INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Rex Salisbury, the solo GP behind Cambrian Ventures, fondly recalls the time he fell in love with fintech.The year was 2015; he had recently
left his job as an investment banker to try his hand at engineering at a mortgage startup in San Francisco
years, reaching a fever pitch in 2021
enthusiasm for the category remains as strong as it did in 2015
He feels the popular opinion that most opportunities in fintech have been exhausted could not be further from the truth
15.4% seed-to-Series A graduation rate tracked by Carta.These companies include Simple Closures, which helps startups close shop, and Keep,
a Canadian credit card and payments platform
launching with $20 million in committed capital.The haul is a remarkable feat for a small venture fund like Cambrian: A report by PitchBook
showed that fundraising by emerging venture managers (defined as firms still running their first three funds) hit a decade low in the first
And during his several years at the prominent firm, he invested in a startup called Deel, which would go on to become a giant in the payroll
and human resource tools space.Prior to joining a16z, Salisbury founded a fintech community that hosted monthly meetups for founders,
builders, and sector enthusiasts
He also launched a newsletter that soared to about 20,000 subscribers, and runs a Slack group that now boasts over 1,800 founders.Thanks to
his well-regarded network, Salisbury attracted founders from top fintech companies like NerdWallet, Plaid, Betterment, and Melio as LPs for
These individuals returned to invest in his second fund, which also saw the addition of several institutional backers, including a bank and
