Point72 Ventures

Elizaveta Chistyakova

Investments

New York

Elizaveta is an investor at Point72 Ventures, focused on fintech investments.

Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Elizaveta was an investor at Stripes, where she focused on high growth fintech companies, as well as software companies building solutions for the “real economy” verticals, which is a category she is particularly passionate about, such as supply chain, manufacturing, hospitality, amongst others. 

Prior to Stripes, Elizaveta was an investor at Centana Growth Partners, a New York-based fintech growth equity firm, which she joined nearly at inception and was involved in every aspect of the firm’s day-to-day activities, including deal sourcing and execution, portfolio management, network and brand building, and operations. Elizaveta started her career as an investment banker at Houlihan Lokey’s TMT group in San Francisco, covering enterprise software. 

The “real economy” verticals have ways to go before completing their digital transformation journey, and vertical-specific software with embedded fintech infrastructure has a huge advantage in driving the next wave of change for core parts of our economy. 

There are enormous industries that are the backbones of our economy that are still analog and largely locked out of access to financial services. I see these industries as perfect candidates for purpose-built software solutions that can use first-party data to launch embedded financial services products specifically tailored for these businesses. We’ve already seen this happen in the B2B2C space and I think we will see this trend accelerate and extend to other verticals, as well as B2B business models. 

The way I build excitement and conviction is by connecting to founders’ stories and understanding their mindset and motivation. 

In early stage investing, founders are key. Products and markets evolve throughout the years, making it critically important to back the right, execution-oriented team that can recognize when to make a pivot, when to push forward and when to let go. 

I think that the way to build your network is by building long-lasting, personal connections that grow into genuine friendships. 

A career is a very long, evolving journey and the way to enhance your ups and get through your downs is by surrounding yourself with good people whose company you would enjoy regardless of their professional affiliations. 

Small talk cheat sheet: 

Biohacking, backcountry snowboarding, investigative journalism, and non-fiction books