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Matthias Knab, Opalesque: Fasanara Capital has appointed James Hylands as Head of Artificial Intelligence, tasked with leading the firm's newly established Fasanara AI Lab. Hylands joins the $6 billion London-based alternative credit and digital assets manager from Man Group, where he led generative AI strategy and delivery for the firm's Discretionary division.
The appointment, announced on July 21, marks a significant step in Fasanara's long-term strategy to embed artificial intelligence across every layer of the business - from investment decision-making and portfolio management to lending operations, risk management and enterprise productivity. The AI Lab will focus on developing and deploying next-generation AI capabilities across the firm's proprietary technology stack, drawing on what Fasanara describes as one of the industry's largest alternative credit datasets and its native global data infrastructure.
"AI-native alternative asset manager"
"Artificial intelligence is becoming foundational infrastructure for the next generation of asset managers," said Francesco Filia, Founder and CEO of Fasanara Capital. "Our competitive advantage has always been rooted in proprietary technology, alternative data and systematic innovation. With James joining us to lead the AI Lab, we are accelerating our ambition to become the world's leading AI-native alternative asset manager."
At Man Group, Hylands played a pivotal role in applying advanced technologies to discretionary investment processes. At Fasanara he will lead a multidisciplinary team building proprietary AI systems intended to enhance investment performance while scaling the firm's technology platform globally.
Six workstreams
Hylands will oversee the design and implementation of AI-powered solutions spanning AI-enhanced credit underwriting and lending intelligence; advanced trading and portfolio optimisation across a multi-asset, multi-manager platform; autonomous investment research and market intelligence; risk analytics and predictive monitoring; enterprise-wide AI agents to improve operational and quant trading efficiency; and proprietary AI systems trained on Fasanara's own data ecosystem and informed by the firm's domain expertise.
The AI Lab will also work with leading AI companies, universities and technology partners to evaluate emerging models, accelerate experimentation and integrate frontier technologies into the investment platform.
Building on a platform of platforms
The move formalises and expands an approach Fasanara has been developing for some time. Speaking to Opalesque at SuperReturn International in Berlin in June, Paolo Viale, managing director and head of business development, described the application of AI models to risk modeling and risk management as one of the firm's three core competitive edges - a quantitative approach to private markets that he characterised as rare in the space.
That interview also made clear why the data question matters so much here. Fasanara runs what it describes as the largest global network of fintech lending platforms, using 141 fintech lenders as conduits to finance small and medium enterprises across more than 60 countries. Its flagship strategy holds around 700,000 positions, while its multi-asset credit portfolio spans over four million line items - a scale of granular, short-duration exposure that generates a proprietary loan-level dataset which cannot easily be replicated or purchased. Viale also noted that risk management at the firm begins at the design stage of a strategy, resting on three pillars: diversification, short duration, and little or no leverage.
Read the full interview: SuperReturn - The Go-To Managers: Fasanara Capital.
A decade of technology-first infrastructure
Fasanara frames the AI Lab as the next evolution of an approach that already spans more than a decade of investment in proprietary lending infrastructure, fintech integrations and data-driven investment processes. As AI reshapes global financial markets, the firm intends to position itself at the forefront of applied artificial intelligence in private credit, digital assets and systematic investing - developing capabilities aimed at improving both investment outcomes and client experience.
The breadth of the ambition is notable. Where many alternative managers have approached AI through discrete pilots or productivity tooling, Fasanara is describing a firm-wide architecture that reaches into underwriting, research and risk simultaneously - an approach that depends heavily on owning the underlying data rather than licensing it.
Founded in 2011, Fasanara is a global investment manager offering tech-enabled asset-based credit and digital assets solutions. With $6 billion in assets under management and 130 employees globally, it employs a technology-driven, systematic investment approach and manages capital on behalf of pension funds, insurance companies and other institutional investors. A pioneer investor in fintech lending through its liquid alternative credit funds, Fasanara manages one of the largest and longest-standing fintech lending funds in Europe. The firm is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.
For more information visit www.fasanara.com.
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