fundcraft makes new appointments as it opens its first office in France
29 January 2026 France
Image: eyetronic/stock.adobe.com
fundcraft, a European digital-native fund operations platform, has appointed Christian Senitz as chief operating officer and has opened a Paris office, led by Thomas Ibanez, acting as country head, France.
The firm says that these announcements mark a new phase in its execution and scaling strategy, as the company expands beyond its Luxembourg foundation.
The firm’s expansion aims at helping asset managers, platforms and distribution-led players operate these models with greater efficiency, transparency and control.
Senitz joins fundcraft to lead group-wide operational execution and scalable growth, including the company’s expansion beyond Luxembourg into additional European fund domiciles, with France as the first step.
He brings more than two decades of senior leadership experience across finance and operations in high-growth technology and financial services companies, including Rocket Internet, where he focused on scaling international operations, building execution discipline and supporting rapid multi-market expansion.
As the chief operating officer, Senitz will focus on industrialising fundcraft’s operating platform, strengthening execution excellence at scale, and supporting further geographic expansion, ensuring growth is delivered with institutional rigour and consistency, the firm notes.
Commenting on his appointment, Senitz says: “fundcraft has reached a stage where disciplined execution and scale matter as much as innovation. The opportunity now is to industrialise what we’ve built and extend it across Europe. I’m looking forward to helping scale this operating model beyond Luxembourg, starting with France.”
Additionally, the new country head Ibanez brings extensive experience in the French asset management and fund distribution ecosystem, spanning institutional and wholesale coverage as well as familiarity with regulatory environments, including previous experience at the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF).
The firm says he will lead local market development, hiring and partnerships, and will support fundcraft’s long-term ambition to serve French-domiciled funds and France-linked distribution models, including private markets access strategies and European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF), evergreen structures.
Commenting on his appointment, Ibanez notes: “France is a uniquely important market for private markets access in Europe, with distribution dynamics that demand operational scalability, strong governance and an investor-centric experience.
“fundcraft is uniquely positioned to enable managers to operate complex structures and high-volume investor flows without relying on manual processes or fragmented tooling.
“I’m proud to lead the expansion in France, subject to AMF authorisation for regulated activities, and to build a local team that can serve this market with the level of rigour it requires.”
fundcraft’s activities in France are pending the approval of the AMF, for which an application has been filed to provide regulated AIFM related services in France under the relevant regulatory framework.
Julien De Mayer, co-founder and CEO at fundcraft, adds: “We are seeing clear demand from French asset managers and distribution-led platforms for operating models that simply cannot be supported by legacy infrastructure.
“The democratisation of private markets requires a product mindset and deep operational engineering, which fundcraft uniquely brings.
“France is a strategic step in our broader European growth journey, following five years of building and industrialising digital fund operations in Luxembourg. I’m very pleased to welcome Christian and Thomas as we take this next phase of execution forward.”
The firm says that these announcements mark a new phase in its execution and scaling strategy, as the company expands beyond its Luxembourg foundation.
The firm’s expansion aims at helping asset managers, platforms and distribution-led players operate these models with greater efficiency, transparency and control.
Senitz joins fundcraft to lead group-wide operational execution and scalable growth, including the company’s expansion beyond Luxembourg into additional European fund domiciles, with France as the first step.
He brings more than two decades of senior leadership experience across finance and operations in high-growth technology and financial services companies, including Rocket Internet, where he focused on scaling international operations, building execution discipline and supporting rapid multi-market expansion.
As the chief operating officer, Senitz will focus on industrialising fundcraft’s operating platform, strengthening execution excellence at scale, and supporting further geographic expansion, ensuring growth is delivered with institutional rigour and consistency, the firm notes.
Commenting on his appointment, Senitz says: “fundcraft has reached a stage where disciplined execution and scale matter as much as innovation. The opportunity now is to industrialise what we’ve built and extend it across Europe. I’m looking forward to helping scale this operating model beyond Luxembourg, starting with France.”
Additionally, the new country head Ibanez brings extensive experience in the French asset management and fund distribution ecosystem, spanning institutional and wholesale coverage as well as familiarity with regulatory environments, including previous experience at the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF).
The firm says he will lead local market development, hiring and partnerships, and will support fundcraft’s long-term ambition to serve French-domiciled funds and France-linked distribution models, including private markets access strategies and European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF), evergreen structures.
Commenting on his appointment, Ibanez notes: “France is a uniquely important market for private markets access in Europe, with distribution dynamics that demand operational scalability, strong governance and an investor-centric experience.
“fundcraft is uniquely positioned to enable managers to operate complex structures and high-volume investor flows without relying on manual processes or fragmented tooling.
“I’m proud to lead the expansion in France, subject to AMF authorisation for regulated activities, and to build a local team that can serve this market with the level of rigour it requires.”
fundcraft’s activities in France are pending the approval of the AMF, for which an application has been filed to provide regulated AIFM related services in France under the relevant regulatory framework.
Julien De Mayer, co-founder and CEO at fundcraft, adds: “We are seeing clear demand from French asset managers and distribution-led platforms for operating models that simply cannot be supported by legacy infrastructure.
“The democratisation of private markets requires a product mindset and deep operational engineering, which fundcraft uniquely brings.
“France is a strategic step in our broader European growth journey, following five years of building and industrialising digital fund operations in Luxembourg. I’m very pleased to welcome Christian and Thomas as we take this next phase of execution forward.”
NO FEE, NO RISK
100% ON RETURNS If you invest in only one asset servicing news source this year, make sure it is your free subscription to Asset Servicing Times
100% ON RETURNS If you invest in only one asset servicing news source this year, make sure it is your free subscription to Asset Servicing Times
