Fintech giants have Motive to back Summers

A group of leading financial technology executives will this week launch a 'next-generation' vehicle that has identified a business backed by former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as its first deal target.

Sky News has learnt‎ that Motive Partners, whose founders include Rob Heyvaert, a former executive at the software company FIS, and the ex-Interactive Data Corporation chief executive Stephen Daffron, will be unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Sources said its inaugural investment would be LMRKTS, ‎a financial markets firm which saves banks money by identifying redundant foreign exchange transactions.

Mr Summers is a member of L‎MRKTS' advisory board.

The company is an example of the type of business that Motive will seek to identify in order to become a pre-eminent investor in the fintech sector, one of the fastest-growing targets of private capital amid profound shifts in financial infrastructure.

Motive's founders also include Alistair Lukies, a well-known British entrepreneur who took the payments firm Monitise (Frankfurt: AC4.F - news) onto the London stock market, and Michael Hayford, another former FIS executive.

Mr Lukies is also the Prime Minister's business ambassador for fintech and the chairman of Innovate Finance, the industry group.

The new firm will be jointly headquartered in London and New York, an important fillip for the UK technology sector.

Motive's launch comes amid a flurry of new ventures targeting opportunities afforded by the disruption being created by advances in technology.

Antony Jenkins, the former Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) chief executive, recently launched 10X Ventures, and is working with Virgin Money to create a new digital banking platform.

Other innovative British companies in the fintech arena include Transferwise, the foreign currency payments business,‎ and Funding Circle, the peer-to-peer lender.

Motive is said to believe that its partners' breadth of experience and its focus on transforming financial infrastructure and on venture and growth investing would differentiate it in an increasingly crowded market.

Warburg Pincus, the giant buyout firm, has previously worked with a number of the Motive founders and is said to be interested in backing the new venture.

It was unclear on Tuesday how much money Motive would invest in LMRKTS or what its subsequent investment targets were likely to be.

Motive could not be reached for comment.