Source: Bailu Living Room
Author: Bowen
On November 2023, 11, the official website of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission showed that Mulana Investment Management Limited (hereinafter referred to as Mulana) has been approved by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to engage in regulated businesses No. 24, 1, and 4 with virtual assets as the core. The company's business will be aimed at professional investors (also known as PI clients).
The ranks of Hong Kong's compliant virtual asset investment management institutions have grown again. How strong is the Mulana team? What business will be carried out in the future? Below, Bailu Living Room will sort out and summarize Mulana's basic information for readers to quickly understand and make better decisions.
Background of former Goldman Sachs and Huobi members
Many members of Mulana’s management team have worked for well-known institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Huobi. The following is a brief introduction:
Gillian Wu has worked in the investment field for over 18 years, including equity, multi-asset, virtual asset funds, etc. She was previously General Manager of Delta Lloyd Hong Kong, CIO of Anbang Asset Management, and CEO of Huobi Asset Management. She currently founded Mulana and serves as General Manager.
Ren Qingwen has worked in the investment field for more than 10 years, including stocks and derivatives. She is also an early adopter of DeFi and virtual assets. She has served as a portfolio manager at Delta Lloyd Hong Kong, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, and a fundamental analyst at Citadel Securities. She is currently a director at Mulana.
Gilbert Ng, Legal Counsel. Former General Counsel of OKX, Legal Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Huobi Technology, responsible for licensing and regulatory affairs; currently Head of Compliance at Mulana.
Jeffrey Broer has 20 years of experience in technology/fintech/blockchain technology related projects and consulting experience, as well as practical experience in enterprise IT system deployment and network security management. He was the founder and CEO of Grayscale Limited and the Accenture Fintech Innovation Lab; he is currently the IT director of Mulana.
Audrey Deng has practical experience in coordinating the establishment of VA funds, fund operations and fund counterparty management. She has served as a financial advisor at Prudential and an asset operations analyst at Huobi. She is currently the operations director of Mulana.
Diversified Services
Within the scope of the license, Mulana provides diversified services to professional investors (also known as PI clients). Depending on the applicable conditions of the license, Mulana will generally provide three types of services to PI clients:
Under License No. 1, Mulana can distribute third-party virtual asset funds and also engage in virtual asset introducing brokerage business.Mulana will review and distribute private equity funds for PI clients, including: venture capital funds focusing on Web3, diversified virtual asset funds, multi-strategy virtual asset hedge funds, long virtual asset funds, theme funds or sub-industry funds of a certain track, and proprietary funds under the No. 9 brand.
Under license No. 4, Mulana can provide investment advice on virtual assets.Contains multiple aspects of the overall architecture of the crypto industry:
(i) Infrastructure and architecture design research: Layer 1 and Layer 2, different blockchain ecosystems (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Avax, Cosmos, Aptos, BSC, Near, etc.)
(ii) Application layer research: DeFi protocols (Dex, lending, insurance, etc.)
(iii) Application layer research, gamefi, metaverse, NFT, etc.
(iv) Blockchain and Dapp security research and case studies
(v) VA Funds and Other Need-Based Research
Under License No. 9, Mulana can issue funds that invest 100% in virtual assets.At the same time, we provide corresponding virtual asset fund management services, including:
(i) Fund strategy: performance record, suitability of target customers, etc.
(ii) Fund structure: fund registration place, establishment, counterparties and account opening, etc.
(iii) Fund management: investment and risk management committee, OMS and PMS systems, pre-trade and post-trade compliance, AML and CFT controls, middle office (management/custody/cash management), risk alerts, CSRC notifications, etc.
(iv) Fund governance: directors and anti-money laundering officers
In this regard, Mulana director Ren Qingwen said: "We also plan to introduce high-quality overseas virtual asset fund products that meet strict due diligence standards to provide customers with more diversified choices."
“Currently, investors’ allocation to virtual assets is still low, and there is a lot of room for growth in the future. We hope to work together with colleagues in the industry to raise investors’ awareness of blockchain technology and virtual assets, and help Hong Kong become a leading global virtual asset center as soon as possible.”