Fund Shack Private Equity Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Private Markets Podcast, Fund Shack www.fund-shack.com

Space is no longer just about rockets, satellites and astronauts. In this episode, Ross Butler speaks with Mark Boggett, CEO and General Partner of Seraphim Space, about how SpaceTech is becoming a critical infrastructure layer for defence, communications, data, AI, energy and industrial activity.

Following the recent SpaceX IPO, many investors are being forced to develop a view on space. But as Mark explains, SpaceX is only one part of a much broader ecosystem. Launch and Starlink may dominate the headlines, but the wider opportunity includes Earth observation, satellite communications, orbital infrastructure, in-space servicing, data platforms, defence applications, AI-enabled analysis and even the early foundations of space-based energy and computing.

The conversation explores why defence is currently the main revenue engine for SpaceTech companies, particularly across dual-use technologies that serve both military and commercial markets. Mark explains how European governments are reassessing their dependence on US space capabilities, why Germany is becoming more active, and why the UK continues to produce strong SpaceTech start-ups while still facing a later-stage capital gap.

Ross and Mark also examine the commercial side of the market. AI is making satellite data easier to ingest, interpret and apply across industries. Falling launch costs, particularly through Starship, may change the economics of orbital infrastructure. That could make previously speculative ideas, such as orbital data centres, in-space manufacturing and solar energy generation, more plausible over time.

Mark also discusses Seraphim’s own investment model, from accelerator stage through to venture and listed growth capital. He explains why specialist knowledge matters in SpaceTech, why vertical integration can create powerful moats, and why permanent capital may be well suited to companies building the next layer of digital infrastructure in space.

In this episode:

• Why space is better understood as infrastructure than as a conventional sector
• Where the opportunity sits beyond SpaceX, Starlink and launch
• Why defence demand is accelerating revenues across dual-use SpaceTech
• How AI is changing the economics of satellite data
• Why falling launch costs could unlock orbital computing and manufacturing
• How orbital debris and in-space servicing are becoming investable markets
• Why Seraphim uses accelerator, venture and listed growth capital structures

Guest: Mark Boggett is CEO, General Partner and co-founder of Seraphim Space, an investment firm dedicated to the global SpaceTech market. He helped launch the world’s first venture-capital fund focused exclusively on SpaceTech in 2016.

🔗 CONNECT on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-boggett-5044631/

Seraphim’s platform spans an accelerator, early-stage venture capital and the London Stock Exchange-listed Seraphim Space Investment Trust, giving the firm exposure to businesses from formation through to growth stage.

🌐www.seraphim.vc

HostRoss Butler is the founder and host of Fund Shack. He has worked around private capital for 25 years as a journalist, policy adviser and consultant, and is the author of Invest Like a Barbarian: Share in the Spoils of a Private Markets Revolution.

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Private markets were built around illiquidity. Investors commit capital, managers invest it over time, and cash comes back when assets are sold. But as private equity, private credit and private markets have scaled, the industry has had to build a more sophisticated liquidity toolkit.

In this episode of Private Markets Podcast, Fund Shack, Ross Butler speaks with Alex Branton, Chief Investment Officer at Nodem Capital, about what NAV really means, how NAV lending works, and why secondaries, continuation vehicles, structured secondaries and evergreen funds are becoming central to private markets.

Alex explains how NAV lending sits on a spectrum. At low loan-to-value ratios, it looks like conservative credit. At higher LTVs, it begins to resemble preferred equity or structured secondaries, where the lender takes more equity-like risk and future upside is shared.

The episode explores why NAV loans are controversial. They can fund an accretive acquisition, support a strong portfolio company or buy a discounted secondary position. But they can also accelerate DPI or distribute cash when the underlying assets may not be ready for exit. The structure is not the issue. The motivation is.

Ross and Alex also discuss the robustness of NAV itself. NAV is not cash in the bank. It is a manager mark, shaped by comparable multiples, valuation policy, auditor review and GP judgement. For NAV loans, secondaries and evergreen funds, NAV matters because it is the reference point for buying, selling, lending and redeeming.

The conversation then turns to evergreen funds and private wealth access. Alex is positive about evergreen vehicles, but warns that implied liquidity creates a challenge. Investors need to understand how NAV is constructed, how redemptions work and what happens when negative headlines trigger outflows.

The episode finishes with private credit, software exposure, defaults and recent market anxiety. Alex argues that the market should distinguish between genuine credit risk and liquidity pressure inside fund structures. His view is that private credit headlines are often overstated, but underwriting standards, leverage, amend-and-extend behaviour and smaller-market lending should still be watched carefully.

Topics covered include:

🔹What NAV really means in private markets

🔹How NAV lending works

🔹 LP-led and GP-led secondaries

🔹Continuation vehicles and strip sales

🔹Structured secondaries and preferred equity

🔹Loan-to-value, downside protection and equity risk

🔹DPI acceleration versus accretive NAV loan use cases

🔹Why NAV lending is controversial

🔹LPAC governance and investor alignment

🔹 Why NAV is not the same as cash

🔹 Secondary market pricing and bid-ask spreads

🔹Evergreen funds and private wealth access

🔹 NAV squeezing, or NAV stretching

🔹Private credit risk, SaaS exposure and default rates

🔹Why fund structure matters as much as asset quality

This episode is essential listening for GPs, LPs, private credit investors, secondaries specialists, family offices, wealth advisers and anyone trying to understand how liquidity, valuation and alignment are changing across private markets.

Guest: Alex Branton, Chief Investment Officer, Nodem Capital

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-branton-b6130a27/

Host: Ross Butler, Fund Shack

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/

Ross Butler speaks with Matteo Stefanel and Udayan (“Uday”) Goyal, Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Apis Partners, one of the world’s leading growth-equity investors in financial technology.

Founded in 2014, Apis Partners has built a global fintech franchise by applying M&A discipline to private equity: identify the likely acquirers first, then build the company to fit their strategic blueprint. In this conversation, Matteo and Uday explain how they turned two decades of deal-making experience, from DLJ and Deutsche Bank to advising on Visa, Mastercard, and Worldpay into one of the most distinctive investment models in growth capital.

They discuss:

• How Apis built credibility as a first-time fund manager, raising $290m at launch and scaling to a multi-fund global platform.
  

• The importance of the network as an asset, relationships forged over 20 years now drive sourcing, diligence, talent, and exits.
  

• “Exit-first” investing, designing portfolio companies around known strategic buyers and building to a defined market demand.
  

• Why 2025 marks the most disruptive moment in financial services history, as stablecoins, micropayments, and decentralised rails reshape how money moves.
  

• The rise of agentic AI, where your personal financial assistant will soon negotiate directly with your bank’s AI.
  

• Embedded finance and the subscription economy, from iPhones to autos, where distribution and customer ownership, not balance sheet, define value.
  

• The democratisation of wealth, as technology opens private-market access to a broader investor base while raising new questions about fairness, data, and risk.
  

“Finance will be invisible, stitched into every product, every experience.”

This is a forward-looking discussion about what comes after banking, where technology, capital, and human behaviour converge to redefine how financial systems work and who benefits from them.

🎧 Watch the full conversation at www.fund-shack.com

Follow Fund Shack on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts for more conversations with the people shaping private markets and the future of finance.

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Thank you to our episode partner, Brookfield’s Private Equity Group: A Global leader in acquiring and driving operational transformation in industrials and essential business services.

For more information, visit: www.brookfield.com/it-takes-industry

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💼 Learn more at:

🌐 www.apis.pe

🎙️Matteo Stefanel

Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Apis Partners

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteostefanel/

🎙️Udayan Goyal

Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Apis Partners

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ugoyal/

Ross Butler

Founder and Host Fund Shack

🌐 www.fund-shack.com

CONNECT on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/

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00:00 Fintech revolution begins, Apis Partners ranked global #2

01:45 Meet Apis Partners, fintech growth investors Matteo Stefanel & Udayan Goyal
03:06 From Wall Street to growth capital, building a fintech platform
05:01 Relationships as alpha networks turned into exits

07:56 Exit-first model designing for strategic buyers

11:24 Value creation buy-and-build and customer access

16:21 Partnering with founders, trust and alignment

18:20 Stablecoins & 24-hour liquidity, treasury reinvented

23:54 Micropayments & continuous finance, real-time money flow
27:27 Agentic AI, automation reshaping financial services
31:15 Embedded finance & subscriptions, banking disappears

36:52 Who owns the customer, brands vs banks

42:46 Finance as social engine,from UBI to capital ownership

47:00 Democratising wealth, opening private-market access

50:20 Bitcoin vs stablecoins, new financial infrastructure
54:28 the future of finance

Brookfield is renowned for running the companies it owns, not just financing them. In this episode, Ross Butler speaks with Adrian Letts, Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group and Head of Business Operations, to explore how the firm’s operator-led model drives value creation from origination through exit.

Adrian explains how Brookfield embeds operators alongside investors, with shared carry, shared accountability, and a shared mandate to transform portfolio companies. He discusses organisational design as a true value lever, why smaller and senior operating teams outperform larger ones, and how AI and digital tools are reshaping performance management and working-capital efficiency across the Brookfield ecosystem.

From aligning incentives and structuring teams to deploying data and AI in real assets, this is a masterclass in how private equity really creates value.

#PrivateEquity #Brookfield #ValueCreation #FundShack #AdrianLetts #PrivateMarkets #OperationalExcellence #AI #AlternativeInvestments #Leadership

Private markets are no longer on the sidelines. With listed companies shrinking and private companies multiplying, alternatives are becoming a core component of diversified portfolios.

In this episode of Fund Shack, Ross Butler speaks with William Benjamin, Head of Alternative Solutions at HSBC Asset Management, about how alternatives are evolving and why investors haven’t “missed the boat” in the 2020s.

Benjamin discusses:

• Why private equity, credit, infrastructure, and venture capital are central to HSBC’s $75bn alternatives platform
  

• The growth of evergreen fund structures and what investors should look for in managers
  

• The challenges and opportunities of democratizing access to private markets
  

• How HSBC leverages its global footprint to source opportunities beyond New York and London
  

• The cultural and career dynamics of talent in alternatives
  

This conversation explores how one of the world’s largest financial institutions is positioning itself in alternatives, and why Benjamin believes the next phase of growth will be defined not just by institutions, but by the increasing participation of high-net-worth investors.

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💼 Learn more at:

HSBC Asset Management

🌐 www.assetmanagement.hsbc.co.uk

William Benjamin, Head of Alternative Solutions at HSBC Asset Management

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/w-benjamin/

Ross Butler Founder and Host Fund Shack

🌐 www.fund-shack.com

CONNECT on Linkedin

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00:00 – Introduction: William Benjamin, HSBC Asset Management
01:03 – Why alternatives are becoming mainstream
02:13 – Haven’t investors missed the boat?
03:49 – Diversification and resilient portfolios
04:36 – Democratization of private markets
05:00 – Evergreen funds: what investors should know
06:22 – Private equity & HSBC’s global sourcing edge
09:46 – Private credit: diversification and risk management
13:43 – Infrastructure, venture capital & new opportunities
16:24 – $75bn in alternatives: HSBC’s growth outlook
19:53 – Talent, culture & career advice in alternatives
23:12 – Data, digital platforms & evergreen structures
28:12 – The five-year outlook for private markets

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#PrivateEquity
#PrivateMarkets
#AlternativeInvestments
#FundShack
#HSBCAssetManagement
#EvergreenFunds
#PrivateCredit
#InfrastructureInvesting
#VentureCapital
#PortfolioDiversification
#WealthManagement
#InstitutionalInvestors
#HNWInvesting
#AssetManagement
#InvestmentStrategies

Alex van Someren has spent his career at the frontier of technology, venture capital, and national security. From joining Acorn Computers as a teenager, the company that seeded ARM Holdings, to co-founding cryptography firm nCipher, becoming a partner at Amadeus Capital Partners, and later serving as the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security, his career offers unique insight into how capital and innovation shape geopolitics.

In this episode, Alex explains how the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSIF) mirrors DARPA-backed venture in the US, why government must learn to take risk to access frontier technology, and the realities of venture capital returns. He discusses the hype and risks around artificial intelligence, the disruptive potential of quantum computing, the fragility of semiconductor supply chains, and the ESG debate around nuclear energy and small modular reactors.

For investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers, this conversation maps the crucial intersection of capital, technology, and defence in a changing global order.

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Thank you to our episode partner

Brookfield’s Private Equity Group: A Global leader in acquiring and driving operational transformation in industrials and essential business services.

For more information, visit:

www.brookfield.com/it-takes-industry

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👉 Subscribe to Fund Shack for more in-depth conversations on private markets and the future of investment.

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💼 Learn more at:

Paladin Capital Group

🌐 www.paladincapgroup.com

Alex van Someren

www.paladincapgroup.com/people/alex-van-someren/

Ross Butler Founder and Host Fund Shack

🌐 www.fund-shack.com

CONNECT on Linkedin

www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Alex van Someren, Fund Shack, Venture Capital, Private Equity, National Security, Defence Technology, Dual-use Technology, Cryptography, nCipher, Amadeus Capital Partners, Acorn Computers, ARM Holdings, National Security Strategic Investment Fund, NSIF, DARPA, Government Venture Capital, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Models, Quantum Computing, Post-Quantum Cryptography, National Cyber Security Centre, NCSC, Semiconductor Supply Chain, CHIPS Act, National Semiconductor Strategy, Space Technology, Satellites, ESG, Nuclear Energy, Small Modular Reactors, Fusion Energy, Private Markets, Technology Innovation, Geopolitics, UK Venture Capital, Silicon Valley, Defence Spending, NATO, Paladin Capital, Calypso AI, Emerging Technologies, Risk and Innovation, Venture Returns

0:00 – Introduction

0:40 – From teenage coder to Acorn Computers and ARM Holdings

2:33 – Leaving school at 17: self-taught entrepreneur

3:26 – Building nCipher and cryptography’s real-world applications

5:27 – Dual use: civilian vs. national security technology

7:21 – The hidden history of venture capital and DARPA

8:58 – The UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSIF)

10:42 – Risk, government spending, and culture clash with VC

15:53 – “If you aren’t losing at least half your money…”

20:08 – The US CHIPS Act and Europe’s semiconductor challenge

29:23 – Venture capital’s boom in defence spending

36:18 – AI is over-hyped, over-used, and makes us stupid

40:30 – Defending the corporate AI stack (Paladin & Calypso)

44:00 – Quantum computing: encryption at risk

47:38 – Why space is now accessible to schoolchildren

51:31 – ESG and nuclear: small modular reactors, fusion, and energy policy

56:10 – Why making money in venture capital is so hard

59:05 – Closing reflections

🎧 Episode #74: Emerging Managers: What It Takes to Make It

Guests: Kim Pochon (Unigestion) & Joe Briggs (BCF )

Series Launch: Fund Shack's Emerging Manager Series

In this launch episode of Fund Shack’s Emerging Manager Series, Ross Butler speaks with Kim Pochon, Global Head of Primary Investments at Unigestion, and Joe Briggs, Founder of BCF, to explore what it really takes to build a successful first-time private equity fund.

With LP appetite growing for new franchises, this episode unpacks the strategic, structural, and psychological factors that separate enduring platforms from short-lived experiments.

🧱 Why “Emerging” Doesn’t Mean Inexperienced
Most “emerging managers” are seasoned investors; what’s new is their journey into firm-building. While GPs may dislike the label, it matters deeply to LPs allocating to this segment.

💡 Early Access = Long-Term Advantage
Backing a first-time fund is about more than returns, it’s about gaining long-term partners. Kim Pochon shares how Unigestion’s early bets have evolved into deep collaborations across continuation vehicles, co-investments, and secondaries.

🛠️ The Rise of Independent Sponsors and Hybrid Funds
Joe Briggs outlines how deal-by-deal models, mini-funds, and short-duration strategies are allowing first-time managers to build track records and LP trust, without raising blind pool capital on Day 1.

👥 Team Dynamics: The Critical Risk Factor
Strategy is important, but people matter more. LPs scrutinise equity splits, decision-making processes, and team chemistry. Execution risk is often people risk.

🔥 Why Founders Spin Out, and What Sets Them Apart
From high-paid roles to high-risk launches, Joe and Kim explore what drives professionals to strike out on their own, and why the best emerging managers have a clear purpose and strong conviction.

📈 “Know Why You Deserve to Exist”
As Briggs puts it, emerging GPs must clearly articulate why their platform should exist, what differentiates it, and how it delivers value to LPs from Day 1.

🔗 Fund Shack is an independent podcast serving the global private capital industry.

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Tags

emerging managers, first-time funds, private equity, GP spinout, fundless sponsor, Unigestion, BCF, private equity podcast, Fund Shack, Ross Butler, LP allocations, fundraising, private markets, private capital, institutional investors, evergreen funds, independent sponsor model, PE fund structure, LP/GP alignment, continuation vehicles

🎧 Episode #73: The Expanding Role of Private Markets in Wealth Portfolios

Guest: Kyle D. Kniffen, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

In this Fund Shack episode, recorded live at SuperReturn in Berlin, Ross Butler speaks with Kyle D. Kniffen, Managing Director and Global Head of Alternatives for Third Party Wealth at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. With over $500 billion in alternative assets under management, Goldman Sachs is at the forefront of delivering institutional-grade private markets strategies to the private wealth segment.

Kniffen outlines how the shift from public to private markets is reshaping modern portfolios, and how Goldman Sachs is using open-architecture, multi-asset solutions to unlock access for high-net-worth investors.

The number of public companies has declined. Innovation now happens in private markets. For wealth managers, private equity, private credit, and real assets are becoming core exposures, not niche allocations.

Goldman Sachs is responding with evergreen structures, simplified tax reporting, and lower minimums, but also stresses the need for investor education and clarity around liquidity expectations.

Institutions typically allocate 20–30% to alternatives; individual investors? Just 5%. Goldman Sachs is investing heavily in curriculum-style education for wealth advisers and clients, covering everything from "what are alternatives?" to live updates on market trends.

Delivery channels include:

• Custom sessions

• Specialist teams

• Ongoing reporting

Kniffen discusses the trade-offs between drawdown funds and evergreen formats, especially in private credit.

Evergreen vehicles offer:
✔️ Simpler onboarding
✔️ Optional liquidity
✔️ Operational ease

But also require:
- Strong duration management
- Secondary market integration
- Disciplined product structuring

Goldman applies the same innovative lens to private equity, infrastructure, and real asset, blending directs and secondaries to reduce duration risk while preserving alpha.

Diversification is key, but so is alignment. Goldman invests its own balance sheet and employee capital alongside clients. Transparency, robust reporting, and post-sale service are core to the client experience.

For most wealth clients, alternatives remain a new frontier. This creates enormous opportunity for firms that combine performance with education, care, and long-term partnership. Goldman Sachs is positioning itself as a trusted guide for wealth managers navigating this complexity.

Thank you to our episode partner, Edelman Smithfield, a specialist PR and communications consultancy for the financial markets. Their expertise in private capital spans fundraising, strategic positioning, portfolio communications, and reputation management.

🔗 Learn more: edelmansmithfield.com

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Fund Shack is an independent media platform delivering deep-dive insights into private capital and produced by Linear B Group.

Episode #72: Bitcoin - The Alternative You Can No Longer Ignore

Guest: Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management

Bitcoin has evolved from a retail phenomenon to a macro asset that institutions can no longer afford to ignore. In this episode of Fund Shack, Ross Butler speaks with Matthew Hougan, CIO at Bitwise Asset Management, the firm behind the first crypto index fund and over $10B in assets.

A pioneer of ETFs and now a leader in crypto investing, Matthew explains why Bitcoin is becoming a core component of modern portfolios, how it compares to gold, and why it's poised to reshape global finance.

💼 From Retail to Institutional Adoption Bitcoin is no longer fringe. U.S. Bitcoin ETFs now manage $37B+, with institutional capital driving a third of inflows. Bitwise’s AUM has grown 10x in 18 months.

📈 Portfolio Construction: Bitcoin as an Alternative Asset Allocators are rethinking Bitcoin’s place, not tech, not equity, but an alternative. With low correlation, high returns, and now ETF access, 1–2% allocations are improving portfolio Sharpe ratios.

⚖️ Bitcoin vs. Gold... and Beyond Think of Bitcoin as programmable, portable, real-time gold. Its market cap is under $2T vs. gold’s $21T, highlighting significant upside for long-term believers in the “digital gold” thesis.

🌐 Bitcoin as Neutral Global Collateral In a fragmenting geopolitical world, Bitcoin may serve as a non-political, global settlement asset, used across borders, free from government control.

🧠 Finance on the Blockchain From instant loans to on-chain collateral, crypto markets offer faster, transparent alternatives to traditional finance. Hougan sees DeFi merging with TradFi, not replacing it, but upgrading it.

🗣 Advice for Financial Professionals Matthew’s call to action: experiment, learn, and get ahead. Just as ETFs reshaped investing, Bitcoin could reshape finance. Start small. Learn fast. Stay relevant.

--------------------------------------------

📩  Matthew Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management

Website: www.bitwiseinvestments.com

Twitter: @Matt_Hougan

Telegram: @pemetic

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-hougan/

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 📞 Contact:  Fund Shack is a private equity podcast and digital media channel for alternative investment professionals

 📧 katie@linearb.media

Chapters

00:00 – Intro to Matt Hougan, Fund Shack & Bitcoin relevance

01:00 – Why Bitcoin is the ultimate alternative asset

02:00 – Institutions entering Bitcoin: Demand and momentum

03:43 – Institutional case for Bitcoin: High returns, low correlations

06:03 – The blockchain as digital property infrastructure

07:00 – Bitcoin as finance’s inevitable disruption

09:00 – Bitcoin vs banks: Infrastructure comparison

11:04 – Bitcoin’s challenge to traditional valuation logic

12:03 – How institutions are categorising Bitcoin

13:17 – Why Bitcoin has value: Digital service logic

14:21 – Bitcoin’s fair value and addressable market

15:25 – Bitcoin as global settlement currency

17:03 – State actors adopting Bitcoin

18:09 – Bitcoin's correlation to other assets

19:30 – Why institutions find Bitcoin compelling

20:12 – Institutional access: How Bitwise ETFs work

22:17 – ETF security, cold storage & custody

24:00 – ETF mechanism under stress: Arbitrage & NAV

26:03 – Future of Bitcoin and financialisation

27:56 – Lending, collateral, and credit in a Bitcoin world

29:34 – Bitcoin’s influence on dollar policy

31:06 – How Bitcoin changes capital markets

33:15 – Programmable money: A new finance model

34:52 – Advice for traditional finance professionals

35:59 – Deflationary risk: Lending in a bitcoinised system

37:05 – Real value vs rent-seeking in future finance

38:25 – Advice for young finance professionals

Episode #71: The Realities of Private Wealth in Private Markets

Guest: Cyril Demaria-Bengochea, Julius Bär

What happens when private equity pivots from institutional capital to private wealth? In this episode, Ross Butler speaks with Cyril Demaria-Bengochea, Head of Private Market Strategy at Julius Bär & one of the most respected thinkers in private markets. Cyril blends academic rigour with industry expertise, drawing on his work with Invest Europe, ILPA, & the European Commission.

Together, they explore the complex realities of opening private markets to individual investors, & why true democratisation may still be a long way off.

🏢 From Institutions to Individuals As institutional funding slows, fund managers are turning to private wealth, but it's not a simple swap. Cyril unpacks why $5M+ investors still struggle to access private equity meaningfully, & how portfolio construction must adapt to this fragmented investor base.

📊 Evergreen Funds & the Democratisation Myth Despite the buzz, evergreen vehicles still represent just 1–2% of AUM. Cyril explains why they are a tool, not a solution, & why true democratisation needs a more nuanced strategy.

⏳ Private Markets Are Three-Dimensional Long holding periods, illiquidity, & delayed returns create a "time complexity" most investors (& advisers) underestimate. Cyril emphasises that private markets require patience, planning, & portfolio redesign.

🔧 Fund Structures: Not One-Size-Fits-All Closed-end funds remain dominant, but evergreen & semi-liquid structures are gaining traction. Cyril foresees a future where fund structures are matched to investor objectives, not trends.

📉 Fundraising, Dealmaking & Dry Powder While fundraising has slowed, especially in VC, buyout strategies remain active, with managers deploying capital via smaller, lower-leverage deals focused on operational value. Dry powder is declining—suggesting a more disciplined cycle ahead.

💬 Rethinking Communication in Private Markets Cyril argues that better education & transparency are essential if private wealth is to participate meaningfully. The industry must do more to share value & demystify risk.

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#PrivateEquity #PrivateWealth #PrivateMarkets #EvergreenFunds #FundStructures #JuliusBaer #CyrilDemaria #FundShack #HighNetWorth #FinancialEducation #AlternativeInvestments #PrivateCapital #JuliusBär

Chapters00:00 Intro 00:06 At Julius Baer, Cyril’s background & credentials00:50 The rise of private wealth & democratisation01:53 Why private wealth is hard to access03:09 How much capital is actually coming from private clients05:03 Capital limitations & structuring challenges06:15 Is the demand real or manufactured08:27 The “third dimension” of private markets: time10:09 Why traditional tools don't fit private markets11:10 Fund structures: evergreen vs closed-end13:16 Complementarity of structures & the evolving toolbox14:03 What allocation size makes private markets worthwhile16:10 Going beyond 15–20% in private portfolios17:20 Why democratisation is complex and multi-dimensional18:00 Dispersion of returns & the role of fund structures20:54 Shakespeare & the early roots of private markets21:01 Market conditions as of Q1 202524:43 The effect of tighter leverage & lower risk27:01 How much of PE returns are driven by leverage29:01 Advice for young professionals entering private markets30:54 Why staying close to the industry matters32:35 The need for broader skillsets in private equity34:46 Why the human factor still dominates deals35:06 Can private markets be made ‘cool’36:43 How sharing value could shift perceptions39:11 Communication & transparency