Baron FinTech Fund

Visa Inc. (V) is a leading global payment network. The company authorizes and facilitates electronic payments for consumers, merchants, and banks.
Visa benefits from consumer spending growth and the secular shift from cash to electronic payments. Most of its revenue comes from international markets, where consumer spending and the adoption rate of electronic payments are rising quickly. The company generates significant free cash flow, which is being returned to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. We believe Visa enjoys high barriers to entry given its well-established brand, ubiquitous merchant acceptance network, and extensive banking relationships.

Mastercard Incorporated (MA) is a leading global payment network. The company authorizes and facilitates electronic payments for consumers, merchants, and banks.
Mastercard benefits from consumer spending growth and the secular shift from cash to electronic payments. Most of its revenue comes from international markets, where consumer spending and the adoption rate of electronic payments are rising quickly. Margins should continue expanding due to operating leverage. The company generates significant free cash flow, which it uses for acquisitions and share repurchases. We believe Mastercard enjoys high barriers to entry given its well-established brand, ubiquitous acceptance network, and extensive banking relationships.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) provides credit ratings, indexes, data, and analytics to the financial, transportation, and commodities markets.
S&P Global benefits from the secular growth of rated bond issuance, the ongoing shift from active to passive investing, and growing demand for data and analytics. The company operates in oligopoly markets, where it enjoys formidable competitive advantages. We expect to see a recovery in rated bond issuance as interest rates stabilize, alongside ongoing benefits from S&P Global’s 2022 merger with IHS Markit. Excess cash flow is being used for accretive acquisitions and is being returned to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (LPLA) is the largest independent broker-dealer in the U.S., with $1.6 trillion in assets under management. It offers independent financial advisors the technology, brokerage services, and practice management support they need to run their own practice. 
As advisors continue to break away from wirehouses, we believe LPL is an attractive home for them and will continue to win share in this market. It is benefiting from the higher interest rate environment, as it earns interest on its assets. LPL can leverage its economies of scale to generate healthy margins and free cash flow that it can reinvest into its business. With a profitable business, good growth prospects, and underlying tailwinds, we believe LPL is well positioned to continue growing earnings per share at a rapid rate.

Fiserv, Inc. (FI) is one of the world's largest payment processing companies, enabling merchants to accept electronic payments and financial institutions to issue credit cards. It is both a merchant acquirer and a card issuer processor and owns other payment-related businesses. 
Fiserv leverages efficiencies of scale to deliver low-cost solutions, a critical advantage in payments. Its products tend to be sticky, and it is led by a highly experienced management team with significant equity ownership. Fiserv's strategic acquisitions have helped it grow faster than peers, and the company has a long history of expanding EPS at a double-digit rate. As a leading industry player with differentiated payment offerings, we think Fiserv will continue to grow revenue and earnings over time.

The Progressive Corporation (PGR) is a property and casualty insurer and the third largest personal automobile insurer by premiums in the U.S., with 13% to 14% market share. The company targets a combined ratio of 96% or lower.
Through superior underwriting and distribution, Progressive should continue to win market share in personal auto, leading to high single-digit premium growth over a multi-year period. At a 4% or better underwriting margin, plus the investment income from $50 billion of float, we believe Progressive can grow earnings per share at over 20% annually. The company should ultimately generate a return on equity of more than 20%. Progressive also pays a regular dividend each quarter and a special dividend in most years.

MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI) is the largest e-commerce company in Latin America. The company operates the MercadoLibre e-commerce marketplace, the Mercado Pago fintech platform, and the Mercado Envios suite of shipping solutions for sellers on its platform.
MercadoLibre benefits from the emergence of two secular trends: e-commerce and digital payments. The company has a significant first-mover advantage and is investing aggressively in logistics to widen its competitive moat. Latin America is a predominantly cash-based economy with e-commerce penetration under 20%, and MercadoLibre has an attractive, asset-light marketplace business model. We believe its logistics network is a key competitive advantage, and we see a significant opportunity in the growth of its fintech offerings.

Guidewire Software, Inc. (GWRE) is a leading provider of core systems software to the global P&C insurance industry.
Guidewire is a small player in a vast addressable market and has been benefiting from the need for P&C insurers to upgrade 30-year-old systems. The company offers best-in-class functionality, as evidenced by its growing installed base and near-100% retention rates. The company has passed the midpoint of its cloud transition, and we expect to see accelerating revenue, expanding margins, and improving free cash flow over the next several years. We believe that recent M&A in the vertical software space supports a meaningful value creation opportunity for shareholders.

Tradeweb Markets Inc. (TW) operates electronic marketplaces for trading rates, credit, equities, and money markets.
Tradeweb is benefiting from the electronification of the fixed income market and is gaining share from less innovative competitors. Tradeweb enjoys network effects from pooling liquidity from its more than 2,800 clients and benefits from high switching costs due to its deep integration into client technology and workflows. We expect margin expansion to be driven by operating leverage and efficiency initiatives.

Apollo Global Management, Inc. (APO) is one of the world's leading alternative asset managers. The company manages over $700 billion in assets, mostly in credit strategies. It also owns Athene, one of the largest providers of annuities in the U.S.
Apollo has a dominant franchise in private credit, where it has spearheaded the practice of matching insurance liabilities with investment-grade, illiquid credit investments to generate higher returns than peers. We think Apollo will continue to grow in credit and insurance, where it has significant scale and expertise. The company should also see growth in assets, fees, and spread earnings, since it earns management fees on assets as well as excess spread on liabilities following its 2022 merger with Athene.