What TTV Capital does

TTV Capital is an Atlanta-based, early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2000 that invests exclusively in financial technology companies. Co-founded by Gardiner Garrard and Tom Smith, the firm has operated for over 25 years and currently manages $750M+ in assets under management across six fund vehicles, with the most recent fund (Fund VI) closing at $250M in March 2023 after being significantly oversubscribed against an initial $150M target. TTV targets founders building across three vertical segments: Traditional Fintech (payments, banking software, cybersecurity, risk and compliance, regtech, insuretech, CFO stack), Fintech Enabled Businesses (embedded payments, embedded lending, vertical SaaS with fintech rails), and Future of Fintech (AI-native vertical software for financial workflows). The portfolio comprises 75+ active companies and 8 unicorns, including Bill.com (peak $35B market cap in 2021), Cardlytics (NASDAQ IPO 2018), Greenlight, SmartAsset, MX, TaxBit, Green Dot, and Featurespace (acquired by Visa in 2024).

The firm employs an "exploratory strategy" formalized in 2022 that emphasizes writing smaller checks out of core fund vehicles into very early-stage companies—often before they have revenue or a product—to cultivate long-term founder relationships and earn the right to lead or pre-empt later priced rounds. TTV explicitly prioritizes repeat founders (e.g., Stax Payments to Worth, Exactuals to Turbine, ShopKeep to Bookkeep) and maintains a curated syndicate of pre-seed co-investors including Cambrian VC, FJ Labs, QED Investors, and Bling Capital. Its investment framework is described as "inductive reasoning," applied by a 9-person team of partners, strategic advisors, and an operating partner with deep fintech operating backgrounds: co-founder Tom Smith spent 30 years at IBM in senior leadership, Strategic Advisor Mark Johnson co-founded CheckFree (acquired by Fiserv in 2007 at $1B+ revenue), and Operating Partner Lynne Laube co-founded and led Cardlytics to a 2018 NASDAQ IPO at $300M revenue and 180M monthly users. Deal sourcing is partner-led through direct outreach, ecosystem referrals (notably Sean Banks' decade-long chairmanship of TAG Fintech Society), event-driven presence at conferences including Money 20/20 and Fintech Meetup, and inbound via the firm website.

TTV Capital generates revenue through two primary streams: management fees on committed or invested capital across its six fund vehicles, and carried interest from realized exits and IPOs. Management fees form a recurring, AUM-linked base, while carried interest is performance-driven and concentrated in exit years—exemplified by the recent Featurespace sale to Visa (announced September 2024) and the historical Bill.com IPO (2019). The firm does not publicly disclose fee schedules, carried interest percentages, or financial statements, and pricing for its investment products is not applicable. As a private, independently held partnership, TTV has no parent company, no public listing, and no disclosed cap table; ownership rests with its co-founders and partners while fund vehicles are backed by external limited partners. The firm has been recognized by TIME (America's Top Venture Capital Firms of 2025), Inc. (Founder-Friendly Investors 2025), and TechCrunch (Five Most Important Fintech VCs), and is led from a 9-person team headquartered at 1230 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, with an additional partner presence in San Francisco.

Name

TTV Capital

Legal name

TTV Capital

Website

https://ttvcapital.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

TTV Capital is an Atlanta-based early-stage fintech venture capital firm founded in 2000. With $750M+ AUM across six funds, it has backed 100+ fintech companies producing eight unicorns, using an exploratory strategy of small initial checks and long-term founder partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Atlanta

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Venture Fund Management Fees: TTV Capital raises dedicated venture funds (Fund I through Fund VI, including a $250M largest fund closed in 2023) and earns recurring management fees on assets under management. AUM is stated at $750M+.
2. Carried Interest on Portfolio Exits: Performance-based revenue from exits, IPOs, and M&A realizations across 75+ active portfolio companies and 8 unicorns (e.g., Bill.com IPO peak market cap $35B, Cardlytics NASDAQ IPO 2018, SmartAsset unicorn, Greenlight unicorn).

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

TTV Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage fintech companies through dedicated fund vehicles (Fund I through Fund VI). The firm provides patient seed and Series A capital, along with strategic operating support, ecosystem connectivity, and access to financial institution networks to founders building category-defining fintech companies. It manages $750M+ in assets under management across 75+ active portfolio companies and 8 unicorns.

Product overview

TTV Capital is an early-stage fintech venture capital firm founded in 2000 and headquartered in Atlanta, GA (1230 Peachtree St NE, Suite 1150). Rather than offering technology products of its own, the firm provides venture capital investment services and strategic support to early-stage fintech companies. Its service offering is organized across multiple fund vehicles (Fund I through Fund VI and an SPV in Fund IV), with investment focus spanning Traditional Fintech (payments, banking software, cybersecurity, risk management, compliance, regtech, financial wellness, insuretech, CFO stack), Fintech Enabled Businesses, and Future of Fintech (companies leveraging emerging technology to revolutionize financial services). The firm reports 75+ active portfolio companies, 8 unicorns, and $750M+ in assets under management. Notable portfolio companies include MX, Greenlight, SmartAsset, Cardlytics, TaxBit, Green Dot, Bill.com, SamCart, Higlobe, Featurespace, Worth, Hamilton AI, Badge, SimpleClosure, OneAM, Turbine, and Outmarket AI. The firm is co-led by founders Gardiner Garrard and Tom Smith and operates as a service-driven investment partnership rather than a software product organization.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• TTV Capital Fund V Early-stage fintech venture capital fund that invests in seed and Series A rounds of fintech companies; capital is deployed from limited partner commitments and managed by the TTV Capital team.
• TTV Capital Fund VI TTV Capital's sixth and largest early-stage fintech venture fund, used to continue making investments in core financial technologies, embedded fintech, and AI-native financial services companies.

Quantifiable outcome

• 75+ active portfolio companies and 8 unicorns (companies with $1B+ valuations)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• VisacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVisa announced acquisition of Featurespace (a TTV portfolio company since 2016), an AI-driven fraud detection firm, in September 2024. TTV supported Featurespace's development of adaptive behavioral analytics, including the industry's first generative large transaction model.
• TSYScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTSYS (one of the largest payment processors in North America) independently validated Featurespace's adaptive behavioral analytics technology in 2015 by running a test exercise that produced a 3:1 false-positive ratio (vs. industry standard 13:1). TSYS then connected Featurespace to TTV Capital, leading to TTV's initial investment in 2016. Described as a TTV strategic partner.
• IntuitcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIntuit acquired PayCycle in 2009 (TTV's first investment from Fund I, co-founded by René Lacerte and Martin Gates). Lacerte went on to found Bill.com, in which TTV invested starting in 2010, leading to a successful IPO in 2019.
• Citibank (Citi Ventures)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTTV partner Lizzie Hartley previously served as Senior Vice President at Citi Ventures (Citibank's strategic investment arm) where she led digital asset strategy and supported portfolio companies. Citi Ventures is referenced as a TTV ecosystem partner with banking and fintech relationships.
• FiservcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFiserv acquired CheckFree (co-founded by Mark Johnson, TTV Strategic Advisor) in 2007 for over $1B in annual revenue. Fiserv is referenced as part of TTV's network of major financial institutions and payment providers.
• IBMcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-founder Tom Smith spent 30 years at IBM in senior leadership (VP, IBM Americas; GM, IBM Southern Area), deploying products to the largest U.S. financial services companies. Laney Lewis previously ran global marketing groups at IBM. TTV describes having built productive relationships with IBM and major financial institutions.
• Technology Association of Georgia (TAG)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSean Banks chaired TAG's Fintech Society for over a decade and served on TAG's Board of Directors and Leadership Counsel. TAG inducted Sean Banks into the 2025 Georgia Fintech Hall of Fame. TTV is a founding member of the Fintech Atlanta Task Force.
• Venture AtlantacoreGTM or Marketing PartnerLaney Lewis serves on the board of Venture Atlanta, a premier Southeast US startup conference. TTV is an active sponsor and participant; Sean Banks serves on the Venture Atlanta Selection Committee.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• QED Investors: QED Investors is one of the most prominent early-stage fintech-focused venture capital firms. TTV and QED have co-invested (e.g., Badge's seed led by QED, Series A led by TTV), and both firms share a thesis of investing early in category-defining financial technology companies globally.
• Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a leading fintech-only venture capital firm investing across early and growth stages. It competes directly with TTV for founders building financial infrastructure and consumer fintech, and shares TTV's thesis that fintech warrants a dedicated, vertically specialized investor.
• Nyca Partners: Nyca Partners is a venture capital and growth equity firm exclusively focused on financial services and fintech. Like TTV, Nyca invests across payments, banking software, and embedded fintech, and is often seen as a co-investor or like-for-like peer at Series A stage.
• Canapi Ventures: Canapi Ventures is a fintech-focused venture capital firm backed by a syndicate of US banks and credit unions. Canapi and TTV have co-invested (e.g., Coverbase Series A), and both target early-stage B2B fintech serving incumbent financial institutions — a near-identical sub-thesis.
• Better Tomorrow Ventures: Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV) is an early-stage fintech VC firm founded by Sheel Mohnot and Jake Gibson. BTV's seed-first, founder-friendly fintech mandate mirrors TTV's exploratory strategy and similar check-size discipline, making it a direct competitor for pre-seed and seed fintech rounds.
• Conversion Capital: Conversion Capital is an early-stage fintech venture capital firm led by operator-turned-investors. Both Conversion and TTV focus exclusively on fintech and back repeat founders, often writing the first institutional check into pre-product companies.
• 1843 Capital: 1843 Capital is a fintech-focused early- and growth-stage venture capital firm. TTV and 1843 operate in the same niche — early-stage fintech investing with thesis around embedded finance and infrastructure — and compete for founder mindshare in the Series A segment.
• Anthemis: Anthemis is a venture capital and growth investment firm focused exclusively on digital financial services. Anthemis has co-invested with TTV (e.g., SimpleClosure Series A) and shares the embedded-finance and AI-in-financial-services thesis that TTV has built its 'Future of Fintech' practice around.

Broad incumbents

• F-Prime Capital: F-Prime Capital is the venture arm of Fidelity Investments, with a long-standing fintech and financial services investing practice. F-Prime is a broader incumbent — it can write larger checks across stages and geographies — but competes with TTV for the same category-leading fintech founders.
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z fintech): a16z operates one of the largest dedicated fintech investment practices within a generalist mega-fund. As a broad incumbent with materially larger fund sizes, a16z competes for the same breakout fintech founders TTV targets, typically leading rounds 2–3x the size TTV can anchor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ttv-capital

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments179 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about TTV Capital