes

  • BankTech/Banking software
  • B2B FinTech/SME Solutions/SaaS
  • B2C/Personal Finance

Investment Stages

  • Pre-Series A – Series A
  • Follow-on rounds for winner portfolio companies
  • Target ownership of minority/significant minority (<15%)

Exclusive funnel of FinTechs and Founders

The Cedar-IBSi platform provides us with a strong proprietary funnel of emerging FinTechs

The India-GCC Corridor

Cedar-IBSi’s significant presence and role in both geographies since 1991 will be beneficial in many ways

Comprehensive Economic Partnership

The India-UAE CEPA will fuel entrepreneurship within India’s maturing FinTech ecosystem, attracting UAE-based companies and vice-versa.

Startup corridor

FICCI & DIFC’s India-UAE Startup Corridor to boost B2B FinTech expansion and innovation, fostering startup ecosystem collaboration

MoU fosters FinTech collaboration

MoU signed between the RBI and the CBUAE to facilitate collaboration in the B2B/B2C space

Synergies

Indian banks/FIs actively collaborating with GCC FinTechs. Eg: HDFC Bank and Lulu Exchange partner to enhance cross-border payment connectivity across regions

Investment ties

Track-record of Indian FinTechs receiving investments from SWFs and GCC investors. Investment ties are already deep.

Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab


Multiple Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab members already generating significant revenue from GCC banks

FinTech focus areas

Strong BankTech & FinTech focus across Cedar-IBSi’s expertise areas, split between B2B & B2C

B2B

B2C

Banking Technology

Banking Technology

  • Digital channels & customer lifecycle management & onboarding
  • Digital automation
  • Digital lending
  • Digital payments and cards
  • Wealth management & private banking
  • Lending & risk management
  • Digital automation & channels
  • Cash management
  • Trade finance and supply chain
  • Treasury and liquidity
  • RegTech
  • Universal banking
SME Solutions/SaaS

SME Solutions/SaaS

  • Payments​
  • SME lending​
  • RegTech​
  • Payroll​
  • InsurTech​
  • Tax
Personal Finance

Personal Finance

  • Lending & credit​
  • WealthTech​
  • Financial quotes​
  • Neo-banking​
  • InsurTech​
  • Tax​
Consumer Payments

Consumer Payments

  • Wallets
  • Remittances