UBS Unveils UBS Next to Enhance its Engagement with the Fintech Ecosystem

UBS, a global firm providing financial services in over 50 countries, launched UBS Next, a $200 million strong portfolio that targets investments in the fintech and broader tech ecosystem.

According to the bank's statement, UBS Next focuses on enabling UBS's key strategic priorities such as:

• Codeveloping digital innovation and ecosystem through partnerships, research and innovation pipeline management, facilitated by centers of excellence;

• Modernizing and modularizing technical estates, leveraging new technologies, such as public cloud, microservices architecture, and AI; and

• Finding new and effective ways to engage with our clients and deliver our services, as well as evolving our business model to drive growth across UBS with cutting-edge technologies and solutions.

Through equity investments, UBS Next allows the bank to improve relations with the fintech ecosystem. Additionally, it also guarantees a closer strategic partnership with key partners and provides an upside when portfolio companies succeed.

UBS Next mainly aims to pursue direct investments into early stage fintechs and other relevant tech companies. In addition to direct investments, UBS enters a strategic collaboration with Anthemis to accelerate investment opportunity identification and deal flow for UBS.

UBS Next will be funded exclusively by UBS and will be managed by a dedicated tech venture investment team with market-proven capital expertise.

Mike Dargan, Head of Group Technology, remarked: "UBS Next is a further step to accelerate our innovation efforts as well as to identify and apply the latest technology for our client businesses. With our investments through close collaboration with Anthemis, we widen our access to fintech start-ups."