6 questions for Andrew Endicott of Gilgamesh Ventures

Andrew Endicott is a co-founding partner at Gilgamesh Ventures, a global, early-stage fintech venture capital fund based in New York City. The FR spoke with him about raising the firm’s $20 million Fund II and its investment approach. Comments have been edited for clarity.

Good to have you join our Q&A series! Can you tell us about Gilgamesh and what you invest in?

Gilgamesh Ventures is a global fintech-focused venture capital firm founded by Miguel Armaza and myself, Andrew Endicott. We launched Fund I in 2021, and now manage $35 million across our funds. We aim to back visionary entrepreneurs reshaping payments, lending, insurance, capital markets, commerce, and financial infrastructure globally.

I’m a fintech entrepreneur turned investor.  In 2016, I co-founded Petal, a credit-card fintech company that was acquired by Empower in 2024. I’d begun my career as an M&A lawyer and investment banker in the financial services space, following the financial crisis. I also spend time as a board member of both a U.S. bank (Encore Bank) and U.S. insurance company (Mangrove Insurance).  

My co-founder, Miguel Armaza, is a former banker turned fintech investor and podcaster. Before co-founding Gilgamesh Ventures, he spent years in the banking industry, including roles within corporate banking, trade finance, capital markets, and even operations and technology. He now also hosts the Fintech Leaders podcast, interviewing the most influential fintech and VC leaders globally, and his content reaches nearly 100,000 followers across 180 countries. 

What is your strategy?

We invest in global fintech companies, with a special emphasis on the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. Nearly a third of our portfolio companies are headquartered in NYC. Our core sectors include payments, software, lending, insurance, capital markets, and financial infrastructure, particularly companies leveraging new AI-tooling resources.

A few examples illustrate our focus. Baselayer leverages unique identity and financial data to help fintechs and financial institutions fight B2B fraud and comply with anti-money laundering rules in the United States. Nexu has built the leading financing platform for car dealerships in Mexico, increasing transaction volumes and expediting the purchase process for consumers.  And in Brazil, Cayena operates a marketplace that simplifies procurement for restaurants, dramatically streamlining sourcing in the last mile of the food supply chain.

How do you work with the companies you invest in?

We’re committed partners who go far beyond providing capital. Even though the success or failure of a company ultimately comes down to the effectiveness of its founders, investors can definitely amplify founders' efforts, and we believe in doing everything we can to help them.  We leverage our extensive industry network to help our portfolio companies secure strategic clients, partners, and investors. Our approachable and bureaucracy-free style makes us trusted advisors, especially during challenging times. Additionally, through our network, we've helped several of our companies land important early customers and raise their visibility in the market.

With Gilgamesh closing your second fund, what does this milestone signify? 

Closing your second fund — especially at a larger size than the first one — is a big deal for an emerging manager.  It means you successfully convinced at least some of your original LPs to double down, in addition to finding others to join you.  It also means that investors believe in your strategy and your ability to execute it.  None of these hurdles are easy to surmount.  

So many funds, especially in this difficult fundraising environment for venture capital, aren’t able to get to this point. The number of emerging managers who have successfully closed funds in the last two years has fallen dramatically as distributions remain scarce and LPs preserve dry-powder. We are incredibly grateful for the support of all of our existing and new investors, and we are singularly focused on creating a great financial result for them.  But most of all, we are honored by their trust in Miguel and myself and seek to measure up to their expectations.  

How is fintech changing today?  What is different about investing now versus during your first fund? 

Now is a time of great change in financial services, which is very exciting for us as early-stage investors.  A lot has changed from when we were investing Fund I in 2021-2023.  Today, we're particularly excited about the transformative potential of artificial intelligence within financial services. AI-native companies in our portfolio have already demonstrated rapid scalability — several have surpassed $5 million in annual recurring revenue within just 18 months of operations, typically with lean, agile teams. This efficiency significantly outpaces traditional incumbents burdened with legacy systems. We see continued strong opportunities in payments, embedded finance, lending, and financial infrastructure — areas where AI is uniquely positioned to dramatically improve customer experiences and operational effectiveness.

Additionally, we're bullish on cross-border, global-first businesses addressing critical pain points in payments, compliance, anti-fraud, and treasury management. We've actively invested in startups solving these complex challenges, but we recognize there's much more to build in this space.

How does media fit into your broader approach?

Our fintech focus and expertise is powerfully complemented by the global reach of Miguel’s Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter, which now boasts nearly 100,000 subscribers and followers from 180 countries. Over the last five years, he has interviewed 330+ of the biggest names in fintech and venture capital, including the CEOs / Founders of Nubank, Wealthfront, Ramp, Capital One, Brex, Credit Karma, Mercury, Gusto, Kaspi, Webull, Socure, and Venture Capital legends Alan Patricof, Howard Morgan, and General Atlantic’s Martin Escobari.

Media not only enhances our firm's visibility, but has directly contributed to sourcing approximately 40% of its investments and over 25 of Miguel’s podcast guests have invested in one of our funds. The podcast network has also helped our portfolio companies land some of their earliest customers and partners. This impact on young companies can be huge.