Exclusive: PayPal vets launch Infinity Ventures, a $158M fintech fund

A trio of investors from PayPal Ventures has set out on their own with a $158 million inaugural fund devoted to investing in fintech and commerce enablement startups, Axios reports.

Why it matters: Despite a pullback in the public markets, there's still a healthy appetite for investing in early-stage fintech companies, particularly in international markets.

Driving the news: Infinity Ventures was founded by Jeremy Jonker, who led PayPal's venture and corp dev functions for a number of years, along with managing partners Jay Ganatra and Mario Ruiz.

• While at PayPal, the team led early-stage investments in startups like Plaid, Divvy, Acorns, Happy Returns, and Paidy, as well as growth-stage deals with companies like MercadoLibre, GoJek, and Uber.
• They were also behind some of the largest M&A deals at PayPal, including the acquisitions of Venmo, Braintree, Honey, Hyperwallet, Xoom, Swift Financial and iZettle.

Of note: While based in the U.S., Infinity Ventures is on the lookout for startups solving fintech problems all over the world.

• "At PayPal Ventures, 70% of our capital deployed was in international markets, which is a big thing because we're building a global platform here," Jonker says.

Details: The firm will invest in early-stage fintech or commerce enablement startups — pre-seed through Series A — with initial checks ranging from $500,000 to $8 million.

• Infinity Ventures plans to lead or co-lead about 25 deals through its inaugural fund, with a 10% ownership target and an expectation for follow-on investments in later rounds.
• The team began writing checks last summer and already has made about a dozen investments into startups that include Card91, Durable, Glean, Mendel, Neo.tax, Pagos, Replo, Sensible Weather, Skipify, and Upside.

The intrigue: Fintech companies are struggling mightily in the public markets. But the team at Infinity says that pullback hasn't really impacted the early stage market they play in.

• They also point out that a downturn isn't necessarily the worst time to invest, noting that both Stripe and Square (now Block) were both founded in 2009, in the wake of the last financial crisis.
• "We're investing for the next five to 10 years, if not longer. So you could argue we're a little immune to this correction," Jonker says.