The FamCap 50 – The World’s Top Family Capital Investment Specialists

The FamCap 50 are the top investment individuals in the world of family capital. They are outstanding investors who make a difference to their businesses and the wider world. 

Family Capital compiled the list from a poll of its readers late last year and a review of their activities during the year, as well as their overall gravitas in the ecosystem of family capital. 

The idea was not to divide the list between principals of private investment groups and their senior investment managers, but rather to include them together. So, the principals included in the list are the hands-on investors making a real difference in the investment world. The senior investment advisors were chosen for the same reason. They are all making a difference, and this needs to be acknowledged. 

Family Capital has ranked the Top Ten, who have made an exceptional contribution to the world of family capital. We have listed the rest of the 50 in alphabetical order.

The Top Ten

1: Xavier Niel

Founder, Atlas Investissement and NJJ Holding, France

Investment focus: The entire capital stack

Notable investments: Mistral AI; Vodaphone, Le Monde, Deezer 

Niel is better known as one of the most successful businesspeople in France, but along the way, he built a pretty impressive private investment business and is also connected to France’s most powerful family business dynasties. The consummate deal-maker through various investment groups, including private investment offices – Atlas Investissement and NJJ Holding – Niel’s energy and dexterity in the investment world are legendary. He’s at home across the capital stack, from startups to established listed businesses, Niel’s investment talents are exemplary. Through his marriage to Delphine Arnault, Bernard’s daughter, he increasingly gets the world of family capital. 

2: Scott Earthly

Managing partner, Fremont Private Holdings, US

Investment Focus: private equity 

Notable investments: Hunter Truck, Morrie’s Auto Group, 

Given his background, Earthly is the quintessential investment specialist at any family investment group worldwide. Before joining Fremont more than 10 years ago, Earthly helped other family offices, including the Pritzker Organization, grow their direct investment strategies. He has a keen eye for constructing successful private equity deals and nurturing these businesses. Earthly is an expert in the patient capital ethos of family capital.

3: Solina Chau 

Co-founder and head, Horizons Ventures, Hong Kong

Investment focus: startups, growth equity

Notable investments: Meta, Impossible Foods, Zoom, Perfect Day

Chau is one of Asia’s top venture investors and has carefully managed her relationship with Li Ka-Shing, arguably the most influential businessman in Asia, to create one of the world’s most successful private investment offices. Chau co-founded Horizons with Debbie Chang more than 20 years ago, and through Chau’s relationship with Li, it became his private investment group. Horizons has invested in a host of innovative startups, including Meta, Deep Minds, Zoom, Impossible Foods, and more recently, Perfect Day and Juvena Therapeutics. 

4: Nat Simons

Co-founders, Prelude Ventures, US

Investment focus: climate/impact startups

Notable investments: Ripple Foods, Boston Metal 

Simons has built a formidable venture group designed to move the planet to a low-carbon economy. Launched in 2009 with his wife Laura Baxton-Simons (pictured with Nat above), Prelude has invested in many impact ventures, including Ripple Foods, Boston Metal, and food waste group Mill. Few investors are doing more to meet the challenge of climate change than Simons. Given that he’s the son of the multi-billion dollar investor James (Jim) Simons, Nat could have opted for a quieter life, but instead has become an exemplary example of a second-generation investor making a difference to the world. 

5: Helmut Jeggle

Managing partner, Salvia, Germany

Investment focus: venture and private equity, life sciences, deep tech

Notable investments: BioNTech, Wingcopter, OQmented, and IQM

Jeggle spent 15 years building up one of Europe’s biggest and most successful family offices, Athos. This was driven hugely by the investment in one of Europe’s most successful life science companies, BioNTech. Jeggle was so successful at Athos that he set up his own family office in 2014 in Salvia. Still connected to the Struengmanns and BioNTech, where he’s chairman of the supervisory board, Jeggle has diversified away from the life sciences into ventures linked to deep tech, quantum computing, and sustainability. 

6: David Watson/Pat Sissman

President/Partner, respectively, Redwood Holdings, US

Investment focus: Private equity

Notable investments: Newly Weds

Watson and Sissman were the driving force behind one of the biggest deals in the private equity/family capital sector in the last five years when Redwood bought Newly Weds Foods the previous year for a sum reckoned to be nearly $4 billion. Redwood, the investment office of James Davis, the co-founder of the Allegis Group, one of the world’s biggest recruitment businesses, keeps a discreet profile. But the deal firmly placed Redwood and the two investment specialists as essential players in family capital investing. 

7: Jim Breyer 

Founder, Breyer Capital, US

Investment focus: Venture with a focus on life sciences, AI, and the blockchain

Notable investments: SandboxAQ, Colossal Biosciences, Jona

Breyer has created one of the most dynamic investment groups in the world, especially in the life sciences and AI. Jim has also developed an appreciation of the value of family capital in building lasting businesses. Some of that appreciation was probably gathered from his late wife, Angela Chao, who took over the management of her family business from her father. Jim’s two sons from a previous marriage also work for Breyer Capital. 

8. Bill Gates

Owner, Cascade Investment, Gates Frontier, US 

Investment focus: startups, growth equity, private and public equity, real estate, impact 

Notable investments: Inflection AI, Heineken, Echodyne, Beyond Meat, Evolv Technology, Four Seasons Hotels, Deere & Company…

Gates might have been the co-founder of Microsoft, but he will ultimately go down as one of the shrewdest investors of the 21st century, with his various investment groups creating one of the most dynamic investment portfolios of any individual/group in the world. 

9: Jeremy Kwong-Law

CIO, Grok Ventures, Australia 

Investment focus: Startups, growth equity, impact investments

Notable investments: Brighte, Fleet Space Technologies, Sun Cable

Kwong-Law helped set up Grok Ventures, the investment office of Australian tech multi-billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and has been instrumental in growing Grok into one of the most formidable private investment offices anywhere. Since its founding in 2016, Kwong-Law has led many of Grok’s pathfinding investments, including many clean-tech ventures. Along with Cannon-Brookes, he is on a crusade through Grok Ventures to decarbonise the world. 

10: Harold Boël  

CEO, Sofina, Belgium

Investment focus: Growth equity, private equity

Notable investments: SellerX; Twin Health

Boël is one of the family owners of an investment group that makes the FamCap 50, but the Brussells-based scion of one of the most powerful family dynasties in Europe has adroitly led the listed but family-controlled Sofina to become one of the most successful family investment groups.

 

The Top 40

In alphabetical order

James Anderson

Chairman of Kinnevik, Sweden

Partner/CIO, Lingotto Investment Management, UK

Investment focus: strategic, venture 

Anderson gained a big reputation as an institutional investor at Baillie Gifford/Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and is now using his skills for family capital-backed businesses. He helped set up Lingotto Investment Management, which is owned by Exor, and is chairman of Kinnevik. 

Mark Baumgartner 

CIO, Dalio Family Office, US 

Investment focus: hedge funds, quantitative approach to investing

Baumgartner might not have developed much of a track record as a family office CIO – he only joined Ray Dalio’s family office last September – but his reputation at Morgan Stanley, Carnegie, Ford Foundation, and CIO at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton is enough to establish his reputation. 

Boudewijn Beerkens

CEO, Cofra Holding, Switzerland

Investment focus: Growth equity, private equity

Notable investments: Intelligent Growth Solutions

Beerkens, a member of the Brenninkmeijer family, the owners of Cofra, got the top job at Cofra in 2019 after three years of directing strategy and investment at the group. 

Marquez Bela

Director, Rosewood Private Investments, US

Investment focus: Private equity

Notable investments: General Informatics, Trace Minerals

Joining Rosewood in 2012, Bela has directed much of the family-backed investment group’s private investment efforts, growing it to become a sizable force in the family office world.  

John Berthinussen/Calum Cusiter

Investment director, Souter, UK

Investment focus: private equity, impact

Notable investments: Premier Hytemp, Cardo Group, Climate Impact Partners

Berthinussen and Cusiter direct much of Souter’s investment strategy under Sir Brian Souter’s namesake family office, building up direct and co-investment opportunities.  They have built Souter into one of the UK’s most successful family offices.

Magnus Brandberg 

Founding partner and investment manager, Gullspang Invest/Gullspang Re:food, Sweden

Investment focus: startups, growth equity, private equity, impact

Notable investments: Vilokan ADF Solutions, Trine, 

Brandberg has pivoted the family investment group on a sustainable path and helped set up the subsidiary Gullspang Re:food in 2020, which has become an innovative investor in sustainable food-tech ventures. 

Paul Carbone

Vice Chairman, Pritzker Private Capital, US

Investment focus: private equity, family businesses

Notable investments: Aurorium, Bardstown Bourbon Company, ​​Kenco 

Carbone may have taken a bit more of a back seat at PPC in the last year, but he pretty much built up the specialist Pritzker family-backed investment group from scratch. His efforts created a model now much copied by other family investment groups. 

John Carrick

Co-founder and managing principal, Integrated Capital Management, US

Investment focus: real estate

Carrick has worked with Shamrock, one of California’s biggest family offices, to build a substantial real estate portfolio. 

Jon Chisholm

Managing director, Koch Disruptive Technologies, US 

Investment focus: venture, growth equity

Notable investments: Neura Health, Celestial AI, Cellares, Oshi Health

Chisholm has had a long career at Koch conglomerate and now heads up arguably the most dynamic part of it, KDT, where he oversees one of the most innovative portfolios of venture-orientated businesses. 

Prisca Courtin

Managing director, Famille C Participations, France

Investment focus:  Cosmetics, impact, venture

Notable investments: Greenbids, Pai Skincare

Courtin has taken a more active role in her family’s business, Clairns, but since 2021, she has become the managing director of Famille C Participations, the investment office, where she has grown its portfolio of investments with professionalism. 

Kristian Eikre

Co-Head Ferd Capital, Ferd, Norway

Investment focus: Private equity

Notable investments: Aidian, Aibel, BHG, Benchmark Holdings, Fjord Line

Eikre has helped Ferd to become one of the most successful private investment groups in the Nordic area since he joined the group in 2015. 

Nicolas Essayan

Founding Partner, Motier Ventures, France

Investment focus: Early-stage startups

Notable investments: Mistral AI, Tomorro

Essayan has been a crucial factor in the rapid investment growth of Motier Ventures, which was set up in October 2021 and has already become a force in venture investing in France. Set up and owned by members of the Moulin family, who own the big French department store business, Galeries Lafayette, Essayan co-founded the Paris-based investment group. 

Brian Frank

Managing partner, Declaration Capital, US

Investment focus: Private equity, growth equity, Public Equity, real estate

Notable investments: Redesign Health, ConcertAI, Lindblad Expeditions

Frank has built Declaration Capital into a formidable force since he co-founded it with principal David Rubenstein in 2017. He learnt his family office deal-making skills well during nine years with Michael Dell’s MSD Capital/Partners before Declaration. 

Kristin Gilbertson 

CIO, Access Industries, US

Investment focus: Venture, private and public equity, life sciences, entertainment

Notable investments: Disc Medicine, Areteia, Warner Music Group, Deezer

Gilbertson has now been with Access since 2013, joining Blavatnik’s investment group after managing one of the biggest university endowments in the US. She has gone on to help Access grow a very diversified portfolio. 

Joseph Gleberman  

Managing director, The Pritzker Organization, US

Investment focus: venture, growth equity, private equity

Notable investments: Berry Plastics, Alltel, and iHealth Technologies

Gleberman spent much of his career at Goldman Sach, but for the last nine years, he has been with The Pritzker Organization, helping it to manage its portfolio businesses and make new acquisitions. 

Aarti Gupta

Director – Anikarth Ventures, India

Investment focus: startups 

Notable investments: Fiona Diamonds, Carterx, Clensta

Gupta has gained a reputation as a senior investment director in the family office/venture sectors in India and, at the same time, championing the role of women within the investment ecosystem.

John Hartman 

CEO, Tattarang, Australia

Investment focus: Private equity, real estate

Notable investments: RM Williams, Squadron Energy,  Squadron Energy

Hartman was promoted to CEO two years ago after 10 years of steering one of Australia’s biggest and most respected family investment groups as CIO. He’s been instrumental in helping the group emphasise a more impact-led investment strategy. 

David Jegen

Managing partner, F-Prime Capital, US

Investment focus: Venture, growth equity

Notable investments: OnCusp Therapeutics, Better Life Partners, CHARM Therapeutics

Jagen has led F-Prime’s extraordinary growth to become a leading investor in life science and beyond. In 2022, F-Prime was Family Capital’s investment group of the year. 

Kevin Lavelle 

CEO, The Hillman Company, US

Investment focus: venture, growth equity, private equity

Notable investments: ZEDEDA, Redfin, Intrinsity

Lavelle has been with the Pittsburgh family office since 2008, moving up the management ladder through his investment expertise. 

Melinda Lewison 

Managing director, Bezos Expeditions, US

Investment focus: venture, growth equity, private equity

Notable investments: Airbnb,  X (formerly Twitter),  Pilot, NotCo

Lewison has been steering investment strategy at Bezos Expeditions since she joined the group a year after it was founded in 2005. 

Elizabeth Lilly 

CIO, Pohlad Companies, US

Investment focus: Public and private equity

Notable investments: Spotify, MicroStar Logistics, PointClickCare

Lilly joined Pohlad in 2018 as CIO and has helped the Minneapolis-based family investment group grow its commercial holdings. 

Rajaa Mekouar

Managing partner, Calista Direct Investors, Luxembourg 

Investment focus: venture, private equity

Mekouar is a family capital specialist, having worked for a number of family offices and family-backed investment groups before setting up Calista Direct in 2021, which works with many of Europe’s family business dynasties.

Monique Miller 

Head of investment strategy, Euclidean Capital, US

Investment focus: Life sciences, growth equity

Notable investments: Neurona Therapeutics, SetPoint Medical, ArsenalBio

Miller has driven investment strategy at Jim Simons’ family office since she joined the group in 2018, two years after it was founded. She has made Euclidean a formidable force in backing innovative life science businesses.

Eric Ng 

CEO, Happiness Capital, Hong Kong

Investment focus: startups, impact, foodtech

Notable investments: MicroHarvest, Botrista Technology, Gozen Bioworks

Ng has greatly helped Happiness Capital, backed by the Lee family, become an Asian venture investing force. 

Peter Nolan 

Chairman, Nolan Capital, US

Investment focus: Private and public equity, real estate

Notable investments: C-A-L Ranch, Coastal Farm & Ranch, Limoneira

Nolan’s substantial private equity investment experience was transferred to his family office, which he has managed adroitly since he set it up ten years ago. 

Pierre Omidyar

Founder, Omidyar Network, Omiday Network India, US/India

Investment focus: venture and impact

Notable investments: RevFin, Handshake, Vedantu, Bounce

Omidyar pretty much wrote the script for impact investing for family offices, and although he made his money from eBay, his reputation is likely to be more driven by his impact investment endeavours. 

Jim Orlando

Managing partner, Wittington Ventures, Canada

Investment focus: Startups, growth equity

Notable investments: Arcaea, Contentful, Foxtrot, Gatik

Orlando joined Wittington Ventures in 2019 after an illustrious career at OMERS Ventures, and has continued on that path at the Weston family-backed investment group, neutering and growing its portfolio.  

Sandesh Patnam

Managing partner, PremjiInvest, US/India

Investment focus: startups, growth equity; SaaS focus

Notable investments: Anaplan, Zuora, Looker, 

Based in the US, Patnam has been a huge asset for PremjiInvest, the family-backed fund which has built a formidable portfolio of venture groups since he joined the family office in 2014. 

Mark Preston

CEO, Grosvenor, UK

Investment focus: Real estate, food and agtech

Assisted by CIO Jonathan Bond, Preston has helped manage and diversify Grosvenor’s well-established portfolio of mainly real estate assets across the board since he was appointed CEO in 2021.

Björn-Hendrik Robens

Partner, Robens Capital, Goldbeck Robens Industrial Partners, Germany 

Investment focus: private and public equity

Notable investments: HWP Handwerkspartner

Robens is one of Germany’s most connected family capital investment specialists and helped set up Goldbeck Robens Industrial Partners. 

Manuel Roumain

Managing partner, Kharis Capital, Belgium

Investment focus: Private equity

Notable investments: Burger Brands Belgium, NORDSEE 

A former CIO for Edmond Safra’s family office, Roumain set up Kharis Capita in 2014 to work with other families, which he has done to great success.

Thomas Schleicher

CIO, Kirkbi, Denmark

Investment focus: startups, growth equity, private equity, real estate

Notable investments: APK, Kerecis, Epic Games, Adapture Renewables 

Schleicher has been at Kirkbi since 2010, helping greatly to nurture the family office’s existing investments and directing new ones. His experience with family capital started ten years before joining Kirkbi, where he spent time at EQT, the Wallenberg family-backed investment group. 

Byron Trott

Chairman and co-CEO, BDT & MSD Partners, US

Investment focus: Private and public equity; growth equity

Notable investments: National Amusements, Under Armour, Metropolis, EquipmentShare

The alpha male of family capital investing, Trott has secured a stellar reputation in the world of family capital investing. Now he’s doing it with another formidable force in the world of private investment groups, Michael Dell.

Nitai Utkarsh

Lead – Investment Strategy, Hero Enterprise Investment Office, India 

Investment focus: Growth equity, private equity

Notable investments: Ola, AgroStar

Utkarsh joined the investment office of the Munjal family, one of the richest in India, in 2017 and has become a respected investment-focused member of India’s growing family office world. 

Lex van Dam 

Deal Sourcing, Rinkelberg Capital, UK

Investment focus: Venture/startups, trading

Notable investments: Mapiq, One Welbeck, Eggtronic

The former Goldman Sachs trader is well known in the investment and trading world after appearing on UK TV’s Million Dollar Trader. Latterly, he’s also become very well known in family office circles through the membership group he founded, SFO Alliance. 

Alex Waislitz 

Chairman, Thorney Investment Group, Australia

Investment focus: Public and private equity; real estate, digital currencies

Waislitz founded Thorney more than 30 years ago and has grown it into a big force in family capital, backed by one of Australia’s wealthiest families, the Pratts. 

Oliver Weisberg

CEO,  Blue Pool Capital/J Tsai Sports, Hong Kong

Investment focus: venture capital, private equity, sports teams 

Notable investments: G2 Esports, Rent the Runway, Brooklyn Nets, the San Diego Seals, GetYourGuide

Weisberg has successfully navigated Blue Pool Capital/J Tsai Sports into a major investor, particularly when it comes to sports teams and related groups since he joined Joe Tsai’s investment group in 2015. 

Mike Wohl 

CIO, CEAS Investments, US

Investment focus: Startups  

Notable Investments: Fivetran, Marqii, SeatGeek

Wohl joined CEAS at the start of its journey and has built it up to be one of Florida’s most dynamic family offices when it comes to startup investing. 

Andrew Wynn

Co-founder, managing partner, Perwyn, UK

Investment focus: Growth equity, private equity

Notable investments: Crosta & Mollica, iamproperty, Gousto

Wynn teamed up with one of the UK’s wealthiest families to grow an innovative investment group. Perwyn has become one of the UK’s most dynamic family-backed investment groups through his efforts. 

Ion Yadigaroglu 

Partner, Capricorn Investment Group, US

Investment focus: Venture, sustainability, clean tech

Notable investments:  Tesla, SpaceX, QuantumScape, Saildrone, Redwood Materials

Yadigaroglu co-founded Capricorn with Jeff Skoll more than 20 years ago and helped it become a big force in clean technology-focused investing.