Agefi Luxembourg - février 2026

Février 2026 19 AGEFI Luxembourg Fonds d’investissement What is your role at Moonfare and your back- ground? As Founder and Co-CEO of Moonfare, I lead our mission to expand access to private markets through disciplined fund selection and a digital- first investment experience. I foundedMoonfare in 2016 after leaving my role as a Managing Director at KKRand realising I couldnot invest in the funds I knewbest becauseminimumticketswere $10mil- lion. That gap was impossible to ignore. Moonfare was built to bridge it. Today, we manage €3.9 billion and have a global community of over 5,500 investors across 24 coun- tries. We help them navigate a complex private markets landscape through better selection, smarter portfolio construction, and tools that sup- port them across the full investment lifecycle, with a disciplined focus on long-term returns. Howdidyoubecome anassetmanager, andwhy? Client needs have been for some timematuring be- yond access. Many investors want clear account- ability for portfolio construction, manager selection, monitoring, liquidity planning and con- sistent reporting. We already had the core capabil- ity to meet that demand, with a 20-person investment team built from the private equity in- dustry, so formalising an asset manager capability was the natural next step. It allows us to set a con- sistent house standard on governance, disclosures, suitability and risk controls and to offer curated so- lutions for clients who want a managed approach alongside third party funds. A tangible proof point on our success so far is our Moonfare Co-Investment Fund II, which closed at $83 million in December 2025, exceeding its target in 12 months and representing a 43% increase ver- sus the prior vintage. Couldyou tell us about your recent developments and future projects? Over the next 12months, our focus is on accelerat- ing innovation and expanding our offering so in- vestors can build more complete private markets portfolios onMoonfare, with greater flexibility and better tools end-to-end. On the product side, we are preparing a fully curated range of evergreen strategies. In parallel, we are working on a new proprietary AI tech strategy focused on top-tier technologymanagers and leading companies, built to the same institutional standardswe apply across the platform. We are also expanding internationally into at least one newmarket and rolling out newplatform fea- tures to help our investors improve portfolio con- struction, reporting, and ongoing monitoring across the investment lifecycle. I cannot share the full details on all of this yet, but you will see these initiatives come through over the coming year.” What is your viewon the current economic situa- tion and the various political crises? Today’s backdrop feels more fragile than the late globalisation period. Debt and deficits are high, in- flation progress is uneven, and the cost of capital is structurally higher than investors were used to in the 2010s.At the same time, geopolitics is no longer backgroundnoise. Trade, capital flows and supply chains are being reshaped by industrial policy and bloc dynamics, which raises the risk of suddenpol- icy shifts andwider outcome ranges across sectors and regions. For investors, thepractical response is not topredict every crisis, but to build resilience. That means di- versifying regionally, avoiding overconcentration in richly valued parts of public markets, and lean- ing into areas like defence, cyber andAI where de- mand is increasingly structural. Many of the most innovative companies in these themes are still pri- vately held, which is where private markets can play a meaningful role. What has been the impact of rising interest rates on secondary funds? Higher rates since 2022 have slowed traditional deal andexit cycles, tightening liquidity and length- ening holding periods, conditions that boosted de- mand for secondaries as a practical “release valve” for LPs and GPs. As a result, secondaries saw record activity in 2025, driven by both cyclical needs (portfolio rebalancing, distributions) and structural growth of the asset class across private credit, real estate and infrastructure. With over $3 trillion of unrealisedvalue inglobal buyout portfo- lios and holding periods still extended, we expect their importance to increase into 2026. Froman allocationperspective, our research shows secondaries have become a portfolio mainstay for investors on our platform, valued for shorter hold- ing periods, potentially more consistent returns versus primaries, diversification across vintages and the ability to buy at discounts, features that proved especially relevant in a higher-rate regime. What doyousee as thekeymarket trends for 2026? 2026 is shapingup as a year of dispersion, withbig- ger gaps between winners and losers and a higher premium on selection. Three trends stand out. First,AImoves fromhype to infrastructure.We are entering the secondphase of theAI cycle, less about narrative and more about execution. Adoption is accelerating inside businesses, especially in data, analytics and operational tooling, while the invest- ment opportunity broadens into the picks and shovels layer, including compute, data centres, grids and power. Second, we are seeing a rotation toward resilience and a broader regionalmix.Withvaluations still el- evated in parts of US public markets, investors are leaning into more defensive exposures and show- ingmorewillingness todiversify outside theUS. In private markets, that typically means prioritising cash generative assets, stronger underwriting, and returns driven by fundamentals rather thanmulti- ple expansion. Third, capital markets should continue to reopen, but unevenly.AsM&Aand IPOwindows rebuild, distributiondynamics for privatemarketmanagers should improve and capital recycling should pick up. The key nuance is that this will not be a broad based reopening. Volatility andvaluationgapswill keep exit activity selective, which is why secon- daries and structured liquidity options remain im- portant tools in 2026. Why have family offices become essential for your sector? Family offices have become essential because they arestructurallyincreasingallocationstoprivatemar- kets as public markets look more volatile and, in manyareas,muchmore fullyvalued. Theyare look- ing for diversification, more control over portfolio construction,andaccesstoopportunitiesthatarestill harder to reach through traditional channels. That is exactly why we built Moonfare Private Office, to serve family offices with curated fund, co-invest- ment and direct deal access, institutional due dili- gence and pipeline visibility, better tools for liquidity planning through cash-flow forecasting, andportfolio reviews that helpmanage concentra- tion, all through a more dedicated service model. What are yourmainobjectives for 2026 inLuxem- bourg? Luxembourg is a priority market for Moonfare. Many of the third-party funds on our platform are domiciled here, andwe have a growing local client base. In 2026, our main objectives are to build on the momentumwe saw last year, when we ended 2025 with a 164.1% increase in AUM and 12% growth in our investor base in Luxembourg. We want to deepen relationships with existing clients, and continue expanding our local presence through our office. We also want to broaden the range of curated private market opportunities available to Luxembourg-based investors. Interviewwith Dr. Steffen Pauls, Founder, Chairman and Co-CEOMoonfare DemocratizingAccess to Private Markets Local presence, international reach At Pinsent Masons Luxembourg, we turn complex cross-border matters into clear, actionable, and pragmatic solutions across corporate and M&A, finance, investment funds and tax. We align sharp legal thinking with your business goals. www.pinsentmasons.com