Key Takeaways
- • Fasanara Capital, a London firm founded in 2011 by Francesco Filia after 15 years at JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch, built a fintech credit business first and used it to fund close to 200 independent alpha pods across private credit, digital assets and quant, according to an Opalesque profile.
- • The credit engine holds over 7 million positions in short-duration loans, works with 139 origination platforms in more than 60 countries, and manages around USD 7.5 billion, per the article.
- • Fasanara One (F-ONE) offers clients a semi-liquid, market-neutral multi-strategy vehicle combining credit, digital asset strategies and the quant platform under one risk system.
- • Fasanara Open Quant currently has 32 external strategies invested and more than 150 in the pipeline, and the firm hired Dr Darran Specter, formerly of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Brevan Howard, as Head of Quant Equity in August.
- • The firm's flagship credit strategy has reportedly not had a down month in 12 years, a claim the article attributes to the firm itself.
Summary
Fasanara Capital has pursued a different route to multi-strategy scale than the large US platforms, which have competed for portfolio managers with guaranteed payouts that increasingly pass through to investors as fees. According to Matthias Knab of Opalesque, the London firm instead built a fintech credit business first and let it fund a set of independent strategies. Co-founder Francesco Filia describes the firm's goal as manufacturing stable institutional income in a market he characterizes as having scarce stable returns, with a firm-wide bias to market neutrality.
The credit business lends short-duration, small-ticket loans and receivables, typically outstanding for a few months, through a network of fintech lenders in multiple jurisdictions. Elisa Bianchi, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Impact, says the granularity allows impact and gender reporting on individual SMEs. The firm states its portfolio does not require leverage to achieve target returns.
Above the credit base sit the digital asset and quant franchises. Fasanara Digital, launched in 2018 as a market-neutral liquidity provider, is led by Managing Partner Nikita Fadeev. Fasanara Open Quant, led by Vinicius Karam, provides allocators managed-account access to emerging systematic managers through a centralized risk system. Filia says the firm operates on a split model in which investment teams own their strategies while shared infrastructure covers risk, operations, legal, compliance and technology.
The article notes that the firm's three engines are offered separately or together through F-ONE, which Paolo Viale, Head of Business Development, describes as a one-stop semi-liquid vehicle spanning on-chain, off-chain, private and public exposures. Filia says the firm counts more than 200 uncorrelated pods, a level of granularity he describes as difficult to replicate at its size.
The credit business lends short-duration, small-ticket loans and receivables, typically outstanding for a few months, through a network of fintech lenders in multiple jurisdictions. Elisa Bianchi, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Impact, says the granularity allows impact and gender reporting on individual SMEs. The firm states its portfolio does not require leverage to achieve target returns.
Above the credit base sit the digital asset and quant franchises. Fasanara Digital, launched in 2018 as a market-neutral liquidity provider, is led by Managing Partner Nikita Fadeev. Fasanara Open Quant, led by Vinicius Karam, provides allocators managed-account access to emerging systematic managers through a centralized risk system. Filia says the firm operates on a split model in which investment teams own their strategies while shared infrastructure covers risk, operations, legal, compliance and technology.
The article notes that the firm's three engines are offered separately or together through F-ONE, which Paolo Viale, Head of Business Development, describes as a one-stop semi-liquid vehicle spanning on-chain, off-chain, private and public exposures. Filia says the firm counts more than 200 uncorrelated pods, a level of granularity he describes as difficult to replicate at its size.
Go deeper than the headline
Research every firm in this story, track the ones that matter and get the daily briefing — free for 7 days.