The Guernsey Funds Forum 2025 saw a record number of attendees convene to discuss the future of funds, including how private equity and venture capital firms are leveraging digital tools and technologies, and the trend towards fund management specialisation.
Held at Bishopsgate in London shortly after the Guernsey Financial Services Commission announced major enhancements to the Private Investment Fund regime, the forum highlighted structural changes designed to boost flexibility and innovation.
The flagship event was opened by special guest Alderman Alistair King, the 696th Lord Mayor of London who said: “The UK receives annual returns of about £7 billion from structures that are based in Guernsey, which is a very significant amount of money. And it’s wonderful to see that that is a figure that has been growing 14% year on year over the course of the last few years.”
Next up was Steven Hillion, Head of Data at Astronomer, the New York-based company behind open-source data orchestration platform Apache Airflow. A Guernseyman himself, Mr Hillion provided an intriguing overview of the philosophical shift in the investment community with regards to the perception of generative AI.
“GenAI is not overhyped – it’s truly magic in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in the technology world before,” he said.
“You cannot not invest in this. This is fundamental. The entire technical world is changing. People are coding differently, people are doing business differently…. So dive in, but do it with your eyes wide open.”
The first of two panels focused on how technology is driving venture capital returns, and the role that Guernsey plays as a hub for global innovation.
On the progress of AI, David Kippen, Managing Director at Cordiant Capital, said: “We ain’t seen nothing yet. We’re at an inflection point where all the data growth rates that we saw in the last several years are now going to go up by big multiples in the next several years. The real big problem is actually energy, and so efficiency in data centres is actually likely to be the next wave of technology innovation to bring the power coming in to the amount of power that goes to the server down to 1:1.”
Panellists also discussed the regulatory pressures in getting technologies to market. The Guernsey Green Fund designation was noted as being particularly valuable in its practicality and alignment to the EU taxonomy without being too overbearing – “an externally validated designation that has really helped us differentiate and compared to other funds”, added Archie.
Mark Harrison, Chief Financial Officer at Sprints, talked about the description of Guernsey as “a small giant”, and its appropriateness as fitting “nicely with the Guernsey mentality of a small island with a small population at the centre of innovation”.
Adding that the ‘everyone knows everyone’ mentality in Guernsey being a real attraction because “it accelerates processes”.
The second panel focused on Guernsey’s appeal as a fund domicile. Aranpreet Randhawa of Fried Frank spoke on the importance of regulatory efficiency, while Jerry Paul of Queen’s Park Equity called the PIF regime “a strong example of industry collaboration” and Stephanie Biggs of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett described a “tug of war” between regulatory caution and the need for deregulation to support growth.
