The private investment offices owned by millennials

As more and more baby boomers pass on their assets to their children, the role of millennials in the investment world will grow. And perhaps a good starting point to see what direction these 30-somethings will take the investment world is to look at what some of the world’s wealthiest millennials are doing with their money today. So here are five investment offices owned by millennials – and what they are investing in.

Apricot Capital

Millennial: Darren Teo, 35

Investment speciality: too early to say, but Apricot’s first big investment was into an old economy company. So not all wealthy millennials want to invest entirely in cutting-edge tech businesses and impact-led initiatives.

Apricot Capital is the private investment office of the Singapore-based Teo family, who sold their coffee business Super Group last year. Darren, the son of David Teo, who built Super into a multi-billion dollar coffee business, heads Apricot. New onto the scene, Apricot has made some investments, including buying a stake in Marco Polo Marine, a Singapore, early this year. It’s also bought into Singapore property, a sure bet if there was ever one.

Bertoldi Holding

Millennials: Gianluca and Giacomo Bertoldi, both early 30s

Investment speciality: Fintech, property-tech, crowdfunding

Bertoldi Holding is an Italian investment group based in the town of Trento in northern Italy. Run by brothers and millennials: Gianluca and Giacomo Bertoldi. The Bertoldi brothers are the grandsons of Aldo Bertoldi, an entrepreneur from Trento who founded an airport trolleys group called Bertoldi Aldo and a supermarket chain called Orvea. Most of the family’s shares in Orvea were sold a few years back, and through that Bertoldi Holding was set up under the direction of Gianluca and Giacomo.

The group has made some interesting investments, including starting and investing in Italian property crowdfunding platform Walliance. Bertoldi has also backed UK-based Oval Money, a financial planning app, and two Italian startups called Starteed, a crowdfunding platform, and Le Cicogne, a mobile app that finds local babysitters. And last month, Bertoldi Holding invested in Satispay, a smart payment platform based in Milan.

Blue Haven Initiative

Millennial: Liesel Pritzker Simmons, 34.

Investment speciality: Impact investing

Launched in 2012 by one of the Pritzker family heirs, Liesel Pritzker Simmons, and her husband Ian Simmons, who also comes from a very wealthy family but is nine years older than Liesel, family office Blue Haven Initiative is a pathfinder in the world of impact investing. In some ways, it’s become a model for the ever-increasing popularity of impact investing, which millennials are embracing more than any other age group.  Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Blue Haven Initiative invests pretty much entirely in impact-led strategies. These range from clean energy, to affordable housing, and most recently, a news organisation trying to address the problem of fake news.

Grosvenor Estate

Millennial: Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster, 27

Investment speciality: food-tech and agri-tech

Hugh Grosvenor didn’t set up the Grosvenor Estate, it’s been around since the 17th century, but two years ago at the age of just 25, Hugh inherited the Dukedom and the family property and investment group from his father. OK, Grosvenor Estate isn’t a family office, or at least not like the other ones listed here, but effectively it is a family business petty much run as a one family investment group. Much of Grosvenor Estate’s considerable assets are in property across the world.  

Given his age and being just two years into the job as the 7th Duke of Westminster, it’s too early to get an idea of whether Hugh will influence the investment direction of his family’s fortune. Much of that fortune is tied up in property the family has owned for hundreds of years, so minimal needs changing. That said, the Grosvenor Estate hasn’t maintained its wealth over so many years without being innovative, and recently that innovation is represented by an agri-business/technology group Grosvenor Estate set up in 2012 called Wheatsheaf. Just in the last few months, Wheatsheaf has invested in some food and agri-tech companies, including most recently the Canadian company Enterra Feed, which is commercialising a natural system that uses insects to recover nutrients in food waste.

Winklevoss Capital

Millennials: Twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, 37

Investment speciality: Cryptocurrencies and blockchain

Winklevoss Capital, the investment office set up by the Winklevoss twin brothers, is a big investor in tech companies, but is perhaps best known for its commitment to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. Here’s a recent article Family Capital did on that commitment. Winklevoss Capital has also invested in a whole host of startups including a sneaker company, various fintech groups, a legal cannabis distribution group, cybersecurity ventures, and many, many more startups.