Press Release

SBT Venture Capital:Embracing Fintech disruption together with start-ups

Watch this space as a team of partners and advisors have recently set up a fintech fund to invest in the most promising start-ups in the financial world. Matteo Rizzi, driving force and original founder of Innotribe, recently partnered with Mircea Mihaescu, of Russias largest bank Sberbank, to form SBT Venture Capital.

The SBT Venture Capital team bring exceptional experience in the banking industry, an incredible network of financial services companies and related technology vendors, and one of the biggest banks on the planet, Sberbank, as the main investor and partner. SBT Venture Capital team focus is on early-stage growth companies that are: already generating revenue, in need of capital, brains and the right network to reach scale.

SBT Venture Capital wants to invest mainly in Series A start-ups - raising their first round of venture funding (Series A) - in need of $1-10 M USD, within the fintech sector. When asked what's different about SBT Venture Capital, co-founder Matteo Rizzi, said: "SBT is the first, dedicated, strategic fintech fund in the world - that is what makes us different and unique."

SBT Venture Capital's $100 million Venture Capital Fund first investment was in California-based financial software firm Sequent Software. Sequent produce software and service platforms designed to help customers download payment cards and other credentials for making payments securely over their mobile devices. Sequent CEO Robb Duffield said the new funding "...will allow us to continue to expand our team of industry experts, meet the growing market demand and scale for future growth. "

Sequent was selected because SBT Venture Capital "...evaluated several opportunities and concluded that the Sequent team has created the best solution in both breadth and depth for service providers as well as secure element owners..."

Both partners are actively engaging with the fintech industry and are known for being outspoken about emerging leading edge developments and as thought-leaders on fintech. At the recent Digital October event - ‘Silicon Valley Meets Russia' - Mircea Mihaescu was quoted urging Russian entrepreneurs to "..move faster, think bigger.."

Over the next six months keep watching to see how SBT VC will change the fintech landscape!

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For more information please contact our

Press Office: Shena Mitchellshenamitchell@gmail.com

+44 07703 567196 / (0)2392 847001

SBT VC General Partners: Matteo Rizzimatteo@sbtventurecapital.com

MirceaMihaescumircea@sbtventurecapital.com

More information go to SBT Ventures website: www.sbt-vc.com

Notes to Editors

About SBT Venture Capital
SBT Venture Capital is managing an early stage $100million, increasing to a possible $700 million over 3 years, strategic venture capital fund focused on investing in technology innovations that have a significant impact on the financial services industry. The fund principal investor is Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe. www.sbt-vc.com

SBT Venture Team

Matteo Rizzi (Partner): Computer Sciences background, but always on a business side of things. Ten years in the ISP, networking and complex wide networks, and twelve years in the financial industry.

Mircea Mihaescu (Partner): Director of IT Strategy for Sberbank, responsible for the bank long term IT roadmap, technology innovation, and strategic venture capital investing.

Tony Fish (Advisor): Over twenty years of professional delivery capability with leading brands, high growth companies and in venture capital.

Esther Dyson (Advisor): An active angel investor in a variety of start-ups, for-profit and otherwise, around the world.

About Sequent
Sequent provides a leading Trusted Service Manager (TSM) software and services platform. Sequent's comprehensive SE-TSM Secure Element Management service supports diverse contactless security technologies while rapidly onboarding issuers and application providers. Sequent's SP-TSM software enables banks and other service providers to provision and manage their own credentials on the secure elements of mobile phones. Sequent's Wallet Enablement Platform makes it easy to add Near Field Communication (NFC) payments and other credentials into rich, branded consumer mobile apps. For more information, see www.sequent.com