Strong institutional investment background key to supporting Outlier Ventures’ growth strategy
London and Chicago (insert date) — Leading blockchain and internet infrastructure venture capital firm Outlier Ventures today announces experienced venture capitalist Rumi Morales joins the firm as a Partner.
An early specialist in digital currency, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, Morales is also a leading early investor in artificial intelligence, deep learning, predictive analytics, and quantum computing as they will affect traditional industries.
Based in Chicago, Morales founded and led CME Ventures, the venture arm of the CME Group, the world’s leading exchange operator. She spearheaded substantial early investments in blockchain companies Ripple, Digital Currency Group and Digital Asset Holdings, as well as investments in geospatial data firm, Orbital Insight, industrial IOT firm, SparkCognition, and deep-learning startup Nervana Systems, which was acquired by Intel in 2023, among others. Prior to that role, Morales founded her own research consultancy and spent seven years with Goldman Sachs where she established the firm’s Global Markets Institute that focused on the intersection of public policy formation and capital markets. She is a board member Digital Chamber Commerce and adds to Outlier Venture’s existing relationship with Wall Street Blockchain Alliance.
With a successful track record investing in transformational innovation, Morales has been concentrating since 2014 in the convergence of blockchain and distributed ledger technology and other areas of advanced technologies – an intersection where Outlier Ventures has been an established leader. Morales said, “The team at Outlier spotted the convergence of distributed ledger technology, IoT and AI very early and we couldn’t be closer in our thinking on where value is being created for the economy of tomorrow.”
Jamie Burke, CEO, Outlier Ventures added: “Rumi’s strong background in both early stage technology and working in senior investment roles for major financial institutions means she is an excellent fit for our growth strategy in a maturing crypto-assets market. As we ramp up our activities in investing for decentralised technologies in Web 3.0 and technology convergence, we couldn’t hope to find more relevant leader to represent us in the US.”
The senior hire gives Outlier Ventures a deeper presence in the North America, a market which already represents 50% of its portfolio, and helps it fully realise its vision as not only Europe’s leading crypto VC but a major transatlantic player. Morales will represent the firm with a focus on deal sourcing and co-investments an area she knows intimately having been credited byInstitutional Investor as ‘one of the most powerful dealmakers in financial technology’ in consecutive years.
The appointment of Morales follows strong recent growth for Outlier across both their London and Toronto offices and a string of senior hires including the former HSBC senior structuring expert Jocelyn Roberts joining as Head of Legal in May. Outlier’s backing for early stage Web 3.0 innovators is also accelerating, with the firm leading the investment round in new decentralised database startup Haja Networks this month.
The recently published Convergence Ecosystem report from Outlier Ventures is now available and outlines the evolving decentralised technology stack and the emerging foundations of a new data infrastructure, which supports entirely new economic models.
About Outlier Ventures
Outlier Ventures was launched in 2014 as the first European VC focused on blockchain technologies and has since extended activities into North America. Now, with a team of 30, they help pre-seed and seed stage startups navigate the emerging token space. Their venture platform which includes academic and corporate partners, offers strategic guidance on token design, their underlying economics, compliance, as well as marketing and technical development.
Their investment philosophy is based on the convergence of decentralised technologies like blockchains and distributed ledgers with ‘deep tech’ such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, and 3D printing primarily within the Industry 4.0, Smart Cities and Mobility markets.
Portfolio companies include Ocean Protocol, IOTA, Botanic Technologies / SEED Token, Fetch.ai, Evernym / Sovrin Foundation, Haja Networks as well as a number of further planned ambitious investments. The firm also maintains strategic partnerships with its corporate and academic network. https://outlierventures.io/