AV8 Ventures, a new venture capital firm focused on areas including fintech and digital health, has launched a €150m fund solely backed by financial services major Allianz Group.
The firm has already tapped the vehicle for seven investments, including machine learning-based business contract specialist Contract Wrangler and mortgage industry disruptor M Qube.
AV8 Ventures is directed by managing partners George Ugras and Miles Kirby, who have been executives and investors in category leading start-ups across a number of industries over the past 20 years.
Ugras until recently led IBM Ventures globally, while Kirby ran the Qualcomm Venture Capital Group in Europe.
Allianz Group chief business transformation officer Ivan de la Sota said, “AV8 Ventures is a pillar of our investment strategy in emerging, early stage companies.
“This exceptional team of experienced investors and technologists is focusing on breakthrough approaches that impact the consumption of machine learning across healthcare, mobility and enterprise solutions.
“AV8 has already built an impressive portfolio of companies that will bring us new insights and value across Allianz.”
Co-founder and CEO of Alpha Medical, Gloria Lau, added, “We have been partnering with AV8 from the concept stage.
“Their guidance has helped us deploy our strategy to enable a simple and personalized commerce experience supported by a team of AI-assisted doctors and pharmacies.”
Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers, with more than 92 million retail and corporate customers.
It manages about €673bn on behalf of its insurance customers, and more than €1.4tn of third-party assets through its PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors arms.
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