Andrew McCormack started his career as Peter Thiel's assistant at PayPal in 2001, giving him an unusually close apprenticeship at the center of one of the original PayPal Mafia companies before co-founding Valar Ventures with Thiel. He specializes in backing category-creating challenger banks globally, making first-mover investments in emerging fintech ecosystems like Kuda in Africa and Neo Financial in Canada, often entering markets well before they're on mainstream US VC radars. Andrew McCormack started his career as Peter Thiel's assistant at PayPal in 2001, giving him an unusually close apprenticeship at the center of one of the original PayPal Mafia companies before co-founding Valar Ventures with Thiel. He specializes in backing category-creating challenger banks globally, making first-mover investments in emerging fintech ecosystems like Kuda in Africa and Neo Financial in Canada, often entering markets well before they're on mainstream US VC radars.