Three areas of work, each run on its own terms.
The three differ in horizon, liquidity and the advisers involved.
Venture capital
Held on the company’s timeline, often ten years or more.
Equity in founder-led companies at the early and growth stages, held for many years. Most of our assessment is of the founder: how they handle bad news, how they hire, and whether early customers would buy again.
- Stage
- Early and growth
- Positions
- Few, sized to allow follow-on investment
- Reserves
- Set aside at the first investment and disclosed to founders
- Pricing
- We don’t join rounds priced above our view of the business
Wealth & asset management
Built around what the family spends.
Portfolios of public and private investments held to each client’s investment policy. Objectives are set in the client’s own terms: a real return above inflation, a fall in value the family can withstand, and distributions it can rely on.
- Scope
- Public and private markets, including private credit where suitable
- Policy
- Ranges agreed in writing before capital is invested
- Trading
- Authority to trade agreed in writing with each client
- Benchmarks
- Used to measure results after the fact
- Tax
- Considered across accounts, with the client’s own tax advisers
Family office
Planned with the next generation in view.
For families with more complicated affairs: one record of everything they own, with investment, philanthropic and succession work coordinated with the family’s own lawyers, accountants and bankers.
- Reporting
- Consolidated across all holdings and entities
- Structures
- Estate, trust and entity work, coordinated with the family’s own legal and tax advisers. Axion does not give legal or tax advice.
- Governance
- Statement of purpose, investment policy and governance charter
- Succession
- Planning for the cash an estate will need, and early involvement of the next generation
Where the tests fit.
Every business we expect to hold for many years is put through five tests: cash conversion, pricing, management, the balance sheet under stress, and a written exit assumption. The detail differs for venture, private and public holdings.
Much of family office work, such as consolidated reporting, governance and succession planning, is not a decision about a single holding. It is set out on its own terms above.
From first conversation to first purchase.
The sequence is the same for all three; what gets written down differs.
- Step 1
Conversation
We explain how we invest and what working together involves, and learn about the capital, the obligations on it and how much liquidity is needed, or, for a founder, about the company and the round.
- Step 2
Terms in writing
Before any capital is invested we agree, in writing, the ranges for asset classes, liquidity and acceptable decline, and our authority to trade. For family office work this includes a statement of purpose in the family’s own words.
- Step 3
Capital in stages
Capital is invested in tranches, and a holding record is kept from the first purchase.
To start, describe your situation in an enquiry or write to inquiries@axionim.com.