Andi Kazeroonian
Principal at outward-vc
Reviewed Updated Jul 8, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Background
Andi Kazeroonian is a Principal at Outward VC, a London-based early-stage fintech venture capital firm founded in 2019 by Kevin Chong and Devin Kohli 12. He is British-Iranian and joined Outward as part of the founding team, where he helped structure the firm’s inaugural fund and onboarded more than 60 limited partners 3. Prior to Outward, he worked in investment banking and corporate finance roles at Investec and Cantor Fitzgerald, and holds a BA in Economics and Finance from the University of Exeter 4.
At Outward, Kazeroonian focuses on compliance-heavy fintech and regulated financial services — categories where deep operator and regulatory expertise is required to underwrite an early-stage bet 35. He typically writes checks in the $750K–$1.5M range with a sweet spot around $1.1M, at pre-seed and seed 4.
Stated Thesis
Kazeroonian’s public writing on the Outward VC blog articulates a preference for founders solving structural problems in financial services that “everyone recognises, yet few have successfully addressed” — the kind of dense, compliance-heavy problem space where regulation and network effects act as moats rather than obstacles 5. In his Steward investment memo he describes wanting to back founders “we know and trust as friends,” reflecting a repeat-founder / warm-network sourcing bias 5.
Writing on the Firenze investment, he framed Outward’s thesis as being “around the power of combining technology, networks and innovative structures to open up exclusive financial products to a much larger audience” 6.
Outward VC as a firm positions itself as an “anti-hype” investor emphasizing candid founder communication and human capital alongside financial investment 3.
Inferred Thesis
Sample size: six verified portfolio investments over 2020–2026 4. Small denominator; percentages below are shown as raw counts.
- Sector concentration: all six investments are UK/European fintech infrastructure or regulated-services plays: eXate (data compliance / privacy), Finverity (supply-chain finance), Vauban (fund-formation infrastructure), Adclear (fintech), Firenze (Lombard lending / credit infrastructure), and Steward (AI-first AML compliance) 4. Six of six (100%) sit inside compliance-heavy or infrastructure fintech.
- Stage: predominantly seed and pre-seed. Five of six rounds are seed or pre-seed; one (Firenze) is a Series A follow-on 47.
- Geography: UK/European. Firenze (UK), Vauban (UK, now Cayman), Steward (US-founded but backed alongside Motive Ventures on a $5M pre-seed — the outlier) 58.
- Deal role: Andi has publicly led at least two rounds — Vauban (£4.7M in 2021 with Outward as lead) and Firenze’s £2.5M seed in March 2025 with Outward as lead 78. On Steward and Firenze’s £6M Series A follow-on he participated alongside a lead (Motive Ventures and AlbionVC respectively) 59.
- Co-investor pattern: repeat co-investors include Form Ventures and Portfolio Ventures (both participated with Outward on Firenze’s seed), AlbionVC (Firenze Series A lead), and Motive Ventures (Steward lead) 685. Pentech Ventures, PiLabs, 7percent Ventures, and Westloop Ventures participated alongside Outward on Vauban 7.
- Founder-relationship pattern: Kazeroonian pre-committed to back any future venture by Vauban’s founders after Vauban’s acquisition — a rare structural commitment that led directly to the Steward investment 35. This is a distinctive re-up pattern: the same founders, twice.
- Board involvement: frequently serves as a Board Observer at portfolio companies 4.
Delta between stated and inferred: stated and inferred thesis align tightly — Kazeroonian says he backs compliance-heavy, regulated fintech from founders he knows deeply, and his portfolio is 100% compliance-heavy fintech with a documented repeat-founder pattern. No meaningful gap.
Portfolio
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| eXate | 2020 | Seed | 4 |
| Vauban | 2021 | Seed (Outward led, £4.7M) | 47 |
| Finverity | 2023 | Seed | 4 |
| Adclear | 2025 | Seed | 4 |
| Firenze | 2025 | Seed (Outward led, £2.5M, March 26, 2025) | 46 |
| Firenze | 2026 | Series A (AlbionVC led, £6M, Outward follow-on) | 49 |
| Steward | 2026 | Pre-seed ($5M, Motive Ventures led, March 18, 2026) | 5 |
| Infrawatch | 2026 | Pre-seed | 4 |
In Their Own Words
“Firenze is the embodiment of this, bringing to market a highly demanded solution that acts as a clear win-win-win for borrowers, wealth managers and funders.”
— Andi Kazeroonian, on Outward VC leading Firenze’s £2.5M seed round, March 26, 2025 6
“Arik and Moshe bring a rare combination of deep domain expertise and world-class engineering capability… This is a future we’re excited to help build, and one we are especially proud to pursue alongside founders we know and trust as friends.”
— Andi Kazeroonian, “Why we invested in Steward,” Outward VC blog, March 18, 2026 5
“The team’s obsessive and relentless focus on UX had resulted in a simple and intuitive platform that is well beyond 10x… Vauban have built democratising infrastructure that removes barriers and friction for those who have access to deal opportunities and capital.”
— Andi Kazeroonian, “Why we invested in Vauban,” Outward VC blog, December 7, 2021 7
“Firenze has evolved beyond democratising Lombard lending to building credit infrastructure that will reshape how the entire wealth industry thinks about liquidity.”
— Andi Kazeroonian, LinkedIn post announcing Firenze’s £6M Series A led by AlbionVC, 2026 9
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials specifically about working with Andi Kazeroonian were found after dedicated searching on 2026-07-08 (queries: LinkedIn recommendations, Sifted / Tech.eu press coverage, Product Hunt launches by Outward portfolio companies, founder podcasts). Outward VC portfolio press quotes tend to reference the firm collectively rather than individual partners. If founder quotes about Andi specifically are later discovered, they should be added here.
Sources
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Outward VC team page, accessed July 2026. https://outwardvc.com/team/↩
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Signal by NFX, “Outward VC — Venture Capital Firm” profile, accessed July 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/firms/outward-vc↩
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VCSheet, “Andi Kazeroonian (Outward VC) / VC Breakdown & Contact,” accessed July 2026. https://www.vcsheet.com/who/andi-kazeroonian↩↩↩↩
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Signal by NFX, “Andi Kazeroonian’s Investing Profile — Outward VC Investor,” accessed July 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/andi-kazeroonian↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Andi Kazeroonian, “Why we invested in Steward,” Outward VC blog, March 18, 2026. https://outwardvc.com/articles/why-we-invested-in-steward/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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FF News, “Firenze Closes £2.5m Seed Funding Round Led by Outward VC, the Backers of Curve, PrimaryBid and Vauban,” March 26, 2025. https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/firenze-closes-2-5m-seed-funding-round-led-by-outward-vc-the-backers-of-curve-primarybid-and-vauban/↩↩↩↩
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Andi Kazeroonian, “Why we invested in Vauban,” Outward VC blog, December 7, 2021. https://outwardvc.com/articles/why-we-invested-in-vauban/↩↩↩↩↩
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UK Tech News, “Firenze secures £2.5 million Seed Investment led by Outward VC,” March 25, 2025. https://www.uktechnews.info/2025/03/25/firenze-secures-2-5-million-seed-investment-led-by-outward-vc/↩↩↩
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Andi Kazeroonian on LinkedIn, post 7452304320475324416, announcing Firenze’s £6M Series A led by AlbionVC, 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andi-kazeroonian-64444968_venturecapital-lombardlending-creditinfrastructure-activity-7452304320475324416-Wuf5↩↩↩