This Swedish fintech VC fund is looking for Brexit bargains in London and just made its first investment
Credit Kudos
NFT is leading a £600,000 ($794,640) seed investment in Credit Kudos, a London-based startup building technology to let people get a credit score based on current bank account activity rather than past borrowing history.
Johan Lundberg, founding partner and CEO of NFT, told Business Insider: "We met first time during Money2020 in Copenhagen and I was very impressed by their presentation and the way they had constructed the service that they're offering. They'd taken the problem in a very different direction, which I really, really like."
It is the first London investment for NFT, which has made 25 investments over the last 2 years. Lundberg says Britain's vote to leave the EU did not impact his investment decision, saying: "To be honest we were not really afraid. In fact, because the pound went down we actually got our investment cheaper."
The pound fell to a 31-year-low against the dollar in the wake of the Brexit vote and suffered a similarly dramatic fall against the euro.
Lundberg says: "We are currently searching for more investment opportunities. Hopefully, we will see that the value of these startups will go down after the Brexit vote because there's a very, very high valuation of your startups compared to Sweden or Germany for instance."
Investment in UK fintech dipped between the first and second quarter of the year. However, financial technology startups were still able to attract £40 million in the month after the Brexit vote, suggesting the shock decision did not put off investors.
Lundberg was in London this week to meet with CreditKudos, check out other London companies, and meet with potential investors in NFT's new fund.
He added: "To be honest I don't think the UK will really leave the EU. It is extremely hard and it will take an extremely long time and I think people voted on a totally different issue. I doubt that you will leave."
NFT has to date raised 2 funds worth around €70 million. It has made 25 investments in Sweden and Finland. Lundberg says the VC is in the process of raising its 3rd fund, which will be €90 million.
Credit Kudos' CEO and cofounder Freddy Kelly told BI: "With NFT's backing we will scale up our product and engineering capacity in response to the early successes of our pilot customers."
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