Autonomy Capital, the thematic multi-asset investment manager, has launched a macro fund called Autonomy Stellar for external investors based on a strategy devised in 2023 by company founder, Robert Gibbins, and RethinkX co-founder, Tony Seba.
The strategy is focused on technological drivers of systemic changes – disruption – in sectors that underpin the global economy. It uses a multi-asset long-short approach, looking for mispriced assets in energy, transportation, IT, intelligence, food and labour systems, as well as betting against those deemed to be facing obsolescence.
The founders note that the strategy outperformed the Nasdaq by 10% in 2024, adding that Autonomy Stellar’s returns are 16% year to date. Autonomy Stellar operates under a separate mandate to Autonomy Capital, which was founded in 2003.
As part of the launch, Tony Seba has been appointed partner and director of Research at Autonomy Stellar.
Gibbins, founder and CIO of Autonomy Capital, commented: “Traditional macro and siloed approaches to investment management are no longer fit for purpose in the modern world. We are experiencing a period of unprecedented simultaneous systemic changes driven by cheaper, more capable technologies that are transforming sectors and their value chains.”
“Viewing the world in these terms has been central to Autonomy Capital’s recent performance and the idea that underpins Autonomy Stellar – a fund dedicated to investing the technologies driving systemic change and the assets foundational to the resulting higher-order systems.”
Seba commented: “Autonomy Stellar’s proven investment framework applies systems thinking to identify opportunities stemming from the temporary period when technology transforms industries and societies from lower to higher-order systems – phase changes. Previous phase changes – the invention of the combustion engine or the smartphone – drove vastly different transformations to higher-order systems.”
“We launched this fund to take advantage of the multiple phase changes occurring right now. By applying our unique proven framework which captures how technology drives systemic change across sectors and value chains to a coherent investment strategy, means that Autonomy Stellar is uniquely positioned to capitalise on generational investment opportunities.”
