Stinger Capital origins
How it all started
The journey for Stinger starts now but its origins go much further, well before the Great Financial Crisis hit in 2008. As a result of that crisis European banks started to pull back from certain segments of the economy who would find it increasingly difficult to get financing, a problem exacerbated during the Covid Pandemic and the end of “free money” across the board.
We at Stinger are big believers in “small is beautiful” concept when it comes to investment funds. There is a great opportunity as change is coming in Europe, banks are facing the end of an era and it’s time for new players to step in and offer new solutions built around customers, transparent, independent and aligned with investors.
Starting a new venture is always a challenge and finding the right team is essential for it. All of us have been through this before and understand how important it is to have an experienced team you can trust, staying independent. We may not be searching for the Antarctic like Shackleton or travelling across the World like El Cano but it’s a long and treacherous journey so better go with someone you can trust.
Our investment team has been working together for years, growing businesses from scratch with a very positive outcome in this same sector. However, we’re not relying on this as the future is constantly changing, something Covid reminded us just a few years back. We like to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
The main reason we’re launching this fund is because all of us in the team have experienced the consequences of banks disappearing when markets turned sour. To be fair to these banks, it’s not all their fault even if it’s easy to blame them. Poor risk management led to massive losses which in turn led to regulators and politicians tightening capital rules, turning banks into gigantic bureaucracy and compliance monsters. Somewhere along the way banks lost contact with their customers, trying to turn them into numbers but there’s people behind them, creating opportunities for alternative players who have the experience and will to make it, like Stinger.