Meridiem rebuilds to $1.6bn with Schonfeld backing

Meridiem Capital Partners has rebuilt its assets to roughly $1.6 billion after Millennium Management withdrew about $1.5 billion following a lock-up expiry in 2024. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors increased its investment in Meridiem this year and has become the fund’s largest backer.

The equities-focused hedge fund returned 13.6% in the first half of 2026. Meridiem named John Golden president; Golden was a partner and co-founder of energy-focused private equity firm Spicewood Partners and will lead fundraising, investor relations and business development as the firm expands its investor base and trading capacity.

Meridiem’s founder, Khalid Malik, previously managed money at Citadel’s Surveyor Capital and worked at SAC Capital Advisors. After Millennium’s capital left, Meridiem began managing capital provided by Schonfeld in 2024 and has since rebuilt assets while strengthening its leadership team.

Schonfeld’s allocations to outside managers have included a $500 million commitment to an Abu Dhabi-based fund run by Omar Newera, support for the launch of Mistral Capital by Nicolas Monaghan, and backing for Aster Capital when it was founded by Nabil Ouajjane in 2019. Those placements illustrate the firm’s practice of investing in external teams to scale strategies quickly.

The fund’s management aims to raise assets to about $2 billion by the end of 2026. Representatives for Meridiem and Schonfeld declined to comment.

Some industry participants have noted risks when a single large investor provides concentrated capital. Marc Gilly, a partner at Canepa Global Managers, described that type of funding as “flammable,” warning heavy reliance on one investor can destabilize a manager if the funding is withdrawn or reallocated.

Meridiem’s recovery follows a pattern in which multi-strategy firms allocate capital to external managers rather than building every strategy internally. For smaller hedge funds, such allocations can enable faster scaling by providing ready capital and expanded trading capacity without raising the same level of capital directly from market investors.