Shams Karim

Founder & CEO Nirvana Solutions

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Shams Karim founded Nirvana Solutions and has run it as chief executive for more than fifteen years. The company sells integrated trading, portfolio management and accounting software to institutional asset managers — hedge funds, asset management firms, family offices, prime brokers and service providers — and its central argument is architectural rather than featural: that front office, middle office and back office should run on one system rather than on separately procured tools stitched together by reconciliation. The product line reflects that, spanning Nirvana ONE, the OEMS order and execution management system, portfolio management and accounting, analytics and the One Intelligence layer, with connectivity to over 150 brokers and more than 100 prime brokers, custodians and fund administrators. Karim’s route to the problem was direct: an early career in investment banking and trading in Asia, then Morgan Stanley as a specialist in derivative and structured products across several global financial centres, then a first software company, Advanced Financial Applications, building web-enabled order management for hedge funds. Nirvana now has more than 250 clients and over 200 staff across New York and Gurgaon, is backed by the private equity firm Concentric Equity Partners, and remains founder-led with management holding equity through an ESOP.

Career Highlights

• Began his career in investment banking and trading in Asia.
• Worked at Morgan Stanley as a specialist in derivative and structured products across global financial hubs.
• Founded Advanced Financial Applications and its subsidiary EGS, developing web-enabled order management solutions for hedge funds and alternative investment managers.
• Founded Nirvana Solutions and has been its chief executive for more than 15 years.
• Built an integrated front-to-back platform covering order and execution management, portfolio management, accounting, reconciliation, risk management and analytics.
• Grew the company to more than 250 clients globally and over 2,000 accounts.
• Built connectivity to more than 150 brokers and more than 100 prime brokers, custodians and fund administrators.
• Scaled the business to more than 200 employees across New York and Gurgaon, India.
• Secured backing from Concentric Equity Partners, a private equity firm managing approximately $4bn, while keeping the company founder-led and distributing management ownership through an ESOP.
• Completed multiple fundraising rounds and product launches during his tenure.

Professional Journey

Karim’s career began in investment banking and trading in Asia before he moved to Morgan Stanley, where he specialised in derivative and structured products and worked across several global financial centres. That is the substrate for everything since: derivatives and structured products are precisely the instruments where a portfolio system’s data model either holds up or does not, and where the gap between what the front office trades and what the back office can account for is widest.

His first software venture was Advanced Financial Applications, with its subsidiary EGS, which built web-enabled order management solutions for hedge funds and alternative investment managers. This was an early attempt to move the order management function onto the web for a client base that had generally been served by installed terminal software, and it established the customer segment he has worked in ever since.

Nirvana Solutions followed. Karim founded it to attack a broader problem than order management alone — the fragmentation of an asset manager’s technology stack across separately procured front-, middle- and back-office systems, each with its own data model, reconciled against each other at cost and at risk. Nirvana’s platform is built to be one system covering order and execution management, portfolio management, accounting, reconciliation, risk management and performance analytics, with the connectivity layer to brokers, prime brokers, custodians and fund administrators built in rather than bolted on.

The business has grown to more than 250 clients globally with over 2,000 accounts, supported by more than 200 employees working from headquarters at 85 Broad Street in New York and a second site at Spaze i-Tech Park in Gurgaon, India. The client base spans hedge funds, institutional asset managers, family offices, prime brokers and service providers, and the product line has broadened into Nirvana ONE, Nirvana OEMS, Nirvana PMS & Accounting, Nirvana Analytics and One Intelligence.

The capital structure is worth noting because it is not the one a reader would assume. Nirvana is backed by Concentric Equity Partners, a private equity firm managing approximately $4bn that invests in growing institutional-level businesses. The company describes itself as founder-led, with management retaining meaningful ownership through an employee share ownership programme — an arrangement that keeps Karim in operational control while giving the business institutional capital behind it.

Education

New York University, Stern School of Business

MBA, Quantitative Finance and Economics