Cascade #26 - Nelson Chu: Modernizing private credit for the $25 trillion future

Nelson Chu is founder and CEO of Percent—a capital markets platform bringing transparency, liquidity, and standardisation to private credit.

Nelson’s path started with a $1,000 “experiment fund” from his dad and early side hustles in design. After stints at Merrill Lynch and BlackRock, he left corporate life behind, built a consulting firm that helped raise over $1B, and used that momentum to launch Percent.

What began as a short-duration credit platform with $500 minimums has evolved into the infrastructure behind over $1.5B in transactions—now positioning itself to power the future of a $25T market.

We talked about Nelson’s journey from design to finance, how art influences his thinking, and what it takes to earn trust in a space that’s opaque by design. We also dug into Percent’s tech, regulatory approach, and long-term plan to bring public-market efficiency to private credit.