The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Jonathan Korngold, General Atlantic

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< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

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Jonathan Korngold
Head, Global Financial Services Sector
General Atlantic

History is repeating — or, to be more precise, evolving — at General Atlantic. The New York–based growth-equity firm was in the thick of the dot-com generation, helping to guide companies like E*Trade Financial Corp. and Priceline Group toward long-term viability, and it’s still going strong. William Ford, who was closely identified with the earlier successes, was elevated from president to CEO in 2007; Jonathan Korngold has been head of the global financial services sector since 2012. For Korngold, a Harvard Business School MBA and Goldman Sachs Group alumnus who joined the firm in 2001, ten years after Ford did, it’s not technology alone but also “the level of regulation that is driving massive change” in the financial industry. As capital-constrained banks pull back from certain markets, “huge swaths of the financial services sector are no longer economically viable to be served by traditional institutions, which also often struggle to adapt their business practices to the rapidly changing preferences of the consumers.” Therein lies opportunity for upstart companies to fill the breach. A case in point is nonprime consumer lending. Marketplace lender Avant, for which General Atlantic led a $325 million Series E financing in October, is “uniquely capable” of serving this segment “in a fair and transparent manner” through innovative technology and underwriting techniques, says Korngold, 41, who is joining the Chicago-based company’s board. He’s bullish on payment services: Two GA investments, Amsterdam-based Adyen and Sweden’s Klarna, fall into the category of “e-commerce enablement”; the former, which supports transactions in 187 currencies, is the global payments partner of Airbnb and Uber (both GA portfolio companies). Korngold stresses the global view and nature of the strategy, and the approximately 20 team members in the Americas, Europe and Asia who support it.

The 2015 Fintech Finance 35