Member-only story
Family offices: A leading investment force across the startup world is shaping the future of business
- Family offices are agile investors with large financial capabilities, diverse portfolios, and long-term investment horizons.
- They can pour capital towards early-stage companies even during times of market uncertainty given their longer-term investment horizons.
- Since the beginning of Covid in 2020, they have emerged as the fastest growing investors in the venture space.
What is a family office?
A family office is a company investing funds directly on behalf of the fund’s owners. Family offices are led by financial teams that invest on behalf of a single family or a small group of families also known as Multi Family Office (MFO). Family offices are subject to light regulatory oversight because these entities manage personal wealth, not external investors’ wealth.
A recent Credit Suisse study that categorizes a family office as group with a wealth threshold of $100 M, estimates that there are between 6,500 to 10,500 family offices globally. A 2019 study by Campden Research (a specialized family investment group) put the number at 7,300 (up 40% from 2017), managing a total of almost six trillion dollars.
Most family offices are in their infancy as demonstrated by UBS and Campdem…
