Fintech VC powerhouse Frank Rotman stepping down from QED Investors to found his own startups
Prolific fintech investor and QED Traders co-founder Frank Rotman mentioned Friday that he’ll transition to a associate emeritus function by 12 months’s finish to concentrate on founding his personal startups.
However these startups gained’t essentially be monetary know-how corporations. In a post on X, Rotman — who helped begin QED in 2007 — declared that “the primary enterprise” that he plans “on getting out of the bottom is within the music trade.”
He wrote: “It’s straightforward to name me loopy for all the plain causes, nevertheless it’s value reserving judgment till you study extra in regards to the enterprise that’s developed in my head and sat on the shelf for years. It is going to be enjoyable to construct and will truly make an enormous distinction to an trade that none of us might think about residing with out.”
Rotman began Alexandria, Virginia-based QED, which at the moment has $4 billion in belongings below administration, practically twenty years in the past with Nigel Morris and Caribou Honig. He led the agency’s funding in Credit score Karma and performed a job in QED’s investments in unicorns reminiscent of GreenSky, Flywire, and SoFi. (In actual fact, QED was the primary institutional cash into Credit score Karma.) Different corporations that the agency has backed embody Creditas, Nubank, AvidXchange, and Bitso.
QED solely invests in corporations constructing monetary know-how on the pre-seed to Sequence A phases.
Rotman, who goes by the deal with “The Fintech Junkie” on X, mentioned he’ll transition to his new function on January 1, 2026. He’ll proceed to serve in a part-time advisory function to QED over the approaching years.
Apart from founding music startups, Rotman mentioned he probably plans to jot down a e-book centered round his “observations and frameworks for the startup and VC worlds.”
He wrote within the X publish: “This shouldn’t shock anybody who is aware of me – writing is my oxygen. I can’t think about a life with out it though ChatGPT and Claude are higher writers than I’m.”
In an announcement, QED Managing Companion Nigel Morris famous that he and Rotman had labored collectively for over 30 years — beforehand additionally at Capital One.
“Frank, at his core, is an entrepreneur and I’ve little question he’ll excel in his subsequent chapter,” he mentioned.
QED Traders’ associate Amias Gerety might be promoted to guide QED’s U.S. funding workforce.
