< Fintech's Most Powerful Dealmakers of 2016

1. Jonathan Korngold
Head, Global Financial Services Sector
General Atlantic
Last year: 5

As exciting and transformative as the current wave of financial technology innovation may be, “a false sense of bravado” one to two years ago clouded many strategists’ and investors’ vision of the long-term big picture, according to Jonathan Korngold. Long-term and big picture are defining characteristics of global growth equity firm General Atlantic, which was formed in 1980 and which Korngold, its New York–based head of financial services, joined in 2001 after working in principal investments and M&A at Goldman Sachs Group. In the past year the team that Korngold has been leading since 2012 made more than $1 billion in new and add-on financial services and fintech investments; the sector is General Atlantic’s biggest, accounting for nearly a third of the total portfolio. Irrespective of the hype cycle, the fintech momentum is accelerating: Korngold points to such highlights as a majority stake in commodity news and data provider Argus Media, announced in May and valuing that company at nearly £1 billion ($1.2 billion); and the sale of portfolio company OptionsHouse, announced in July, for $725 million to E*TRADE Financial Corp. The 42-year-old Harvard MBA, who previously oversaw the firm’s health care sector for seven and a half years, says the advantage is going to those able to “differentiate long-term winners from me-too or narrow niche companies — between long-term solutions and point solutions or widgets.” General Atlantic identifies what Korngold terms “secular trends” in such areas as cross-border payments and “insure tech”; looks out over a ten- to 15-year horizon, so it is not locked into typical five- to seven-year venture capital or private equity holding periods; and has a group of about 20 people with deep financial services expertise across a global footprint of 12 offices, among which insights and perspectives are cross-pollinated. “We’ve been on the ground in Mumbai for 15 years,” Korngold notes as context for the firm’s 2015 investment in IIFL Wealth Management, which then had $12 billion in client assets. Eyeing what he calls “huge opportunities to upgrade decades-old solutions” in the insurance industry, General Atlantic in June joined Genstar Capital and TA Associates in investing in Hartford, Connecticut–based software company Insurity.

 
The 2016 Fintech Finance 35

1. Jonathan Korngold General Atlantic 2. Matthew Harris Bain Capital Ventures 3. Jane Gladstone Evercore Partners Solana vs. Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: How Do They Compare? Sponsored by CME Group April 29, 2025 4. James Robinson III & James Robinson IV RRE Ventures 5. Steven McLaughlin Financial Technology Partners 6. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park Anthemis Group

7. Richard Garman & Brad Bernstein FTV Capital 8. Gerard von Dohlen Broadhaven Capital Partners 9. Darren Cohen Goldman Sachs Group 10. Hans Morris Nyca Partners 11. Meyer (Micky) Malka Ribbit Capital 12. Maria Gotsch Partnership Fund for New York City

13. Barry Silbert Digital Currency Group 14. Jay Reinemann Propel Venture Partners 15. Mariano Belinky Santander InnoVentures 16. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena SenaHill Partners 17. François Robinet AXA Strategic Ventures 18. Vanessa Colella Citi Ventures

19. Michael Schlein Accion International 20. Kenneth Marlin Marlin & Associates 21. Rumi Morales CME Ventures 22. Alastair (Alex) Rampell Andreessen Horowitz 23. Steve Gibson Euclid Opportunities 24. Fabian Vandenreydt SWIFT

25. Vladislav Solodkiy Life.SREDA 26. Gardiner Garrard III TTV Capital 27. Nektarios Liolios Startupbootcamp Fintech 28. Lawrence Wintermeyer Innovate Finance 29. Bina Kalola Bank of America Merrill Lynch 30. Hyder Jaffrey Fintech Innovation

31. Calvin Choi AMTD Group 32. Janos Barberis FinTech Hong Kong 33. Jalak Jobanputra Future Perfect Ventures 34. Sopnendu Mohanty Monetary Authority of Singapore 35. Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel Rakuten FinTech Fund