NY veterans launch AI-driven hedge fund in Zug

Symbit Capital began operations on July 1 in Zug, Switzerland, and launched the Symbit Global Equity L/S Fund the same day. The firm combines fundamental discretionary research with proprietary artificial intelligence to trade a global equity long-short strategy.

The company was founded by Trym Steinset Torvund and Marius Skrondal, who relocated from New York to establish the business. Both served as portfolio managers in Norges Bank Investment Management’s New York office; Torvund managed assets for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global from 2016 to 2025. Tristan Brenner, former chief executive of GAM Investment Management, and investment professional Alex Ring joined Symbit later as partners.

The Symbit Global Equity L/S Fund targets broadly market-neutral exposure and aims for gross leverage of about 200%. The fund intends to hold a concentrated core long book of roughly 10 to 15 positions alongside a larger short book. The alternative investment fund has been registered for pre-marketing in several EU and EEA jurisdictions and the firm plans to offer access to UK investors under the private placement regime. Target clients include private banks, asset and wealth managers, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and funds of funds.

Symbit says its proprietary AI models are built around a long-term fundamental investment process developed by the founders while at Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. The system evaluates companies against frameworks covering business models, execution and investor sentiment to speed the fundamental research process. According to Marius Skrondal, the founders spent the past year building an AI system aligned with their investment philosophy, “allowing them to compress weeks of fundamental research into a much shorter period.”

The firm started with four employees and expects to add one or two investment professionals over the next year as it expands research capabilities. Symbit cited Zug’s regulatory stability, tax environment and established financial services industry, and noted the Greater Zurich Area’s access to technology and investment talent as factors in its choice of location. The firm plans to develop additional strategies over time, including absolute-return long-short, long-only, portable alpha and customised investment mandates.