Nico Narel Aguilar
Associate
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- Full Name
- Nicolas Michael Narel-Aguilar
- Title
- Vice President, Private Equity (Investment Officer) — current, at Arcano Partners; previously Senior Associate at Willowridge Partners
- Firm
- Arcano Partners (current); Willowridge Partners (2021–2022, the firm referenced in the stub data)
- Firm Type
- Private markets asset manager / private equity secondaries (Willowridge is a dedicated PE fund-secondaries buyer). *Note: aggregator databases (Angel Match, Foundersuite) additionally tag him as an "Angel Investor," but this appears to be a templated classification, not a documented activity.*
- Investment Stage
- In his professional role, private equity secondaries and co-investments (mature funds, not early-stage). The "Seed Round" label in the stub derives from angel-investor aggregators and is unverified.
- Check Size
- Not disclosed / not verifiable
- Target Company Profile
- Not verifiable at the individual level; his firms transact in institutional private-equity fund interests and mid-market co-investments rather than direct startup rounds
- Sector Focus
- Diversified private equity (buyout, venture, mezzanine fund interests) via Willowridge/Arcano; aggregator profiles list generic B2B/finance/risk tags
- Geographic Focus
- United States and Europe (Arcano's private-equity platform spans both)
- Location
- New York City, New York, United States
Background
Nicolas ("Nico") Narel-Aguilar is a private markets investment professional based in New York. He earned his undergraduate degree from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia in 2016. He is registered with FINRA (BrokerCheck CRD #6493939, listed as Nicolas Michael Narel-Aguilar).
From roughly 2021 to 2022 he was a Senior Associate at Willowridge Partners, Inc., a New York–based private-equity secondaries firm founded in 1995 and headquartered at 122 East 42nd Street. Willowridge specializes in buying interests in venture capital, buyout, mezzanine and other private-capital funds from investors seeking liquidity; the firm has raised nine funds totaling roughly $3.0 billion in committed capital and completed 850+ transactions across 2,500+ underlying funds. The stub's email domain (willowridge.com) and phone number (212-369-4700) trace to this period and this firm.
He is currently a Vice President in the Private Equity division of Arcano Partners, where firm materials list him as a Private Equity Investment Officer. Arcano Partners is an independent global firm founded in 2003, with 20+ years in international financial advisory and private-markets asset management, 240+ professionals across offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao, Milan, New York and Los Angeles, and a private-equity platform investing in mid-market funds and co-investments across primary, secondary and co-investment transactions in Europe and the U.S.
It is worth flagging for accuracy: while third-party databases (Angel Match, Foundersuite) surface him as an "angel investor" targeting seed rounds, his documented, verifiable career is in institutional private-equity secondaries and co-investment, not startup angel investing. The angel framing should be treated as low-confidence aggregator data.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Professionally, private-equity secondaries and co-investments — at Willowridge, acquiring seasoned LP interests in VC/buyout/mezzanine funds; at Arcano, mid-market PE fund investing and co-investments across primary/secondary/co-invest strategies in the U.S. and Europe.
- Not a documented early-stage/seed angel despite aggregator labeling — no stated personal thesis, check size, or "why we say yes" criteria could be found in any primary source or his own writing/talks.
- Aggregator-listed interest tags (unverified, likely templated): fundraising, portfolio management, finance, regulatory compliance, B2B, risk management.
Notable Investments
- No verified individual angel/startup investments were found. Aggregator profiles indicate a portfolio may exist but name no specific companies, rounds, or outcomes.
- His verifiable deal activity is institutional and firm-level (fund-interest purchases and co-investments at Willowridge and Arcano), which are not publicly attributed to him by name.
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