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Peer Fund / Dealmaker·Payments

Nick Shalek

General Partner at Ribbit Capital

Palo Alto, California, USA

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Why they matter

A founding-era Ribbit GP with active board seats across insurtech and payments-adjacent fintech, giving him early visibility into deal flow and pricing dynamics deal teams can't easily get elsewhere.

Background

Nick Shalek is a General Partner at Ribbit Capital, a fintech-focused venture firm he joined in 2012, where he invests from seed through Series B across payments, insurance, fintech, and web3. He began his career as a senior analyst in Yale's Investments Office under David Swensen, then worked as an operator at Verne Global and as Entrepreneur in Residence at Aspire Public Schools before moving into venture. He holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from Yale, and an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford.

Notable deals

  • 2019
    Led Ribbit Capital's $40M Series A investment in cyber insurance startup Coalition; publicly quoted on the thesis that cyber insurance would overtake cybersecurity spend
  • 2021
    Joined the board of B2B fintech Settle after Ribbit Capital led its $60M Series B round
  • 2017
    Served on the board of directors of Root, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROOT), representing Ribbit Capital as a major shareholder through Root's growth and 2020 IPO

Call-prep brief

Background

  • General Partner at Ribbit Capital since 2012 (one of the firm's earliest GPs alongside founder Micky Malka); focus areas are payments, insurance, fintech, and web3, investing seed through Series B.
  • Prior career: Yale Investments Office (under David Swensen), Verne Global, Aspire Public Schools/Schoolzilla — brings an endowment-style, price-disciplined investing lens rather than a growth-at-all-costs mindset.

Current focus

  • Active board seats include Coalition (cyber insurance), Settle (B2B payments/fintech), and historically Root, Inc. (auto insurtech, public via Nasdaq: ROOT).
  • Publicly vocal about insurance-as-a-distribution-layer for fintech and about price/ownership discipline in venture rounds (see his 20VC interview).

What he cares about

  • Capital efficiency and price sensitivity — has spoken critically about overpaying in pre-emptive rounds.
  • Embedded insurance and payments infrastructure as the next wave of fintech value creation.

Recent moves

  • Stepped down from Root's board in 2022 after five years to focus on other portfolio companies — worth understanding his current bandwidth and priority holdings.
  • Continues board involvement in payments/insurance names like Coalition and Settle.

Sensitivities

  • As an active GP, he cannot speak about portfolio company financials or confidential terms; frame questions around market structure and thesis, not specific deal economics.
  • He has publicly discussed why he stepped back from at least one board (Root); avoid framing this as anything but a bandwidth/portfolio-focus decision unless he raises it.

Questions to ask

  1. How is he thinking about payments and merchant-acquiring economics changing as embedded finance matures?
  2. What did the Settle and Coalition board experiences teach him about underwriting fintech infrastructure bets?
  3. Where does he see the next wave of consolidation or take-private opportunity in the payments/insurtech stack?

Outreach draft

Subject
Quick call on payments/fintech infra landscape?
Hi Nick, I'm on the deal team at [Firm], and we're doing diligence on the payments and merchant-acquiring space. Your work at Ribbit — particularly your board experience with Coalition and Settle, and earlier with Root — gives you a vantage point we'd value. We're trying to understand how embedded insurance and payments infrastructure are converging, and where the next wave of durable, fundable businesses might sit. Would you be open to a 20-30 minute call in the next couple of weeks to share your perspective? Happy to work around your schedule. Thanks for considering it. Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

Sources