Odds on Open How I Built a 1.4-Billion-Dollar Quant Fund - Deepak Gurnani on Founding Versor Investments
Jan 15, 2026
Deepak Gurnani, founder of Versor Investments and former head of Investcorp's hedge fund division, shares his remarkable journey in quantitative finance. He contrasts the hedge fund industry of the 1990s with today's data-driven landscape. Deepak discusses the challenges of starting a firm, including the importance of a strong value proposition and embracing innovation early on, like adopting cloud computing. He also emphasizes the significance of hiring curious, team-oriented talent to foster a culture of idea generation and resilience in a competitive market.
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Leaving To Build A Focused Quant Shop
- Deepak left Investcorp to focus exclusively on hands-on quantitative strategies and build a small, research-driven firm.
- He believed a like-minded founding team could create a sustainable business centered on niche quant strategies.
Start With A Defensible Value Proposition
- Do define a clear value proposition before starting a fund because the market does not need another undifferentiated manager.
- Expect it to take at least twice as long and cost two to three times more than your plan, so budget a long runway.
Early Cloud+Alt Data Paid Off
- Versor adopted cloud computing and alternative data early to scale research and operations cost-effectively.
- That combination let them run AI/ML experiments on diverse unstructured datasets with flexible compute capacity.