# SMRF Capital

SMRF Capital is a Private Equity based in London, United Kingdom.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Private Equity
- **Headquarters:** London, United Kingdom
- **Region:** Europe
- **Address:** London, United Kingdom
- **Founded:** 2020
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** www.smrfcapital.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/smrf-capital

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

SMRF Capital has been established to invest new capital into sports Intellectual Property by securitizing media rights, commercial and digital revenue streams of Sports Rights Owners and in the process institutionalizing the sports IP asset class.

## Sectors

- Media & Entertainment

## People

- Claude Ruibal — Founding Partner
- Marcus Luer — Founding Partner
- David Saab — Founding Partner

## Questions

### How does SMRF Capital actually structure its investments?

SMRF Capital securitizes the contracted media, commercial and digital revenue streams of sports rights owners. Rather than taking equity stakes in teams or leagues, the firm provides growth capital to sports organizations in return for a claim on their predictable contractual income. The model is designed to convert stable, long-term cash flows into investable assets for institutional and family-office investors.

### Who runs investment decisions at SMRF Capital?

The three founding partners — Claude Ruibal, Marcus Luer, and David Saab — collectively run the firm. Ruibal brings digital and media-rights experience from Google and YouTube, Luer built Asia's leading sports-marketing agency over 25 years, and Saab is a former J.P. Morgan fixed-income managing director who later served as Head of Portfolio Management at Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild. No single CIO role has been designated publicly.

### Which sports or rights owners has SMRF Capital worked with?

SMRF Capital has not publicly disclosed specific portfolio names or closed transactions. The founding partners' prior experience includes work with FIFA, World Rugby, the NFL, NASCAR, the PGA Tour and the International Ski Federation, but the firm's current investment holdings remain unlisted.

### What distinguishes SMRF Capital from a traditional sports private-equity fund?

Most sports private-equity funds take equity stakes in teams, leagues or sports-related businesses. SMRF Capital instead securitizes media-rights and commercial-revenue contracts, treating them as income-producing assets. The firm underwrites the contractual cash flows rather than betting on enterprise-value appreciation, making the model closer to specialty finance or structured credit than to conventional sports buyouts.

### Is SMRF Capital raising a fund or investing on a deal-by-deal basis?

SMRF Capital's website does not disclose whether it operates through a blind-pool fund, a deal-by-deal capital-raising model, or a managed-account structure. The firm describes itself as an 'independent investment firm focused on the sports marketplace' but provides no public details on fund size or vehicle structure.

## Related profiles

- [SmoothBrain](https://altss.com/profile/smoothbrain)
- [SMRK VC Fund](https://altss.com/profile/smrk-vc-fund)

---

Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/smrf-capital

Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology