16 Nov 2023

Investcorp, a leading global alternative investment firm, announced an expansion of its Strategic Capital Group (“SCG”) with the addition of Ravi Thakur as COO and GP Development Partner, where he will be responsible for supporting the development of the business’ GP Partners and serve on the group’s Investment Committee. Additionally, SCG has added Ed Brandman to its Strategic Advisory Board.

SCG is Investcorp’s investment platform focused on acquiring minority equity stakes in established, high growth mid-sized private market asset managers. The group manages over $1 billion of AUM and has closed on 11 investments since its launch in 2019, placing it among the most active GP stake investors in the industry. SCG has partnered with GPs across buyout, structured equity, private credit, and real asset strategies.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ravi to our team. Ravi brings over 25 years of industry experience and an extensive track record across alternative investments including manager evaluation, deal sourcing and structuring, capital raising and product development. He will play an important role executing our ambitious growth objectives and we look forward to his support as we expand the Strategic Capital platform,” said Anthony Maniscalco, Managing Partner and Head of SCG.

Ravi Thakur joined the SCG team in New York in October of this year and reports to Anthony Maniscalco. Most recently, Ravi led the US GP activities for B-Flexion, the investment office of Switzerland’s wealthiest family, where he provided board-level guidance to GPs across its multi-billion dollar portfolio. Prior to that, he helped establish a US-based capital raising team for a top 10 global asset manager. Ravi also was a member of the executive team responsible for delivering revenue growth across more than 20 investment boutiques at the Bank of New York Mellon Asset Management. He started his career in capital markets at Brown Brothers Harriman.

Ed Brandman joins SCG’s advisory board with 30 years of financial services experience. He is the founder and CEO of due diligence platform DiligentIQ. Ed was a partner for over a decade at KKR, serving as Chief Information Officer and Head of Global Markets Operations. He was also a member of the firm’s Operations & Risk Management Committee, and member of the Board of Directors of Ipreo and Artivest. Additionally, Ed founded and served as the CEO of Renaissance Trading Technologies. Ed also held leadership positions at PwC and Robertson Stephens.