Key Takeaways
- • Fasanara Capital, a London-based manager with around USD7.5bn approaching USD8bn in assets and more than 150 staff, presented its flagship multi-strategy vehicle F-ONE at an Opalesque SkillsLab investor workshop on October 29, built around three structurally different return engines.
- • F-ONE, which has a three-year full track record, is reported by Founder, CEO and CIO Francesco Filia to deliver double-digit annualised net performance, manages close to USD1bn against a stated USD3bn capacity, and targets 10% to 15% net in dollars at 2% to 4% annualised volatility.
- • The three engines are short-duration fintech credit (with a claimed no negative month in twelve years), market-neutral digital asset liquidity provision at Fasanara Digital (maximum drawdown around 1%, traded notional around USD1bn per day), and the Fasanara OpenQuant multi-SMA platform (USD220m+, 15.7% annualised year to date, 5.2 Sharpe, 2% maximum drawdown).
- • Head of Business Development Paolo Viale argued that different economic sources of return are a strong basis for diversification but "does not establish independence by itself," urging allocators to examine each trade's full value chain.
- • Fasanara's case rests on how the engines interact and on shared technology, risk and operational infrastructure, with the Cardo AI spin-off (in which Blackstone holds a stake) cited as evidence of the platform's build-out.
Summary
Fasanara Capital, a London-based manager with around USD7.5bn approaching USD8bn in assets under management and a team of more than 150 across London, New York, Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam and Ferrara, set out its approach to multi-strategy investing at an Opalesque SkillsLab investor workshop on October 29, according to an Opalesque for New Managers account by Matthias Knab. The session centred on F-ONE ("ONE Fasanara Multi-Strategy"), the firm's flagship vehicle, which gives exposure to close to 200 pods across three engines. Speakers were Francesco Filia (Founder, CEO and CIO), Nikita Fadeev (Managing Partner and Head of Fasanara Digital), Vinicius Karam (Head of Fasanara OpenQuant) and Paolo Viale (Managing Director and Head of Business Development).
Filia argued that the market has no shortage of beta and that allocators lack alpha generators whose income is reliable across regimes. F-ONE has a three-year full track record, and Filia reported double-digit annualised net performance. The vehicle manages close to USD1bn with stated capacity of USD3bn, targeting 10% to 15% net in dollars at 2% to 4% annualised volatility.
The first engine is short-duration alternative credit, the firm's longest track record. Filia said these strategies have never had a negative month in twelve years. Fasanara finances loans and receivables originated by fintech platforms, typically with 90-day durations and sometimes as short as 30. The firm mapped more than 1,300 potential originators, has completed due diligence more than 465 times, and has onboarded 139 originators in 60 countries. Filia described short duration as a risk management "superpower," contrasting it with typical direct lending books of 50 to 100 loans with five- to eight-year maturities. He stressed that short duration must be paired with granularity and low leverage. Announced channels include a Ferrari-backed loan platform with a pipeline of USD200m to USD300m, a partnership with Tether that has introduced around 40 platforms, and a June partnership with the IFC to finance emerging-market working capital platforms, including in Africa.
The second engine, Fasanara Digital, is a fully systematic, market-neutral liquidity provider founded in 2018. According to Fadeev, it trades on more than 20 venues and runs basis and cross-venue arbitrage, executing hundreds of thousands to around a million times daily. It trades roughly USD1bn notional per day, about 1% of global digital asset volume, and Fadeev put the maximum drawdown at around 1%. This year the strategy expanded into traditional markets, which now represent 30% to 40% of its risk.
The third engine, Fasanara OpenQuant, allocates to external systematic managers through managed accounts, which Karam said offers control, real-time transparency and capital efficiency. It requires at least 18 months of live, auditable track record and does not accept backtests. The fund launched in 2024, has passed USD220m, runs 53 strategies across 33 pods, and reported 15.7% annualised year-to-date returns at 2.3% average volatility, a year-to-date Sharpe of 5.2 and a 2% maximum drawdown.
Viale cautioned that diversification is not the same as independence and that large position counts do not imply independent risks. He urged allocators to analyse execution costs, funding, collateral and operational risk, and to separate holding period, underlying liquidity and redemption terms. On alpha erosion, Fadeev noted that early crypto arbitrage has been commoditised, while Filia pointed to a ten-year platform build and the spin-off of its technology as Cardo AI, in which Blackstone has taken a stake. Karam described a defence built on capacity discipline, position-level drift monitoring and a pipeline of several hundred pods against around 30 invested.
Filia argued that the market has no shortage of beta and that allocators lack alpha generators whose income is reliable across regimes. F-ONE has a three-year full track record, and Filia reported double-digit annualised net performance. The vehicle manages close to USD1bn with stated capacity of USD3bn, targeting 10% to 15% net in dollars at 2% to 4% annualised volatility.
The first engine is short-duration alternative credit, the firm's longest track record. Filia said these strategies have never had a negative month in twelve years. Fasanara finances loans and receivables originated by fintech platforms, typically with 90-day durations and sometimes as short as 30. The firm mapped more than 1,300 potential originators, has completed due diligence more than 465 times, and has onboarded 139 originators in 60 countries. Filia described short duration as a risk management "superpower," contrasting it with typical direct lending books of 50 to 100 loans with five- to eight-year maturities. He stressed that short duration must be paired with granularity and low leverage. Announced channels include a Ferrari-backed loan platform with a pipeline of USD200m to USD300m, a partnership with Tether that has introduced around 40 platforms, and a June partnership with the IFC to finance emerging-market working capital platforms, including in Africa.
The second engine, Fasanara Digital, is a fully systematic, market-neutral liquidity provider founded in 2018. According to Fadeev, it trades on more than 20 venues and runs basis and cross-venue arbitrage, executing hundreds of thousands to around a million times daily. It trades roughly USD1bn notional per day, about 1% of global digital asset volume, and Fadeev put the maximum drawdown at around 1%. This year the strategy expanded into traditional markets, which now represent 30% to 40% of its risk.
The third engine, Fasanara OpenQuant, allocates to external systematic managers through managed accounts, which Karam said offers control, real-time transparency and capital efficiency. It requires at least 18 months of live, auditable track record and does not accept backtests. The fund launched in 2024, has passed USD220m, runs 53 strategies across 33 pods, and reported 15.7% annualised year-to-date returns at 2.3% average volatility, a year-to-date Sharpe of 5.2 and a 2% maximum drawdown.
Viale cautioned that diversification is not the same as independence and that large position counts do not imply independent risks. He urged allocators to analyse execution costs, funding, collateral and operational risk, and to separate holding period, underlying liquidity and redemption terms. On alpha erosion, Fadeev noted that early crypto arbitrage has been commoditised, while Filia pointed to a ten-year platform build and the spin-off of its technology as Cardo AI, in which Blackstone has taken a stake. Karam described a defence built on capacity discipline, position-level drift monitoring and a pipeline of several hundred pods against around 30 invested.
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