Traditionally, large financial institutions dominated cross-currency transactions, charging hefty fees (often several percent of the amount sent) and taking hours or days to settle the trade. By coordinating transfer needs within countries across its massive user base, Transferwise makes transferring money more efficient and passes considerable savings along to users.

Unlike brick and mortar banks, N26 was built with the modern customer in mind, offering the option for instant push notifications for all transactions, innovative security features, free ATM withdrawals, no foreign transaction fees, an easy to use personal financial management tool, and a remote sign up process that takes less than 10 minutes.

Stash is a community for people who want to start saving and investing and who don’t want to rely on a black box service to do it for them. Its platform helps people take ownership and become confident investors. Starting with as little as $5, Stash investors build a portfolio of investments that aligns with their interests, beliefs and goals.

Qonto aims to become the next generation bank for entrepreneurs, SMEs and startups by providing an online service that allows users to create an account in less than five minutes. With Qonto, you can instantly receive an IBAN and get started managing your company’s physical and digital business cards and performing day-to-day operations.

Xero fills the gap between legacy accounting systems trapped on the desktop (and used by vendors primarily to peddle expensive add-ons) and ad hoc systems (paper slips; excel spreadsheets): Xero provides one clean and intuitive package with a full accrual accounting system, including cashbook, automated daily bank feeds, invoicing, payroll, sales tax and reporting.

(Initial Valar investment October 2010; final exit June 2020)

Financial services have traditionally been fragmented based on geography and fiat currency regimes. BlockFi provides globally accessible financial products by leveraging digital assets and blockchain payment rails. Cryptocurrency investors use BlockFi for unique liquidity, payments and wealth management solutions.

Octane is a point of sale financing platform disrupting the $60B consumer recreational and agricultural vehicle market. Its mission is to become the first choice by making financing as painless as cash in markets where incumbent solutions are expensive, time consuming, and manual. Octane partners with manufacturers to offer competitive pricing and utilize technology and proprietary data models to accelerate the loan underwriting and closing process.

Even though money is an integral part of our daily lives, there are significant barriers that limit most people's control over it. A rusty financial industry has made investing complicated, frustrating and unnecessarily difficult. Bitpanda removes these barriers by harnessing the innovative power of digitized assets and blockchain technology. With low fees, 24/7 trading, and real-time settlement, Bitpanda empowers users to shape their financial futures - on their own terms.

Bestow is a smarter approach to life insurance. Affordable prices. A+ rated policies. Instant decisions. No medical exams required. With a brand new underwriting framework and a first-of-its-kind experience, Bestow is bringing life insurance within reach for more people than ever before.

Tax filing with forms takes hours and requires expert knowledge. Taxfix disrupts the industry by offering a smart assistant on the phone that asks users simple questions and optimizes their taxes intelligently. With its underlying tax engine, Taxfix's systems can generate the smartest questions, allowing the company to quickly scale its technology across markets.

Albo is the leading Mexican challenger bank that helps people manage their money through an honest service that cares about them. Albo offers a premium service with no fees and it takes only 3 minutes to open an account.

Millions of Americans are locked out of credit due to the limitations of credit scoring, and millions more are trapped in debt that they don’t understand and struggle to afford. Petal expands access to safe and affordable credit by underwriting cash flows instead of just credit scores, and helps users build credit and achieve better financial outcomes with behavioral science and smart, intuitive product design.

Today, with just the push of a button, we can hail a ride, have hot food delivered or stream our favorite show on demand, yet, the innovations we see in these industries have failed to translate into everyday banking in Canada. Neo Financial is reimagining how spending and savings should be by building Neo from the ground-up using today’s technology. Neo offers a no-annual-fee credit card and high-interest savings account, while also giving Neo members access to instant rewards from hundreds of brands – all on one card.

Moss is a technology-based payment and credit card platform that enables companies to optimize their finances. Startups, tech companies, and SMEs can issue employee and team credit cards and manage all company spending using the Moss software platform that is powered by a proprietary card issuing and risk engine. Time-saving accounting automation and export features complement the offering.

Unlike credit card companies that often encourage customers to overspend, Point promotes sustainable spending by offering a debit card that prevents customers from going into debt, while simultaneously providing all the high-value benefits associated with elite credit cards. Point is delivering customers a transparent and rewarding spending experience, all paired with a seamless mobile app.

Most traditional banks in Africa overcharge their customers for basic banking services. Starting with Nigeria, Kuda is giving Africans -- whether on the continent or in the diaspora -- a better alternative, with personal and business banking delivered through digital devices, free transfers, smart budgeting and instant access to credit.

170 million Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Financial institutions charge those Americans over $100 billion each year in overdraft and payday loan fees. Even helps people break out of that cycle, with an automated financial manager, and the ability to safely withdraw wages ahead of payday. Fortune 500 companies like Walmart offer Even as a benefit to their employees.

Syfe removes barriers to investing and strives to democratize the world of wealth accumulation. By incorporating cutting edge technology, Syfe cuts out the middleman and provides unbiased, comprehensive investment and saving services - for everyone.

Jetty is a new kind of insurance company designed to help people in cities reach their goals faster by removing obstacles and risks. Its mission is to protect its customers against setbacks of all kinds, from fire and theft to wasted time and money.

Starship is an experience-driven healthcare banking platform for health savings accounts (HSAs). They are transforming the way Americans pay for healthcare by making it easy to track spending, save for today, and invest in tomorrow… all tax-free.