Candi Carrera, Luxembourgish tech leader turned investment innovator, is reshaping portfolio management through VingeGPT, an AI tool redefining the future of value investing.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming nearly every industry. Candi Carrera stands at the blend of tradition and technology. The former Microsoft Luxembourg country manager is now co-founder of VingeGPT, a disruptive platform that merges classic value investing principles with the power of generative AI. From his base in sun-drenched Malaga, the discreet yet influential Luxembourger is quietly leading a financial revolution with deep roots in his homeland.
From Luxembourg to the World
Carrera’s journey began in Luxembourg where he cultivated his career across the tech sector. Trained in cybersecurity and management, he held leadership roles at CF6 (a subsidiary of Telindus), EBRC (a subsidiary of POST), and eventually Microsoft. In 2014, he was appointed country manager of Microsoft Luxembourg, supporting the digital transformation of multiple industries in the Grand Duchy.
But Carrera’s ambition extended far beyond corporate boundaries. “At 28, I set myself a goal to become a general manager by 40 and an independent board director by 50,” said Carrera. True to this roadmap, he retired from Microsoft in 2020 at 50, not to rest, but to launch a new phase of empowering others through education and democratised investing tools.
The Making of a Value Investor
Carrera’s interest in investing began as early as 2000, just after the dot-com bubble. Influenced by the works of Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Aswath Damodaran, he gravitated toward value investing, a discipline rooted in evaluating a company’s intrinsic worth rather than speculative trends. Over time, his personal portfolio grew, and so did his understanding of how sound investment thinking complements strategic business leadership.
“Being a better investor made me a better manager, and being a better manager made me a better investor,” said Carrera. His hands-on experience running high-revenue operations at Microsoft gave him unique insights into the real mechanics behind company financials, and brand sentiment.
“Even with Excel, calculating the intrinsic value of a company still took hours, I wanted something faster, smarter, and teachable”
In 2020, Carrera launched his first online course on value investing. Over the next few years, He created 12 modules, reaching over 9,000 students worldwide. But there was a pain point: “Even with Excel templates, calculating the intrinsic value of a company still took hours, I wanted something faster, smarter, and teachable,” said Carrera.
The Birth of VingeGPT
Then came a pivotal moment. OpenAI’s announcement in November 2023 allowed for the development of custom GPTs. Within five days, Carrera and co-founder Adriano Bidoli began building VingeGPT, short for “Value Investing Next Generation.”
VingeGPT blends 120 pages of investment methodology with 30 million proprietary data points, spanning 58 markets and 33,400 public equity companies.
Since its official launch on May 1, 2024, VingeGPT has evolved from a personal tool into a full-fledged platform, supported by a core team of nearly ten professionals. Looking ahead, Carrera envisions a global ecosystem where financial investors, novices and experts alike, can rely on AI not just for automation, but for education and insight.
“When analysing companies for example, most AI models will tell you to look at the income statement first. VingeGPT advises you to start with the balance sheet, because that’s what real value investors do,” said Carrera. This shift, grounded in Carrera’s 25 years training and experience as value investor, highlights the distinctiveness of VingeGPT’s approach. Accessible in any language thanks to the underlying OpenAI engine, VingeGPT operates like a digital financial companion. Users can prompt it with queries like: “What’s the intrinsic value of Nike?” and receive a comprehensive, data-driven analysis in seconds, a task that once took hours using spreadsheets.
A Luxembourg Legacy with Global Reach
VingeGPT doesn’t seek to replace human intuition, Carrera insists. Instead, it amplifies it. The platform leverages foundational principles from Graham and Buffett and augments them with modern data signals like brand strength, employee net promoter scores, and consumer sentiment. This hybrid model of AI-enhanced value investing offers something rare: both speed and depth. “We’re not reinventing value investing, we’re making it accessible at scale,” said Carrera.
Though he now resides in Malaga, Carrera remains firmly tied to his Luxembourg roots. His professional journey, investor network, and commitment to mentoring future talent are all anchored in the Grand Duchy. He continues to teach at the University of Luxembourg and the ESSCA School of Management in Malaga, Spain. He also serves as an Independent Board Director at the Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology (LIST), Luxembourg’s largest public research institute, since 2020.
“By blending time-tested principles with innovative AI, VingeGPT may well be charting the next chapter of financial innovation, one that, fittingly, begins in Luxembourg and empowers financial investors worldwide on their journey towards financial freedom,” said Carrera.
This article was published in the 6th edition of Forbes Luxembourg.
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