Luigi Ghilardi II is an American finance and veteran technology entrepreneur, blockchain/DLT investor and influencer, and movie producer. Luigi founded his first company in 2000 working with financial securities and eventually building his business into a large residential and commercial mortgage banking company on the West Coast where he remained until the mortgage crisis in 2008.
In 2009, Luigi relocated to New York City and launched his first fund, Black Onyx Capital Management, a systematic long/short equity fund. His entrepreneurial vision led him to expand into numerous technology investments with focus in fin-tech, AI and machine learning, and VR. Luigi is an early investor in various technology companies including Dropbox, Facebook, MongoDB, Palantir Technologies, Vicarious, SoFi and many more.
In 2014 Luigi launched his second fund, Merkaba Capital, a tech-focused fund backed by a consortium of family offices. In the most recent years, Luigi has focused much of his attention on distributed ledger technologies and has invested and advised in 20+ companies and crypto projects. He has now a dedicated family office fund to blockchain/DLT projects.
Luigi works closely with institutional and private investors, select affluent families, individuals and closely-held businesses and has extensive experience in dealing with technology teams, regulatory bodies and private and government-backed funds.