10
Hans Morris
Managing Partner
Nyca Partners
There is a message embedded in Nyca Partners’ name. Hans Morris, who founded the firm in July 2014, fused the abbreviations of New York and California to represent “bringing together the expertise of both Silicon Valley and Wall Street.” Morris has worked in both places, knows how their venture capital cultures differ and believes Nyca can help them work better together. “If you’re an entrepreneur and go to a top VC firm and start talking about [futures commission merchants] or straight-through processing or some rule from the CFTC, they won’t know what you’re talking about,” says Morris, 56. “To be able to do that off the top of your head is very advantageous.” Nyca’s aim is not to supplant the Silicon Valley establishment but rather to partner with those firms, he adds. Morris served as COO of Citigroup’s investment bank during a 27-year career with that company; as president of Foster City, California–based Visa at the time of its $18 billion IPO, in 2008; and as a managing director of New York’s General Atlantic (see Jonathan Korngold, No. 5). Nyca got off to a fast start and has made more than 20 investments so far, among them money-transmission app company Abra and cybersecurity innovator Centripetal Networks. Managing partner Morris looks mainly for A- or B-stage start-ups in payments, credit and what he calls digital advice (robo-adviser SigFig Wealth Management is in the portfolio). He also sees opportunity in the financial industry core infrastructure, but for now he is wary of blockchain, in which “I see lots of issues that merit caution,” including overvaluations. The iron law of new businesses — that most will fail — still applies, says Morris, adding: “What will be helpful to fintech start-ups is having expert advice. The details help explain the difference between good ideas and successful ideas.”
The 2015 Fintech Finance 35
1. James Robinson III 2. Jane Gladstone 3. Matthew Harris 4. Steven McLaughlin 5. Jonathan Korngold |
6. Richard Garman & 7. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park 8. Thomas Jessop 9. Meyer (Micky) Malka 10. Hans Morris |
11. Maria Gotsch 12. Marc Andreessen 13. Barry Silbert 14. Jay Reinemann 15. Mariano Belinky |
16. François Robinet 17. Vanessa Colella 18. Alan Freudenstein & Gregory Grimaldi 19. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena 20. Rodger Voorhies |
21. Michael Schlein 22. Kenneth Marlin 23. Rumi Morales 24. Mark Beeston 25. Vladislav Solodkiy |
26. Fabian Vandenreydt 27. Derek White 28. Alex Batlin 29. Jeffrey Greenberg 30. P. Howard Edelstein |
31. Nektarios Liolios 32. Roy Bahat 33. Andrew McCormack 34. Lawrence Wintermeyer 35. Janos Barberis |
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