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About Cap8

Research first. Then a platform.

Cap8 began as a research question at MIT in 2018. It became the platform advisory firms now use to build regime-aware ETF strategies.

Santiago Guzman and Joseph Peteul met in 2018 as MIT Sloan Fellows, in the same study group. Both came from finance: Santiago from equity capital markets at Citigroup, Joseph from investment banking and M&A. They started a boutique investment firm to pursue one question, among others: had ETFs changed the way markets price market risk?

In 2019, Martha Moreno, PhD, joined to lead the data science side of the research. The finance research went to peer review and was published in the Journal of Portfolio Management in 2022 and 2025. The models, data and optimizers built from it stayed in house.

In 2024, the founders began building the platform as a business with design partners: large RIAs, multi-asset funds and asset managers who run strategies on it in their own accounts. In 2025, Cap8 was formally spun out as its own company.

Santiago Guzman and Joseph Peteul in graduation gowns at MIT, 2018.
Santiago Guzman and Joseph Peteul at their MIT Sloan Fellows commencement, 2018.

Timeline

One question since 2018.

  1. 2018

    Santiago and Joseph meet as MIT Sloan Fellows

  2. 2019

    Martha Moreno joins to lead the data science research

  3. 2022

    First paper in the Journal of Portfolio Management

  4. 2024

    Building the platform as a business begins, with design partners

  5. 2025

    Cap8 formally spun out; second paper in the Journal of Portfolio Management, co-authored with Bayes Business School; cited by the Financial Times

Leadership

Three co-founders.

Portrait of Santiago Guzman

Santiago Guzman

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Former Director of Equity Capital Markets at Citigroup in Mexico. MIT Sloan Fellow (2018). Co-author of both Cap8 papers in the Journal of Portfolio Management.

LinkedIn profile of Santiago Guzman
Portrait of Joseph Peteul

Joseph Peteul

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Investment banking and M&A at Investec and Deloitte in Paris, then Deputy CEO of YellowKorner. MIT Sloan Fellow (2018). Co-author of the 2022 paper in the Journal of Portfolio Management.

LinkedIn profile of Joseph Peteul
Portrait of Martha Moreno

Martha Moreno, PhD

Co-Founder and Chief Analytics Officer

Specialist in statistical modeling and applied machine learning. PhD from NYU. Owns the engineering behind the engine, and leads data science research and machine-learning development.

LinkedIn profile of Martha Moreno, PhD

In the press

What others have written.

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