

Raphael Rottgen, CFA FRM
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
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
Other Expertise
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.
Other Experience
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)