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The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Alan Freudenstein and Gregory Grimaldi, Credit Suisse NEXT Fund
No. 18 Alan Freudenstein & Gregory Grimaldi, Credit Suisse NEXT Fund



NEXT Fund
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.”
![]() 2. Jane Gladstone Evercore Partners ![]() 3. Matthew Harris Bain Capital Ventures ![]() 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 |