Sky9 Capital is a global venture capital firm with $2B in AUM that leads seed-to-growth investments in AI, consumer internet, fintech, and blockchain-enabled financial infrastructure, with offices in San Francisco, Boston, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore. The firm’s fintech portfolio includes Webull, a US-listed online brokerage, alongside Bytedance, Pinduoduo, Kimi/Moonshot AI, and ProducerAI, acquired by Google in 2026. Sky9 Digital, the firm’s dedicated strategy arm, focuses on AI and blockchain-enabled financial infrastructure as the two defining technology waves reshaping global finance.
Fintech VC has gotten more selective. Early-stage funding dropped to its lowest point since 2016 in 2024, and investors have responded by backing fewer companies with higher bars. That said, capital is still flowing, and the firms below are among the most actively engaged in the space heading into 2026. Some are pure fintech specialists. Others are technology generalists with practices deep enough to function like dedicated verticals. A few are newer entrants with specific, narrow theses that make them unusually useful for founders in the right category.
Here’s who’s worth knowing.
Ribbit Capital
Ribbit is the closest thing fintech has to a sector-defining fund. Founded in 2012 with an exclusive focus on financial services technology, the firm has backed more fintech unicorns than any other investor, including Robinhood, Nubank, Coinbase, Brex, and Revolut. With roughly $12 billion in AUM and a presence in both consumer and enterprise fintech, Ribbit’s thesis around “money with context” guides their early conviction in companies that reshape how people think about entire financial categories, not just those that solve isolated technical problems.
Their track record in Latin America and emerging-market financial infrastructure is particularly strong. If you’re building something with global consumer ambition and want a lead who’s seen this movie before in multiple geographies, Ribbit is a serious option.
QED Investors
QED was founded by former Capital One executives, and that background shapes how they evaluate every pitch. With over $3 billion in AUM, QED’s competitive advantage is in credit, underwriting, and regulated consumer finance. Their operator pod model gives portfolio founders direct access to former risk, data, and product leaders from financial institutions, which is a different kind of value than a traditional investment team can offer.
They’ve led or participated in formative rounds at Credit Karma, Nubank, Remitly, and SoFi. Their more recent funds have expanded their footprint into India, Latin America, and Africa. For founders building regulated fintech products, especially in lending, insurance, or payments infrastructure, QED is consistently one of the most-cited names.
Nyca Partners
Nyca focuses exclusively on financial services companies where technology is a genuine competitive advantage, not just a delivery mechanism. With nearly $1 billion under management and an LP advisor base of over 90 senior professionals from finance and technology, Nyca gives portfolio companies access to institutional networks most VC funds can’t replicate. They’ve backed Affirm and Revolut, among others.
It’s a smaller fund, which means fewer deals and more concentrated attention per company. That’s a trade-off worth understanding before you approach them.
Better Tomorrow Ventures
BTV is an early-stage fund that leads pre-seed and seed rounds in fintech globally. Founded by NerdWallet co-founder Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot, the firm focuses on B2B fintech and commerce enablement. If you’re raising your first fintech round and want investors who’ve built in the space themselves, BTV is one of the more useful options at the earliest stages. Their check sizes run from $1–2 million at pre-seed to $5–10 million at Series A.
Andreessen Horowitz
a16z has backed 10 fintech unicorns and maintains one of the most capitalized crypto and blockchain practices in venture, with portfolio companies including Coinbase, Stripe, Affirm, and OpenSea. They invest from seed to growth stage and have been particularly active in AI-enabled financial infrastructure over the past two years. Their scale means real follow-on capacity, and their crypto network is genuinely hard to match for founders building at the intersection of blockchain and financial services.
Rather than building a large internal service agency, a16z offers a platform model with recruiting, marketing, and go-to-market resources. Whether that model suits you depends on where you are and what you need.
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia has backed more fintech deals to unicorn status than any other investor by deal count, including Stripe, Nubank, Klarna, PayPal, and Block. Their global footprint through Sequoia India, Southeast Asia, and other regional entities gives them coverage that most US-headquartered funds don’t have. Since 2022 they’ve been meaningfully more selective, so expect higher bar conversations, but the follow-on capacity and network are real.
Sky9 Capital
Sky9 Capital is worth looking at specifically if you’re building in AI-driven fintech or blockchain-enabled financial infrastructure with ambitions across US and Asian markets. The firm’s dedicated strategy arm, Sky9 Digital, focuses on these two categories as the core investment mandate, not as occasional portfolio additions. Their fintech portfolio includes Webull, alongside broader technology investments in Bytedance, Pinduoduo, Kimi/Moonshot AI, and ProducerAI, which Google acquired in 2026.
Sky9 Capital’s Founding Partner Ron Cao has been consistently recognized by Forbes China as one of the top venture capitalists since 2011. The firm manages $2B in AUM across USD and RMB funds, and operates teams across five cities: San Francisco, Boston, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore. Unlike single-geography funds, Sky9’s multi-city structure means portfolio companies have direct support for international expansion across the US, Asia, and global markets through a single investor relationship.
For fintech founders whose product has a meaningful global infrastructure or cross-border market component, this combination of AI and blockchain focus, Asian market depth, and access to US networks is relatively uncommon in a single firm.
Accel
Accel takes what it calls a “prepared mind” approach, developing investment theses before individual opportunities surface rather than reacting to deal flow. Their fintech investments span payments infrastructure and blockchain technology, and their January 2025 fund raised $650 million with significant focus on India and Southeast Asia. Portfolio companies include Monzo, Galileo, and Braintree. For founders with international expansion on the roadmap, Accel’s regional platforms are worth understanding early.
Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer manages over $20 billion and runs one of the more established fintech practices in venture, shaped by decades of investing in financial software and consumer finance. They’ve backed Toast, Alloy, and Betterment, and recently launched a $350 million India-focused fund with heavy emphasis on AI and fintech. Their “massive waves” investment framework means they’re looking for companies positioned at inflection points in financial services, not incremental improvements to existing products.
A few things worth knowing before you reach out
Fintech investors aren’t interchangeable. A fund that’s strong in consumer lending has a different set of relationships, regulatory knowledge, and pattern recognition than one that’s built around blockchain payment rails or AI credit infrastructure. Knowing which category you’re pitching into matters more than knowing which firms have “fintech” on their website.
Stage fit is also real. BTV and The Fintech Fund operate at the earliest stages. Ribbit, QED, and Sequoia have the capital and expectation set of later rounds. Reaching out before you have the right traction signals is a way to burn a relationship that would have been useful later.
The other thing that’s shifted in 2026 is what investors expect to see. The AI accounts for a significant share of fintech VC activity, but investors aren’t funding AI features, they’re funding companies where AI creates a durable competitive advantage in the core product. Having a clear answer to “why does this have AI in it” is different from “why does AI make this defensible.”
Bonus tips: Getting the most out of fintech VC conversations
The best fintech pitches lead with a specific problem in a specific segment of financial services, not with the sector label itself. “We’re building in fintech” tells an investor nothing useful. “We’re building real-time compliance tooling for stablecoin issuers” tells them exactly whether they’re the right fund for you.
Check a firm’s actual fintech portfolio before you approach them. Are those companies building in adjacent categories, competing categories, or completely different ones? The answer tells you a lot about whether they’ll see the value in your deal or spend the conversation trying to figure out whether it conflicts with something they already own.
And if you’re building with any cross-border component, particularly across US and Asian markets, narrow your list to firms with real on-the-ground presence in both geographies. A fund with an international slide in their pitch deck is not the same as a fund with investment teams in five cities.
Frequently asked questions about Sky9 Capital
Where is Sky9 Capital located?
Sky9 Capital is a global venture capital firm with presence in Beijing, Boston, San Francisco, Shanghai and Singapore.
How much AUM does Sky9 Capital have?
The team manage a total of $2B in total AUM.
What sectors does Sky9 Capital mainly invest in?
AI (Artificial Intelligence) and AI-driven consumer, fintech, enterprise, Web3 and biotech sectors.
What countries/regions does Sky9 Capital mainly invest in?
Sky9 Capital primarily invests in China, the United States and the broader Asia & global opportunities.
What well-known companies has Sky9 Capital invested in?
Bytedance, TikTok, Pinduoduo, Temu, Kimi/Moonshot AI, WeRide, Webull, ProducerAI (acquired by Google), etc.