For years, the commercial real estate credit market has offered allocators three imperfect choices: mega-managers with concentrated large-loan portfolios and single-product strategies; multi-asset managers distracted by various other business lines and legacy portfolios; or smaller lenders who lack the management sophistication that institutional capital demands. As a result, institutional allocators, family offices, and RIAs have been forced to choose between competitive assets, concentration risk, suboptimal operational alignment, and/or underperformance.
Anuj Gupta and Tim Geraghty have watched that gap widen for two decades — and decided to do something about it.
The result is Scythian Capital Management, an alternative asset manager with a focus on lower and middle-market CRE credit, purpose-built for an underserved segment of the market. Anuj and Tim bring GE’s strategic management expertise, capital markets sophistication from multiple leading Wall Street firms, and decades of deep operational experience to a space the mega-managers haven’t focused on or been able to effectively penetrate.
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Anuj trained at GE Capital, one of the most rigorous credit, operational, and leadership environments in the country. Tim came up through Deutsche Bank's structured products business. Their paths first crossed when Tim began financing the business Anuj co-founded and ran at Waterfall Asset Management. They later joined forces inside Waterfall and together helped grow the platform substantially. In the process, they took a small originator that was focused on owner-occupied loans and rebuilt it into a commercial mortgage vehicle which went on to become one of the largest commercial mortgage REITs in the country.
Scythian's edge comes from Anuj’s and Tim’s unique experience over the past two decades, building platforms from the ground up that have gone on to originate approximately $16B in loans, acquire over $3B in loans, while executing on and integrating the acquisitions of five lending platforms. Furthermore, they have collectively led and executed approximately 100 securitization transactions totaling approximately $50B, with many of those assets coming from businesses they built and led.
While many credit managers have single strategies that have limited options when the cycle turns, Anuj and Tim run a lower and middle-market ecosystem, combining capital-heavy and capital-light strategies: bridge lending and loan acquisitions on one side, government-licensed businesses on the other. When credit markets tighten, the fee side keeps cash flowing. When they loosen, capital deployment accelerates, consistently generating alpha.
Scythian’s lower and middle-market focus adds several other layers of protection. Larger managers can be concentrated, with significant exposure to their top loans, introducing binary risk. Scythian's granular portfolio construction reduces that risk and diversifies across various other aspects, including property types, national markets, sponsors, levels of transition, and business plans.
This partnership fits squarely in Havener Capital Partners’ mission: connecting differentiated boutiques with early adopter investors who recognize something special before the rest of the market catches on. We're excited to help Anuj & Tim build Scythian’s brand, sharpen their story, and get in front of the right market.
→ Learn more about Scythian Capital Management
→ Connect with Anuj Gupta on LinkedIn
→ Connect with Tim Geraghty on LinkedIn