Digital private equity platform Moonfare has appointed Jon Kalamuddin to its Global Advisory Board.
Kalamuddin, who was Chairman of Klarna, and also brings experience from tech giants such as ASOS and FarFetch, has joined Berlin-based Moonfare at a significant stage of its growth. Moonfare continues its high growth trajectory, having increased assets under management by almost 90 per cent to EUR2.18 billion and individual investments by 70 per cent in the 12 months to end September 2022.
“I am excited to join Moonfare and help it maintain its considerable momentum, while also promoting its mission of democratising private equity markets,” says Kalamuddin. “In times of volatile public markets and high inflation rates, a platform giving individual investors access to the returns private equity can offer is both visionary and important and I’m looking forward to being part of this endeavour.”
“We are excited to have Jon on board,” says Steffen Pauls, CEO and founder of Moonfare. “As a member of our Global Advisory Board, Jon’s invaluable experience and management skills in leading tech start-ups will further drive our ambitious expansion plans as we fortify Moonfare’s role as the globally leading company for private market investment opportunities.”
With the Moonfare platform continuously growing to include a wider selection of private market funds covering new areas, Moonfare has also reinforced its investment team with Sanjay Gupta and Russell Lane.
The firm writes that Sanjay Gupta brings decades of private equity investing experience to his new role as Head of Co-Investments. He will be building out Moonfare’s strategy and portfolio in the asset class. Before joining Moonfare, Gupta was Head of Private Equity Investing at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) in London. He has also held senior investment roles at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Adveq (now Schroders Capital), as well as an investment banking role with Lehman Brothers.
“I have followed Moonfare for many years and I’m thrilled to join them at this pivotal time in their growth. I’m excited to contribute to their amazing team and ground-breaking mission,” says Gupta.
Russell Lane joins the team as Head of GP Solutions, bringing Moonfare’s distribution capabilities and fully-digitised investor platform to more GPs globally. He will be based in New York, where many of Moonfare’s GP partners are headquartered, including KKR, Carlyle and Insight Partners. Lane joins from asset management firm Bridgewater Associates, where he was a founding member of the firm’s distribution team and led the new product development and product management functions. Prior to this, he held investor relations and business development roles, and covered US and European institutional clients. Before joining Bridgewater, Lane was an equity research analyst at Credit Suisse in New York.
On joining Moonfare, Lane said, “Moonfare is harnessing technology to promote alternative investment access to a broader range of individuals globally, and I’m excited to be part of the team and the mission.”
