PAUL PESTER'S LATEST VENTURE, ARCHIE, MAKES FIRST INVESTMENTS IN FINTECH DISRUPTORS

LONDON, Aug. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- 

• archie selects SME champion wamo, and climate-focussed ekko, as it invests intellectual capital in high potential fintechs.
• archie was co-founded by heavyweights Paul Pester and Anthony Thomson.

archie, the fintech acceleration partner which co-founders include Paul Pester and Anthony Thomson, has announced its first two portfolio companies: wamo, and ekko.

Shortening the odds of success
In a market where only one in four VC-backed fintechs succeed, archie is on a mission to change the game. By investing its deep intellectual capital, it aims to turn high-potential fintech disruptors into standout winners. Because too many good fintechs fail.

Following a rigorous selection process that evaluated over 200 fintechs, archie has chosen wamo and ekko as its inaugural investments. Both companies demonstrate significant growth potential and are well-positioned to succeed with archie's expert guidance:

• wamo: specialising in powering SME growth across Europe, wamo makeit easy to access business accounts with human-led support. Headquartered in London and Malta, wamo is focused on cross-border payments for SMEs. wamo has recently raised $5m and obtained an EMI licence.
• ekko: The UK-based scale-up offers seamless sustainability integrations with financial service providers, offering tools such as carbon tracking and compensation. ekko is ramping up its team across sales and tech to capitalise on the rapidly growing sustainability market.

archie co-founder, Paul Pester, said: "archie exists to solve a very particular problem: helping high-potential firms reach growth. While capital is crucial, what's often missing is intellectual capital, investing our time and expertise, offering the hands-on support.

"With the backing of archie, both wamo and ekko are well-positioned to thrive in their respective fields, primed for growth and the opportunity to be real category leaders."

Investing intellectual capital to supercharge growth
The archie team will work side-by-side with businesses, deploying its team of scaling experts to supercharge growth, and maximising chances of success with senior, on-the-ground operational support. archie provides the levers needed to propel businesses into hyper-growth.

archie operates an equity model, exchanging its support, networks, expertise and proven playbooks as services for equity. Its ethos is that "venture capital alone is not enough", with it instead investing its "intellectual capital" for equity, ensuring skin in the game and aligned interests with founders and investors alike. archie's co-founders Paul Pester and Anthony Thomson have joined the boards of wamo and ekko respectively, helping to guide the scale-ups through their next phases of growth.

archie was co-founded by financial services veteran Paul Pester (Chair of Tandem Bank, former CEO of TSB and Virgin Money globally, and founder of Loop) and one of fintech's best-known serial entrepreneurs, Anthony Thomson (co-founder and former chair of UK banks Metro and atom, and Australian digital bank 86 400). Global tech leader Steve Brennen (Uber, PayPal, eBay & Zip), takes the reins as CEO.

About archie

archie speeds up scale-ups.

Inspired by Archimedes (or Archie, as we would call him today): "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."

archie was founded on the principle that when great ideas succeed, the world moves forward. Unfortunately, most companies fail to achieve their mainstream potential – and that's where we come in.

It's our belief that fintech founders need much more than financial backing to turn their ambitions into reality. We provide early-stage fintech businesses with the levers needed – the experience, expertise and toolkits – to get them across "the chasm" and into hyper-growth.

Find out more at www.archiegrowth.com 

Media contacts
For further information or interview requests, please contact:
Andrew Pyle, Director, 56° North
T: +44 (0) 7771 359 482
E: [email protected]

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SOURCE archie