Dry Powder: The Private Equity Podcast
When Steffen Pauls launched Moonfare in 2016, he had the first-mover advantage, although at times he wondered if he had moved too early.
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“People told me when I founded the company, ‘Steffen, you are nuts,’” he says. “‘Who will invest $100,000 over a digital platform into a private equity product? Do you know what the regulation entails? How will you get the customers?’ Senior bankers told me, ‘That’s the stupidest business concept I’ve ever seen.’”
Today, Moonfare has no shortage of competitors. “We have more than a hundred copycats out there globally,” Steffen says. “They’re emerging like mushrooms.”
The sudden growth and flourishing of private investment platforms has taken many players in our industry by surprise. Two years ago, if you had asked me when retail investors would have real access to private markets, I would have estimated it was five to seven years down the road. Frankly, the pace of change has astonished me, which is why I’ve asked some of the earliest movers in this space to join me for a series of interviews on Dry Powder.
Today on the show, I ask Steffen to take us inside the growth journey of Moonfare. We’ll see how private equity funds are using platforms like Moonfare to beat a path to the individual investor’s door. It’s a road less traveled, to be sure, but the barriers to entry are quickly coming down.
If you haven’t heard my interview with another early mover in this space, the CEO of Titanbay, I highly recommend you go back and listen to those episodes as well.
The Private Equity Podcast
In our podcast series, Bain's Hugh MacArthur interviews leading experts on the trends and opportunities that will redefine the private equity industry.
First published in April 2023