< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

From 2000 to 2013, Alan Freudenstein and Gregory Grimaldi quietly assembled a portfolio of private investments in financial technology companies within Credit Suisse Asset Management. Their holdings included data aggregator Capital IQ, which McGraw Hill Financial bought in 2004; Markit, a London-based information services company that went public in 2014; and trading venues Archipelago, BATS Global Markets and FX Alliance. In 2013 the New York–based duo transferred 20 of their investments into a new limited partnership, the Credit Suisse NEXT Fund. Investors include Credit Suisse family-office clients, sovereign wealth funds, funds of funds and secondary fund investors. (Pensions, endowments and foundations will have to wait for a future vehicle.) “It was never easy to make investments from bank balance sheets, but after Volcker it got much more difficult,” explains Freudenstein, 51, a University of Chicago MBA and former Booz Allen Hamilton consultant. NEXT, which closed with $405 million in assets in early 2014, draws knowledge and insight from Credit Suisse’s staff. “That’s the secret sauce,” says Grimaldi, 41, a University of Pennsylvania engineering and computer systems and finance graduate. Recent investments include online lender Prosper Marketplace and cognitive-computing pioneer Digital Reasoning, for which NEXT co-led a $24 million Series C round with Goldman Sachs Group in October 2014. The fund’s deals average between $10 million and $20 million, usually at later stages, although the team is open to all stages. Its primary investment consideration is the ability to influence a portfolio company’s outcome. “If it’s just money, then we’re probably not the best investor,” says Freudenstein, who describes the fintech climate as “very competitive — we focus on opportunities where we can add value, which helps us avoid highly competitive situations.”

 
The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

1. James Robinson III & James Robinson IV RRE Ventures 2. Jane Gladstone Evercore Partners 3. Matthew Harris Bain Capital Ventures Gold and Bitcoin Decouple. What's Driving the Divergence's? Sponsored by CME Group April 24, 2025 4. Steven McLaughlin Financial Technology Partners 5. Jonathan Korngold General Atlantic

6. Richard Garman & Brad Bernstein FTV Capital 7. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park Anthemis Group 8. Thomas Jessop Goldman Sachs Group 9. Meyer (Micky) Malka Ribbit Capital 10. Hans Morris Nyca Partners

11. Maria Gotsch Partnership Fund for New York City 12. Marc Andreessen Andreessen Horowitz 13. Barry Silbert Digital Currency Group 14. Jay Reinemann Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria 15. Mariano Belinky Santander InnoVentures

16. François Robinet AXA Strategic Ventures 17. Vanessa Colella Citi Ventures 18. Alan Freudenstein & Gregory Grimaldi Credit Suisse NEXT Fund 19. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena SenaHill Partners 20. Rodger Voorhies Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

21. Michael Schlein Accion International 22. Kenneth Marlin Marlin & Associates 23. Rumi Morales CME Ventures 24. Mark Beeston Illuminate Financial Management 25. Vladislav Solodkiy Life.SREDA

26. Fabian Vandenreydt Innotribe SWIFT 27. Derek White Barclays 28. Alex Batlin UBS 29. Jeffrey Greenberg & Vincenzo La Ruffa Aquiline Capital Partners 30. P. Howard Edelstein REDI Holdings

31. Nektarios Liolios Startupbootcamp FinTech 32. Roy Bahat Bloomberg Beta 33. Andrew McCormack Valar Ventures 34. Lawrence Wintermeyer Innovate Finance 35. Janos Barberis FinTech Hong Kong