Motive Partners

Motive Partners is a fintech-specialist private investment firm with $6.4 billion in capital raised across its fund family. Unlike generalist VCs, Motive focuses exclusively on technology companies that serve the financial services industry — from banking infrastructure and payments to wealth management and insurance.

The firm operates across three investment strategies: venture (pre-seed to Series A, $1-10M checks), growth equity, and buyouts. This multi-stage approach means Motive can follow companies from early traction through scale, with equity investments in growth and buyout deals starting at $25 million.

What sets Motive apart is its IOI model — Investing, Operating, Innovating. The firm embeds operators and technology specialists alongside investors, rather than taking a passive board seat approach. With 150+ professionals including former executives from JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and Blackstone, the firm is designed to do more than write checks.

The firm is currently raising its third private equity fund, targeting $3.25 billion according to reporting from Buyouts Insider — a signal of continued appetite for fintech infrastructure deals even in a uncertain market environment.

Motive Partners invests in technology-enabled financial and business services companies. The firm's thesis is rooted in a straightforward observation: financial services companies are increasing their spending on technology innovation, driven by regulatory change, digital transformation, and competitive pressure from fintech challengers.

The firm organizes its coverage across six subsectors: Banking and Payments, Wealth and Asset Management, Insurance, Capital Markets, AI Data and Analytics, and Business Services. This covers the full stack of financial infrastructure — from core banking platforms to wealth management software to back-office automation.

Within fintech, Motive has a particular affinity for companies that solve institutional problems rather than purely consumer-facing apps. The firm's portfolio skews toward B2B infrastructure: platforms that banks, asset managers, insurers, and other financial institutions actually use or integrate into their operations.

The IOI model reflects a belief that pure financial engineering is insufficient in fintech. The firm deploys its own professionals — many with operational experience at financial institutions — to work directly with portfolio companies on product development, go-to-market strategy, and regulatory navigation. This is not a post-investment afterthought; it's embedded in how the firm evaluates and supports deals.

Rob Heyvaert, the firm's Founder and Managing Partner, previously founded Capco, a global consulting firm focused exclusively on the financial services industry. That origin story matters: Motive was built by people who spent careers inside the institutions they now invest in.

Motive's portfolio of 67 companies reflects the breadth of its thesis. The largest positions include Backbase, the Amsterdam-based banking-as-a-service platform that has become one of the leading core banking replacement tools globally; FNZ, a UK wealth management platform that partners with banks and insurers to deliver digital wealth products; and InvestCloud, a Los Angeles-based wealth technology firm serving global financial institutions.

In capital markets, Trumid has built an electronic trading platform for credit markets. In crypto infrastructure, Anchorage Digital provides custody and brokerage solutions for institutions. On the insurance side, Insurify has built a leading digital insurance marketplace.

European fintech is well-represented in the portfolio. Getquin (Berlin) is a social trading and wealth platform. Pliant and Nelly, both Berlin-based, address corporate cards and payment infrastructure respectively. Bunch, also Berlin-headquartered, focuses on wealth management tooling. Credix (Antwerp) provides credit solutions to the unbanked.

Recent entries include Artifact AI and Asseta AI (both New York, 2025), Monnai (Los Angeles, December 2025), and Alchelyst (New York, February 2026). The firm has also backed alternatives infrastructure players like Lyra, a client-servicing solution for alternative asset managers that Motive backed in early 2026.

Notable exits include Dun & Bradstreet (sold in 2019), Avaloq (acquired by NEC in 2021), Global Shares (sold to Morgan Stanley in 2022), and With Intelligence (sold in 2023).

Motive operates three distinct investment strategies under one roof: venture, growth equity, and buyout. Each has different stage, size, and thesis fit.

The venture arm — Motive Ventures — invests from pre-seed through Series A. Check sizes range from $1 million to $10 million, typically as lead or co-lead investor. The focus is on fintech and business services companies with strong founding teams and early product traction.

Growth equity and buyout investments start at $25 million in equity. These later-stage investments typically involve more mature companies with proven business models, often with an element of transformation or platform consolidation. The FNZ and Backbase investments fall into this category — platform businesses at scale.

The firm is currently raising Motive Capital Fund III, targeting $3.25 billion. This would be the largest fund in the firm's history and signals a continued appetite for large buyout and growth transactions in fintech infrastructure. Fund I (2018 vintage) and Fund II have supported the firm's growth and buyout activity to date.

For founders at the venture stage, this multi-strategy structure is relevant because it means Motive can follow capital needs from early product-market fit through a potential IPO or sale — without requiring the company to find a new investor at each stage.

Motive maintains offices in New York (World Trade Center), London (Canary Wharf), and Berlin, reflecting a deliberate US and European focus. The firm does not have meaningful exposure to Asia or other emerging markets.

US presence is broad: the portfolio includes companies in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boulder, Cambridge MA, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Warren NJ, Miami, and Houston. European investments are centered in Germany (Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt), the UK (London), Netherlands (Amsterdam), Switzerland, Italy (Venice), Spain (Barcelona), Belgium (Antwerp, Ghent), Ireland (Clonakilty), and France (Paris).

For fintech founders outside these markets, the firm's geographic footprint is a limiting factor. The team has deep relationships in US and European financial services markets, which translates to both deal flow and portfolio company support in these regions.

Motive evaluates fintech investments across three dimensions: team quality, market size, and competitive differentiation — but the emphasis on operational expertise means they weight these differently than pure-play financial investors.

The founding team must demonstrate deep domain expertise in financial services, not just technology. Motive has seen thousands of fintech pitches and discounts those that show generic "disruption" language without concrete understanding of how financial institutions actually operate, procure, and integrate technology. Prior founders with backgrounds at banks, asset managers, or established fintech firms carry significant weight.

Market opportunity must be large and addressable. The firm prefers categories where spending is existing and measurable — financial institutions spending on infrastructure, not speculative consumer behavior changes. This is a preference for B2B models.

Competitive positioning must be defensible. Proprietary data, regulatory relationships, enterprise contracts, or technical moats that protect market position are all relevant. Motive will scrutinize whether a company's differentiation is structural or easily replicable.

Because of the IOI model, founders should think about Motive as a potential operational partner, not just a capital source. Companies that can benefit from introductions to financial institution decision-makers, regulatory guidance, or operational resources will get more from the relationship.

Warm introductions remain the primary channel for getting in front of Motive. The firm works with portfolio company CEOs, other institutional investors, and advisors in the fintech ecosystem. A referral from someone who knows the firm's investment style and can speak to the quality of the opportunity significantly improves the odds of a first meeting.

Cold outreach is possible but less effective. If reaching out without a warm introduction, the pitch should be precise about why Motive specifically — referencing their portfolio, their IOI model, or specific team members — rather than generic fintech VC language. The best cold outreach comes through their website at motivepartners.com or via inquiries@motivepartners.com.

For venture-stage companies, the focus of the initial conversation will be the team, the product, early traction metrics, and the path to demonstrating product-market fit. Motive will want to understand the specific financial institution or user segment being served, the sales cycle, and the unit economics at small scale.

Follow-up discipline matters. Motive typically takes two to four weeks from initial meeting to investment decision, though more complex deals can take longer. Maintaining communication without being pushy — sharing material milestones, customer wins, or data points that reinforce the thesis — is more effective than frequent status updates.

Building a relationship before fundraising is often the right approach. Founders who engage Motive in an informational capacity before a formal round have a meaningful advantage: the firm already understands the team, the market, and the vision before a capital need arises.

Motive Partners invests across stages, but all portfolio companies are expected to have financial rigor proportionate to their growth stage. For venture companies, this means clean cap tables, realistic burn projections, and a clear understanding of runway and path to breakeven or next round.

For growth and buyout stage companies, Motive will conduct extensive financial due diligence — revenue quality, recurring vs. non-recurring revenue metrics, EBITDA potential, working capital dynamics, and leverage profile. Founders who have maintained audit-quality financials from early stages are better positioned for a clean process.

This is where professional finance support changes outcomes. A fractional CFO who has prepared companies for institutional capital raises understands what Motive's investment committee will ask, how they stress-test projections, and what diligence findings typically surface in fintech deals.

Our team has supported companies through Motive's investment process and others like it. We build the financial models, investor-ready reporting packages, and data rooms that make the difference between a drawn-out process and an efficient one.

Whether you're approaching Motive Partners or other institutional investors, the quality of your financial preparation is a controllable variable. Founders who invest in finance infrastructure before raising capital consistently have better outcomes in due diligence and term sheet negotiations.

Exploring other fintech-focused investors? Our collection of venture capital firm reviews covers the funds most active in financial technology and business services.

Each review is based on public information and direct research — investment thesis, actual portfolio companies, stage preferences, and practical guidance for founders considering outreach.

Finding the right investor fit for your company's specific stage, sector, and geography is one of the most consequential decisions you'll make. The time invested in research is worth it.