Who is Rex Salisbury? Man who started Cambrian Ventures; by 2025, its $20 million First Fund had backed 33 startups, about half reaching Series A

Rex Salisbury is the founder of Cambrian Ventures. He had raised a second $20 million fund after backing 33 startups through his fund. Half of them progressed to Series A funding. The new fund reportedly came at a time when raising money had become difficult for smaller venture capital firms.

Salisbury’s Cambrian Ventures has one simple task, which is focusing on early-stage financial technology companies. They are commonly known as fintech startups. Its first $20 million fund supported companies at the pre-see and seed stages. This is when businesses are still developing their products and looking for early customers.

Around half of the 33 companies backed by Salisbury got Series A funding, reported TechCrunch. Salisbury claimed that this showed his ability to identify founders who could deliver on their business plans.

When did this all start for Salisbury?

In 2015, Salisbury’s interest in fintech grew. He left investment banking to work as an engineer at a mortgage startup in San Francisco. During that time, Strip, Plaid, Credit Karma, and other companies were expanding.

Later he joined Andreessen Horowitz, which is also known as a16z. There he was a founding member of its fintech investment practice. He had invested in Deel. This proved successful as it went on to build a major business in payroll and human resources software.

Previously, he had built a community for people working in fintech. That included meetups, a newsletter that attracted around 20,000 subscribers.
ALSO READ: Meet Samantha and Kevin Dwoskin, couple who started a mac-and-cheese side hustle in 2023; about 20 months later, Boss Cow had crossed $1 million in annual revenue

Which startups did his fund back?

Cambrian’s first fund invested in 33 companies. It included Simple Closures, and Keep.

Salisbury had told TechCrunch that only a small share of global financial services revenue had been captured by fintech companies. He feels that investors who understand the sector can still find opportunities that others may overlook.

Meanwhile, Cambrian’s second fund launched with $20 million in committed capital. The fundraising came as growing venture capital managers faced a difficult market. Salisbury attracted investors from Plaid, NerdWallet, Betterment and Melio to his first fund. Some of them returned for the second fund.

ALSO READ: Meet Omar Yaghi, Nobel Prize-winning chemist whose startup Atoco showed how data-centre waste heat could extract water from air, with prototypes producing up to 300 litres a day