Fundcraft Appoints COO, Opens Paris Office

On Thursday 29 January 2026, Luxembourg-headquartered digital fund operations specialist fundcraft announced the appointment of Christian Senitz as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the opening of a Paris office, led by Thomas Ibanez, acting as Country Head, France.

These announcements mark a new phase in fundcraft's execution and scaling strategy, as the company expands beyond its Luxembourg foundation. Fundcraft's activities in France are pending the approval of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), for which an application has been filed to provide regulated alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) related services in France under the relevant regulatory framework.

According to the company, this expansion reflects fundcraft's "continued investment in building institutional-grade digital fund operations at scale, combining its proprietary digital platform, regulated services and hands-on operational expertise, at a time when European private markets are undergoing structural change."

Fundcraft noted that France represents one of the largest alternative investment markets in Europe, with approximately €1.4 trillion in assets under management across alternative investment funds (AIFs), alongside more than €2 trillion in life insurance assets, which play a central role in the distribution of long-term and private market investments.

At the same time, the French investor base is broadening rapidly, according to fundcraft. The number of retail investors in France increased by more than 21% over the past two years, while France has emerged as the leading market for European long-term investment funds (ELTIF), accounting for approximately 37% of total European ELTIF assets. This momentum is reflected in product growth, with France registering one of the strongest increase in ELTIFs across the EU in 2025, at above 65%.

Together, these dynamics are said to be accelerating the adoption of new fund formats and operating models characterised by higher investor volumes, semi-liquid and evergreen structures, and significantly increased operational and regulatory complexity. Fundcraft's expansion aims to help asset managers, platforms and distribution-led players operate these models with greater efficiency, transparency and control.

Christian Senitz has joined fundcraft as COO 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.

According to fundcraft, Christian 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 COO, Christian 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."

Christian Senitz, COO at fundcraft, commented: "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."

Christian has been closely involved with fundcraft for more than five years as a Board Director and is now transitioning into an executive role, ensuring continuity as the company enters its next phase of growth.

Fundcraft has opened an office in central Paris (4th arrondissement), to support local hiring and the build-out of its French presence. The office reportedly underpins the continued expansion of fundcraft's client-facing and service delivery capabilities, with on-the-ground teams already being built across portfolio management, risk management and compliance to support alternative asset managers managing Luxembourg- and France-linked fund structures.

As part of this expansion, fundcraft confirmed that it has filed an application with the AMF for authorisation as an AIFM. This authorisation would enable fundcraft France to carry out collective portfolio management of alternative investment funds, at the core of its integrated model combining a proprietary digital platform, regulated services and hands-on operational expertise.

Julien De Mayer, co-founder and CEO of fundcraft, explained: "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."

To lead the French expansion, fundcraft has appointed Thomas Ibanez as Country Head, France. He brings extensive experience in the French asset management and fund distribution ecosystem, spanning institutional and wholesale coverage as well as deep familiarity with regulatory environments, including previous experience at the AMF. 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 ELTIF, evergreen structures.

Thomas Ibanez, Country Head, France at fundcraft, said: "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 entry into France builds on its track record in Luxembourg, where the platform supports more than 260 funds across venture capital, private equity and fund of funds strategies.

According to the company, its integrated operating model brings together: a unified operating system for the fund lifecycle; technology-augmented service delivery; and regulated fund operations capabilities - designed to support both new launches and migrations of existing funds from incumbent administrators.

In France, fundcraft will focus on the provision of collective portfolio management services to support the next generation of private markets operating models - including semi-liquid and evergreen structures, feeder and nominee configurations, and multi-distributor onboarding and reporting - leveraging experience gained with platform-led private markets access models such as Moonfare, where operational scale, investor volumes and data integrity are "mission-critical".