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Vincent Weber By Opalesque Geneva:

Six years ago, Vincent Weber and two partners, all experts in alternative investments who had been working on identifying the world's best hedge funds for years, joined forces to launch Resonanz Capital in Frankfurt. Resonanz aimed to establish itself as one of the few German experts in the analysis, selection, and management of hedge fund portfolios for institutional investors. Since then, it has transformed its model into an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered precision machine.

Opalesque spoke to Vincent Weber ahead of the interactive Investor Workshop webinar on Tuesday, March 18th (details below) about his new model, demand for alternative investments and innovations in alpha aggregation.

Opalesque: Since the launch of Resonanz Capital in 2019, you have embraced AI for more precise and pointed expertise, portfolio management and reporting. Can you indicate some of the main differences between your services to clients in 2019 and now?

Vincent Weber: What's been fascinating to watch is how AI has fundamentally transformed our entire service model. Back in 2019, we were already using AI internally, but the client experience was still traditionally high-touch. If a client needed information, they'd call or email us, then wait while we leveraged our tools behind the scenes to get the answers.

The most dramatic shift happened when we introduced our AI agent "Emilia" to our clients. Now, instead of reaching out to us as intermediaries, clients directly interact with Emilia, who has been trained on most of our intellectual property and institutional knowledge. It has completely changed the service dynamic.

Opalesque: Could you provide some examples?

Vincent Weber: A client wondering about alternatives to an oversubscribed fund used to mean a call to us, followed by hours of research and probably a callback the next day. Now they simply ask Emilia: "What are the compelling alternative investment options to this hot fund which I currently cannot access?" Within seconds, they receive a comprehensive analysis drawing on our entire database of manager relationships and investment research.

The same applies to due diligence questions like, "Are these fund terms reasonable given the strategy?" or "How does this team stack up against their peers?" Questions that once required lengthy analysis now get precise, data-driven responses in minutes, directly from Emilia to the client.

What's particularly powerful is seeing how clients and our team are using Emilia for strategic preparation. A client might tell Emilia, "I'm meeting with that systematic credit manager in an hour - based on my previous interactions, what should I ask them?" and immediately receive a tailored question list that incorporates our firm's expertise with their specific history with that manager. Or they might request, "My board meeting is tomorrow. Draft me a high-level summary of the managers in my portfolio, highlighting recent significant developments," and have it ready while they grab a coffee.

Opalesque: What about human involvement?

Vincent Weber: Of course, we're still very much involved - I'm always delighted when clients call me directly, and for complex situations, that human touch remains invaluable. But AI has transformed our role from information gatekeepers to strategic partners, freeing us to focus entirely on the parts where human judgment and relationship building truly matter while empowering clients with instant access to our collective expertise.

Opalesque: Has the institutional and FO demand for hedge funds grown as substantially as you believed it would back then?

Vincent Weber: Honestly, the alternative space has played out differently than many of us expected. Private markets dominated the last five years - everyone wanted the next big private credit strategy or venture exposure. Within hedge funds specifically, what we've seen is a barbell effect - massive consolidation into these multi-manager platforms that are essentially talent acquisition machines, while many mid-sized funds struggled to raise capital. The average investor appetite has been tepid at best.

But we're starting to see a real shift now. With private market valuations where they are and liquidity concerns growing louder, there's renewed interest in what hedge funds were originally supposed to do - provide liquid, uncorrelated returns. It's almost ironic - just as investors are rediscovering this value proposition, many of the best funds have gone the other way, extending lock-ups and becoming more private-market-like.

Opalesque: Do they have any favoured strategies?

Vincent Weber: In the institutional space specifically, we are seeing the more sophisticated family offices leading this charge back to liquid alternatives. What has changed is they are much more discriminating now - they want genuine diversification, not just equity beta in disguise. Relative value strategies and certain systematic approaches that genuinely delivered during recent market dislocations are getting the most attention.

Opalesque: What is new and innovative in alpha generation?

Vincent Weber: What I find fascinating right now is this problem of alpha aggregation - it's the oldest problem in our industry but with a completely new set of tools.

Think about it - between multi-manager platforms, bank QIS (quantitative investment strategies) offerings, alpha capture systems, and various managed account structures, we now have access to hundreds of discrete alpha streams that simply were not available even five years ago.

The real innovation isn't creating yet another systematic trend strategy or fundamental long/short approach - it's figuring out how to optimally combine these existing pieces.

It's like cooking - we've got all these amazing ingredients now, but very few people have figured out the recipes that bring them together in the right proportions. And the challenges aren't just quantitative - they're operational and regulatory too. How do you efficiently access these streams without building a massive middle and back office? How do you navigate cross-border regulatory issues?

I was talking with a CIO last month who described it as "being a DJ for alpha" - you're not creating entirely new music, you're sampling, remixing, and combining existing elements in novel ways. The multi-manager platforms are doing this with human portfolio managers. The next innovation is doing it with strategies themselves.

What's exciting is that this doesn't require some mathematical breakthrough or insider access - it requires creativity in how you combine known elements. That's where I think the real opportunity is.

The End of Siloed Investing: AI-Powered Selection for Hedge Funds, Liquid Alts & QIS

In this interactive webinar, Vincent Weber will talk about the next generation of AI-powered investing.

When: Tuesday, March 18th, at 11 am ET (3 pm GMT, 4 pm CET, 6 pm Riyadh, 7 pm Dubai).

Free registration: www.opalesque.com/webinar/