
Raphael Rottgen, CFA FRM
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
Zürich, Switzerland
Toptal member since August 25, 2017
Raphael was the co-founder of a fintech company which he grew to 50 employees and merged with a competitor after four years. He's co-founded two investment firms, including a blockchain one, and worked for 15 years as a global investor and an M&A banker at Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan. He also holds a master's in AI and is a graduate of the International Space University. As a consultant, he's passionate about helping innovative businesses grow.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Industry Expertise
- Finance
- Investment Banking
- Venture Capital & Private Equity
- Aerospace & Defense
- Financial Modeling
- Startups
- Blockchain
- Cryptocurrency
Other Expertise
- Biotechnology
- Blockchain
- Data Science
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial Modeling
- Valuation
Work Experience
Managing Director
E2MC
- Served as a financial and investment advisor to space companies.
- Advised space startup companies on topics such as fundraising.
- Consulted with institutional shareholders of space companies.
- Counseled government clients with respect to space.
- Investing in space companies (from proprietary capital and raising a fund).
Partner
Final Frontier Holding
- Co-led the development and structuring of regulated blockchain/cryptocurrency investment funds targeted at institutional investors.
- Assisted in obtaining a regulatory sandbox license for a cryptocurrency exchange.
- Developed automated web-based tools to analyze cryptocurrencies, including both technical and fundamental factors.
Freelance Financial Analyst to Evaluate SpaceX
Investment Fund (via Toptal)
- Built a financial model for the business based on public information.
- Assisted in marketing to potential investors.
Chief Investment Officer
SVM Capital
- Designed an investment process that augments human investment judgment with machine intelligence, for use in concentrated, fundamental long-short equity investment.
- Developed and maintained a suite of investment algorithms using machine learning techniques.
- Invested successfully in a current universe of over 1,300 stocks across all industries.
Seed Investor | Chairman
Financiar Casa S/A
- Co-founded one of Brazil's first nationwide online mortgage brokerages, pioneering the concept in the local market wherein we were one of the first two companies.
- Developed some of the first-ever mortgage distribution partnerships with major banks (e.g., HSBC, Citibank, Santander, Itaú) and real estate developers.
- Specified and developed (with external IT support) a custom IT platform—including the public web portal—for mortgage marketing and processing.
- Successfully led two fundraising rounds—including fundraising meetings, negotiation, and closing documentation—with local and international investors.
- Recruited and managed up to 50 employees, in addition to outsourced service providers, across all of the company's functions, including sales, IT, finance, and HR.
- Conceived and negotiated the merger of the company with one of its competitors.
Investment Analyst
Gandhara Capital
- Generated and analyzed equity investment ideas globally and across sectors as a senior investment professional, helping the fund generate annual net returns in the mid-teens.
- Oversaw up to US$750 million gross exposure (i.e., long and short), monitoring investment positions on a real-time basis.
- Conducted all the necessary primary and secondary research (including senior management meetings), financial modeling and other due diligence in order to develop conviction on investment ideas.
- Regularly updated fund's investors on investment positions via written reports and one-on-one meetings.
- Co-founded the firm with a team that had left Deutsche Bank where I had acted as a director of proprietary trading in essentially the same functional role.
Director of Proprietary Trading
Deutsche Bank
- Joined a newly-formed proprietary investment team as a founding member focused on fundamental investment in global equities (based in Tokyo and London).
- Generated and analyzed equity investment ideas globally and across sectors as a senior investment professional, helping the team achieve investment returns in the mid-teens.
- Oversaw investment positions on a real-time basis, interacting with sell-side trading desks.
Associate
Greenhill & Co.
- Served as the lead associate on the distressed restructuring of Marconi plc, advising the bondholders.
- Managed substantial parts of the local day-to-day processes during the sale of Optus (the second-largest Australian telecom at the time) to Singapore Telecom; it was one of the largest M&A transactions in Australia.
- Served as the associate on the team advising C&W on the sale of Hong Kong Telecom to PCCW which was the largest ever non-Japan Asia M&A transaction at the time; I performed tasks such as financial modeling and due diligence.
- Participated in tens of billions of dollars in deal value of other transactions globally.
Financial Analyst
JP Morgan
- Served on various advisory assignments for industrial and defense clients in the Americas.
- Performed in-depth financial modeling, including forecasts, valuations, and pro forma merger analyses.
Education
Space Studies Program in Space
International Space University - Strasbourg, France
Master's Degree in Computer Science
PUC | Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Bachelor's Degree in Psychology
University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Finance
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA, USA
Certifications
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
CFA Institute
Chartered Financial Risk Manager (FRM)
Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)
Skills
Finance
Equity Research Analysis, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Equity Valuation, Investment Thesis, Equity Research, Corporate Finance, Financial Modeling, Valuation, Budgeting, Blockchain, Asset Valuation, Fundraising, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Private Equity, Structuring of Funds, Financial Advisory, Finance Strategy, Due Diligence, Financial Restructuring, Entrepreneurial Finance, Venture Funding
Data & Analysis Software
R, Bloomberg
Industry Expertise
Asset Management, Aerospace & Defense, Financial Markets, Capital Markets, Financial Services, Venture Capital
Geographic Expertise
Brazil, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Germany
Other
Data Science, Equity, Investments, Investment Ideas, Investment Strategy, Investment Research, Investment Consulting, Investment Cases, Equity Investment, Investment Modeling, Cryptocurrency, Biotechnology, Machine Learning, Startups, Business Strategy, Company Strategy, Strategy Planning, Strategy, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Entrepreneurship, Investment Funds, Hedge Funds, Python, Corporate Development, Emerging Markets, Microsoft 365, Data Visualization, Big Data, RStudio Shiny, Financial Risk Management
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