Global Principal Investing
SLM sources large liquid assets and mispriced opportunities across global markets, builds positions around them, and compounds the proceeds into a permanent capital base — principal-only, no outside fund, no dilution.
The Firm
SLM Ventures LLC is a principal investment partnership co-founded by Steven Murphy II and Kumar Ujjwal. We invest our own capital — globally, across sectors, and without outside investors.
The partnership runs on two complementary edges: Steven on risk, markets, and portfolio construction; Kumar on technology, operating insight, and asset evaluation. Together they move across technology, infrastructure, energy, biotech, consumer, and financials — wherever a persistent, exploitable opportunity exists.
Decisions sit with the two principals. Steven prices and takes the risk; Kumar pressure-tests the technology and the asset behind it. No committee, no mandate creep — conviction backed by our own balance sheet.
How We Work
Kumar sources and validates; Steven prices and takes the risk; together we compound the result. Two principals, three moves.
Kumar sources opportunities — proprietary access and deep technical judgment across technology, infrastructure, energy, and beyond — and decides whether the asset, the team, and the technology behind it are real and worth pursuing.
Steven sizes and structures the position — risk, financing, and portfolio fit — translating a raw opportunity into a return profile worth owning, with a contrarian read on what the market has mispriced.
Returns are retained and recycled into the next position. Capital compounds on our own balance sheet — recycled, not raised — so each win funds the next one.
Where We Hunt
We are not bound to a sector. We follow persistent, misunderstood opportunity — places where the market is mispricing risk and we have an edge to exploit it.
GPU clusters, data centers, and the physical backbone of the AI build-out.
Generation, transmission, and storage feeding exponential demand growth.
Therapeutics, platforms, and tools where science outpaces the market's read.
Brands and platforms with durable demand and misjudged economics.
Credit, securities, and balance-sheet dislocations across global markets.
Anywhere a persistent mispricing exists and we have the edge to act on it.
The Principals
Risk and markets on one side; technology and operating judgment on the other. Every position runs through both.
Co-Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Risk, Markets & Portfolio Construction
Mr. Murphy is the firm's risk-taker and portfolio manager — sizing positions, structuring risk, and allocating the book with a contrarian eye for mispriced, misunderstood opportunities others overlook.
Over a decade deploying institutional capital across global equity markets — North America, Europe, and Asia — through systematic and discretionary mandates, including a US opportunity book at a global ECM-focused hedge fund and a multi-continent equity portfolio.
Role: Risk-taking, portfolio construction, position sizing, and capital allocation across the book.
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Technology, Origination & Operating Insight
Mr. Ujjwal is the firm's technologist and operator — sourcing opportunities and bringing deep technical judgment to evaluate the asset, the team, and the technology behind every position before capital is committed.
Two decades of entrepreneurial leadership across AI/ML, fintech, and blockchain. Founder & CEO of DwellFi, the AI operating system for private markets. First Product Manager at Punchh (acquired for $500M). Two U.S. patents in machine learning. Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Role: Origination, technology evaluation, founder and operator relationships, and asset diligence across sectors.
Get in Touch
For qualified institutional investors and family offices exploring strategic opportunities with the firm.
partners@slm.global