People, judgement and the work behind the network.

Westminster & Partners is a New York-based investment business. Legal experience, opportunity research, operational coordination and the founder community inform a source-led analytical method: understand the people, examine the economics and make responsibilities explicit.

Our strategy for Alderwick Fund I is built around a $20 million fund size and a portfolio of 20 companies. The people and experience below explain the thinking behind that strategy.

Muklesur Bharuya, Attorney-at-law & Barrister, Fund Manager · Founder. The current investment team also includes Stacy Williams, Natalia Williams and Richard Stallman. Their roles are described below. They should not be read as appointments to an investment committee or as authority to manage fund capital.

The investment team

Muklesur Bharuya

Attorney-at-law & Barrister, Fund Manager

Muklesur brings a cross-border legal perspective to governance, risk and transaction preparation. A former public prosecutor and Slaughter and May lawyer, he serves on CISI's FinTech and Risk committees and contributes to FT Adviser, a Financial Times publication.

Full biography

Founder of Westminster & Partners’ developing investment business, he brings a cross-border legal perspective to governance, risk and transaction preparation. Formerly a public prosecutor and a lawyer at Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2021 and admitted to the Paris Bar in 2022. He serves on the FinTech and Risk committees of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI). He is also a guest lecturer at The City Law School, a published author and contributor to FT Adviser, a Financial Times publication.

Stacy Williams

Operations Lead | Principal Support

Based in New York, Stacy coordinates priorities, meeting preparation and follow-through. Her executive-operations and client-service experience includes SPS and Williams Lea. She works with Muklesur to organise document workflows and maintain reliable communication with founders and professional advisers.

Full biography

Stacy coordinates the investment team’s priorities, meeting preparation and follow-through, keeping information and responsibilities clear. Based in New York, she brings executive-operations and client-service experience from SPS and Williams Lea. She works closely with Muklesur to organise document workflows and maintain reliable communication with founders and professional advisers.

Natalia Williams

Investment Operations Associate

Based in New York, Natalia supports opportunity research and diligence coordination. Her experience includes investment administration at IQ-EQ and fund administration at Alter Domus. She prepares company briefs and organises source documents and outstanding questions for traceable review.

Full biography

Natalia supports opportunity research and diligence coordination, preparing company briefs and keeping source documents and outstanding questions organised. Her experience includes investment administration at IQ-EQ and fund administration at Alter Domus. Based in New York, she helps the team turn incoming information into clear, traceable material for review.

Richard Stallman

Legal & Transaction Operations Coordinator

Based in London, Richard coordinates with the New York team on document control, deadlines and signing administration. His experience includes Howard Kennedy and the Law Society of England and Wales. He keeps review materials organised and outstanding actions visible.

Full biography

Richard supports transaction preparation through document control, deadline tracking and signing administration. His experience includes legal operations at Howard Kennedy and programme coordination at the Law Society of England and Wales. Based in London, he coordinates with the New York team to keep review materials organised and outstanding actions visible.

Founder history and published work

Muklesur Bharuya, Attorney-at-law & Barrister, Fund Manager

Founder of Westminster & Partners’ developing investment business.

His background connects law, economics and technology with the practical work of building founder relationships. Raised in Paris, he studied law and economics at Panthéon-Assas before continuing his legal training at the University of Law and City, University of London.

Qualified as a barrister in England and Wales and an attorney-at-law in France, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales in November 2021 and took the Paris Bar oath in June 2022. His professional work has included technology contracting and AI governance. Those disciplines encourage close attention to the commercial substance of an agreement, the ownership of intellectual property and data, and the allocation of responsibility when a product is deployed.

A former public prosecutor, he also brings experience as a lawyer at Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May. His work at the firm was a contracting engagement from August to November 2022. He is a guest lecturer at The City Law School and a member of both the FinTech and Risk committees of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI). That background informs an interest in careful preparation, evidence and the practical consequences of a decision.

A published author and contributor to FT Adviser, a Financial Times publication, he wrote two FT Adviser pieces in 2024 addressing AI's implications for financial services and financial-advice businesses.

AI in advice firms: what advisers need to know — FT Adviser

“AI will make managing money a whole lot easier” — FT Adviser

City's alumni profile and the City Ventures interview Muklesur Bharuya: Bridging Law and Entrepreneurship offer a first-person view of his path from legal training towards technology entrepreneurship, including his work with City Launch Lab. These are individual biographical sources, separate from the fund's institutional credentials.

LinkedIn · City Ventures interview · City alumni profile

Watch: Bridging Law and Entrepreneurship — City Ventures

Through AI Founders Connect, he has helped build a programme of founder and investor conversations across the United States, United Kingdom, France and Australia. The proposed Westminster fund is intended to translate that perspective into a selective, documented investment process.

Legal and community experience inform his approach; they are not a substitute for an attributable investment record.

Read his published work · Explore the community programme

Author of four books

Writing is another thread in that journey. He is the author of four books, including Smart-Contract: The Rise of Decentralised Finance, a work on the intersection of law and decentralised finance referenced in City's 2023 alumni profile.

Smart-Contract: The Rise of Decentralised Finance — book listing

Published and institutional records

CISI’s FinTech Forum Committee document lists Muklesur Bharuya with Westminster & Partners. The Franco-British Lawyers Society’s June 2023 AI and LegalTech programme also lists him as a speaker at City Launch Lab.

The related UK practice appears in CityVentures’ startup directory and among SMU IIE’s legal startup-perk providers. These are specific elements of the founder and professional network, distinct from investment performance or institutional endorsement of the fund.

View the CISI record · View the speaking programme · View CityVentures · View SMU IIE

A story with identifiable foundations

Law, economics and commercial practice. Understanding the rights, obligations and incentives that sit behind a business.

Entrepreneurship and published thinking. Exploring how technology changes professional work and how founders turn ideas into functioning businesses.

A continuing founder community. Building programmes, preparing conversations and maintaining relationships across markets.

A dedicated investment discipline. Developing a fund with its own mandate, authority, governance and reporting, rather than presenting all related activities as one undifferentiated track record.

A working culture of preparation and review

Our proposed working standard pairs an accountable lead with a second reviewer on substantive engagements, and sets a professional-development aim of 30 hours per person each year. These are intended working practices, not a statement of existing fund appointments, completed training or implemented assurance controls.

For a proposed initial investment of $250,000–$750,000, that preparation means an identifiable lead, a documented investment case and a separate challenge to its assumptions. The range describes the planned investment mandate—not the size of transactions already completed by the people profiled here.

Three documented programme case studies—Cambridge, Berkeley and Cornell Tech—show the wider team's operating context in concrete terms. Individual contributions should be attributed only where supported by the record.

What this means for prospective LPs

We want investors to be able to distinguish the relevant contribution of each person, the experience on which the strategy draws, and the responsibilities that must be established within the fund itself.

Our story provides context. The quality of the investment proposition must also be demonstrated through its mandate, diligence, terms and stewardship.

Explore our network and experience · Discuss our approach

For a direct conversation with the team: capital@westminstercapitals.com · +1 (646) 917-7791.