Bracebridge Capital

Bracebridge Capital was co-founded by Nancy Zimmerman and Gabriel Brendan Sunshine in 1994.^[4] Zimmerman is a Brown alumna, former Goldman Sachs employee, and the wife of Harvard professor Andrei Shleifer.^[5][6]

Sunshine is a Harvard graduate, class of 1991, and the husband of Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine,^[7] the co-chair of the Harvard College Fund,^[8] who is also senior counsel to Bracebridge Capital.^[9][10] Its chief operating officer is John Spinney.

The fund had a 10% annual return from 1994 to 2016.^[5] Initially, it received $50 million from Tom Steyer's Farallon Capital and David F. Swensen, who runs Yale University's endowment.^[5] Later, Andrew K. Golden, the manager of Princeton University's endowment, also became a major investor in Bracebridge Capital.^[5] By 2012, it had $5.8 billion of assets under management.^[5]

By February 2016, it had assets of $10.3 billion,^[11] making it the largest hedge fund managed by a woman in the world.^[5] It also had more than 100 employees by February 2016.^[5]

In March 2016, it was announced that the firm would receive $1.5 billion from the Argentine debt restructuring.^[12] It was one of four hedge funds which former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called "vultures” and “financial terrorists."^[13]

In April 2025, Bracebridge Capital was named among the lenders providing debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to Hooters of America during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. According to Bloomberg, the restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy with plans to restructure approximately $300 million in asset-backed bonds tied to its franchise operations. Bracebridge contributed to a $40 million DIP loan package, which included $35 million in new capital aimed at supporting the company’s operations during the reorganization process.^[14][15]

In October 2025, Global Witness reported that Bracebridge Capital was involved in shaping the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a $125 billion initiative to finance tropical forest conservation through market-based investments. The firm helped design financial structures for the initiative, which drew scrutiny from environmental groups over the role of private asset managers in global forest policy.^[16]