Citigroup Inc. is a global diversified financial services holding company headquartered in New York, offering a wide range of financial products and services to consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions across multiple regions, including North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates through two main segments: Global Consumer Banking (GCB) and Institutional Clients Group (ICG). The GCB segment provides traditional banking services such as retail banking, commercial banking, and credit card services to individual customers. In contrast, the ICG segment focuses on wholesale banking products and services, catering to corporate, institutional, public sector, and high-net-worth clients with offerings that include investment banking, corporate lending, cash management, and securities services. Founded in 1812, Citigroup has established a significant global presence, operating numerous branches primarily in the United States, Mexico, and Asia.
Illuminate Financial Management LLP is a venture capital firm established in 2014 and headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with an additional office in New York. The firm specializes in investments within the financial technology sector, focusing on companies that address challenges in financial services, particularly in compliance, regulation, and connectivity. Illuminate Financial targets early-stage investments, including Series A and seed financing, typically committing between $0.25 million and $3 million for a stake of 5% to 20% in its portfolio companies. While the firm invests globally, it places a significant emphasis on opportunities within the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. With deep domain expertise and a robust industry network, Illuminate Financial serves as a trusted partner, guiding its portfolio companies through the complexities of their early development phases.
Crowdz provides invoice-financing opportunities to companies in global supply chains—a $9 trillion market that SMEs traditionally have been excluded from. The need for such financing is greater than ever before. Some 93% of all supply-chain participants are SMEs, and half of these suffer cashflow shortages as they wait for 90 to 120 days or more to be paid. Crowdz’s global invoice auction solves this problem by directing competitive, low-cost financing to SMEs while offering high returns to funders seeking better investments.