Co-investment is simple to describe and easy to get wrong. It means two or more investors putting capital into the same company, on the same terms, at the same time. One of them usually finds the opportunity, does the work, and invites the others in. For a family office, it is the most direct way to back companies without paying for a fund structure you do not need.

Why family offices co-invest

A fund asks you to commit capital for a decade and trust a manager to choose. Co-investment asks something different: look at this company, on these terms, and decide for yourself. You keep control over which companies you back, how much you put in, and when. You also see the work behind the decision, because the lead investor shares it.

The trade-off is effort. Someone has to find the companies, screen them, negotiate terms and stay close after the money goes in. Most family offices do not have a team for that, which is why they co-invest with one that does.

How it works with SAQR

We source technology-centric start-ups and scale-ups and screen them against three tests: is technology the engine of the business, does the company solve a real problem, and can it scale and lead its space. Only companies that pass reach our co-investors.

Before any introduction, we ask you for your mandate: sectors, stage, ticket size and geography. We then bring you only the opportunities that fit it. If you want to proceed, you receive the same information we used to decide, under confidentiality, and you invest on terms agreed together. SAQR invests its own family resources alongside you in every opportunity it brings.

What to expect

  • Fewer opportunities, not more. We would rather show you three companies that fit than thirty that do not.
  • Full information. You see the screening, the questions we asked and the answers we got.
  • Aligned interests. We invest alongside you, on the same terms, so our outcome is your outcome.
  • A relationship after the cheque. We stay close to the companies we back and keep co-investors informed.

If that sounds like how you would want to invest, tell us your mandate and we will start from there.