Who’s behind this? #12: HedgeGuard – Etienne Brunet
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Hi Christophe, HedgeGuard was launched back in 2006 and today it is the first portfolio management system for both traditional and cryptocurrency hedge funds. Can you share a bit about your background?
HedgeGuard has been building Portfolio Management Systems (PMS) for the buyside (hedge funds, asset managers and family offices) for over a decade now. In 2011, we expanded our offering to include an outsourced Middle Office service that combines with our PMS.
I joined HedgeGuard three years ago to head up their UK office as well as their Global Business Development team. Previously, I managed a trading team at Millennium in London and was the co-founder of a Macro hedge fund, also based in London. I started my career in the derivatives teams of Société Générale and Deutsche Bank.
How did you get into the Bitcoin and blockchain industry?
From a trader’s perspective, I developed an interest in cryptocurrencies as it presented high levels of volatility and interesting trading opportunities. As a firm we moved into the crypto space just over two years ago. In what was at the time, and still is, a nascent crypto fund industry, HedgeGuard was approached by portfolio managers that required an institutional grade solution to manage their funds. We worked closely with them to build a solution that met their crypto specific requirements and today we are the only firm that offers a combined institutional level Portfolio and Execution Management System for crypto investors.
Tell us a bit more about the team behind HedgeGuard. Are you hiring?
The culture at HedgeGuard stems very much from the hedge fund industry. The firm’s founder, Imad Warde, previously worked at Rothschild where he helped build their internal multi-strategy hedge fund. Other members of the team also share a background in asset management where they have worked in various capacities. The team is a mixture of experienced individuals and dynamic youth, as well as being culturally diverse. Our headquarters are in Paris and we also have offices in London and the Middle East.
We’ve witnessed strong growth this year and are currently hiring across product specialist, developer and sales roles.
What is the long-term vision of HedgeGuard?
We are a one stop-shop for digital asset investors to run their funds or platforms.
HedgeGuard really is a full front to back solution, meaning that fund managers, fund platforms, fund of funds and crypto investors of all types can plug into our platform and have the key areas covered. This includes providing a comprehensive view of one’s portfolio, live performance, risk, compliance, reconciliation and reporting. As mentioned previously our Crypto PMS — which can be viewed as the backbone of your fund — combines with an Execution Management system, covering the full trade workflow.
What this means for managers is that they can achieve scalability and level their playing field. One of the core aims at HedgeGuard is to lower the barriers of entry to the investment management industry through technology. We are big believers of the potential of tokenization for example, which will bring additional liquidity to several traditional assets and provide access to a larger group of investors. The same goes for investment managers; as regulatory and operational costs pile up, technology can help provide scale to talented managers, which in turn will benefit investors.
What makes HedgeGuard’s portfolio management software unique compared to your competitors?
Buyside DNA is very much ingrained into the firm and this feeds into our offering and the way we do things. It’s fair to say that our product suite has very much been built and thought out to address the challenges faced by today’s portfolio managers. Be it the traditional or crypto space, we’ve been in the portfolio manager’s seat ourselves and speak the same language, sothis transpires directly into the solutions we build.
What’s your business model?
We offer crypto funds and platforms a full front to back portfolio and execution management solution to run their funds. Our business model is SaaS, where our clients subscribe to our Crypto PMS/EMS and/or Outsourced Middle Office Service through a monthly subscription.
Who is your target audience?
We work closely with the institutional space, essentially the buyside community. This includes crypto funds, funds of funds, platforms, traditional Hedge Fund, asset managers as well as family offices.
Can you share a bit more information on your clients and partnerships?
Our clients are based internationally, generally within the big asset management and crypto hubs. We work with a number of partners in the space, including various crypto exchanges: CryptoCompare and Coinmarketcap for price data, Copper or Koine for crypto custody solutions and Trident or Fexserv on the crypto admin side.
What are your thoughts on the crypto European ecosystem?
The Crypto Ecosystem is very dynamic and is rapidly catching up with its American and Asian counterparts. I recently published an article on the subject which you can read here: https://bit.ly/2XYTa3V
Is there any recent industry news that would like to highlight?
In the crypto space, there has been a heavy focus on Facebook’s Libra of late which is a big positive for the industry. However, there is equally important regulatory news that is key for the industry’s growth. Regulators across jurisdictions have been progressing at various speeds. One important announcement was France’s “Pacte law” that sets a well-defined regulatory framework for crypto firms.
Anything to add?
It’s important to remember that we are still in the very early days of crypto. Following last year’s “crypto winter” we have seen an increasing number of institutional participants entering the space (last year alone 20% of all hedge fund launches were crypto funds). The industry’s dynamic is very positive as competitors and counterparts are all collaborating closely to build what are institutional grade infrastructure and offerings.
Published at Sun, 21 Jul 2019 16:21:56 +0000
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