Family offices need a well-rounded and robust asset allocation strategy that meets both financial and non-financial objectives, securing wealth for future generations. This involves factoring in investment goals & objectives, risk tolerance, diversification, time horizon & liquidity needs, tax efficiency, estate planning and more.
The first objective of a family office is to preserve the principal sum at play and then look for how to gain in the future. This involves a strong risk management framework that doesn’t shake up with passing investment fads and reins in the proverbial fear-of-missing-out (FOMO). What processes need to be established right at the beginning to ensure this? How can family offices fine-tune their risk management practices over time?
A well balanced portfolio creation is the basic function for family offices and this includes a good mix of both public and private equity, with their distinct advantages and challenges. What is the best composition of the two and how can family offices align best to sail with the asset price cycle to generate alpha in the short as well as the long run?
Principals behind all family offices are associated with at least one industry of their own with many having multiple business interests. Some family offices have a clear policy of not investing in sectors where they have their own business to add a sound diversified portfolio creation. How effective is this strategy and are their exceptions that one should exploit? Are there other means to play further in the same sector via a different asset class?
Exotic asset classes such as crypto, fine art and more offer family offices another diversification lever that lies outside the conventional investment buckets. These offer some insulation from global market fluctuations but come with their own loaded risk elements such as illiquidity, valuation challenges, and regulatory uncertainty. What has been the experience with such investments and what are the learnings? When is it prudent to look at such assets more closely?
Real estate has been an all-time favourite of business groups in India as a safe haven as an asset class with the ‘touch and feel’ factor. There have been some temporary setbacks in the past but broadly real estate has been an important asset class for family offices that has resulted in appreciation of wealth. How have real estate investment strategies evolved for family offices and what routes seem more favourable for the future?
The first generation of family offices started with group finance heads doubling as asset allocators as principals were operational leaders in their domain. But ‘formal’ family offices started with creation of professional structures around two decades ago. Now, we have omni structures as in many cases more financially literate next generation is engaged in decision making along with the professionals. How can family offices balance the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders so the final outcome is superior?
Philanthropy is an increasingly important aspect of family offices, serving as a way for families to align their wealth with their values and make a lasting social impact. Family offices often establish charitable foundations to facilitate their philanthropic efforts, allowing them to support causes that resonate with the family’s mission. This can include areas like education, healthcare, environmental sustainability, and social justice. What is the right mode to make this happen and yet make it a more tax efficient process?
How important is the role of partnerships in philanthropy activities?
Family offices can start with a big bucket corpus triggered by a business sale or via a small sum dedicated from the cash flow arising from dividend earnings of the promoters. Reinvesting the proceeds of the gains is another way to inject more into the system. How often the corpus can and should be refuelled? What is the best practice used by established family offices by routing almost the entire sum to the family office or a fixed proportion every year?
The role of a family office goes beyond traditional wealth management by offering personalized, day-to-day support. This can include managing travel arrangements, organizing events, assisting with household management, and facilitating access to exclusive services or experiences. It enhances the family’s lifestyle by saving time and ensuring that their needs are met with a high level of attention to detail. How are existing family offices imbibing this as a service and enhancing their offerings?
Conflict resolution is crucial in family offices, especially when managing wealth across multiple generations and extended families. Family dynamics can lead to disagreements on investment strategies, governance, or the family’s philanthropic direction. Professional mediators or advisors specializing in family business or wealth management are often brought in to help resolve disputes, promote effective communication, and maintain family harmony. Establishing clear governance structures and facilitating open dialogue can prevent potential conflicts from escalating, ensuring the long-term success of the family office.
Siddharth is Chief Investment Strategist at Om Kothari Group. The Group has interests in Engineering Infrastructure, Automobile Dealerships, Manufacturing, and Real Estate. Their flagship company, Om Infra, is listed on the NSE and BSE.
Siddharth invests in listed and private companies across sectors and stages.
His notable startup investments include Beardo (acquired by Marico), Sirona (acquired by GoodGlamm), and Innov8 (acquired by Oyo). His growth stage investments include MobiKwik, Progcap, NSE, Waaree Energy and Nazara Tech.
Vegan since 2010, Siddharth has a special interest in plant-based ventures. He is a Partner at Ahimsa VC, India's first fund investing exclusively in sustainable alternatives to animal-based products.
Siddharth is a Partner at 2Point2 Capital PMS, a Venture Partner at Venture Catalysts, and an LP at Carpediem Capital. He is also a member at EO Gurgaon.
Siddharth is Chief Investment Strategist at Om Kothari Group. The Group has interests in Engineering Infrastructure, Automobile Dealerships, Manufacturing, and Real Estate. Their flagship company, Om Infra, is listed on the NSE and BSE.
Siddharth invests in listed and private companies across sectors and stages.
His notable startup investments include Beardo (acquired by Marico), Sirona (acquired by GoodGlamm), and Innov8 (acquired by Oyo). His growth stage investments include MobiKwik, Progcap, NSE, Waaree Energy and Nazara Tech.
Vegan since 2010, Siddharth has a special interest in plant-based ventures. He is a Partner at Ahimsa VC, India's first fund investing exclusively in sustainable alternatives to animal-based products.
Siddharth is a Partner at 2Point2 Capital PMS, a Venture Partner at Venture Catalysts, and an LP at Carpediem Capital. He is also a member at EO Gurgaon.
Siddharth is Chief Investment Strategist at Om Kothari Group. The Group has interests in Engineering Infrastructure, Automobile Dealerships, Manufacturing, and Real Estate. Their flagship company, Om Infra, is listed on the NSE and BSE.
Siddharth invests in listed and private companies across sectors and stages.
His notable startup investments include Beardo (acquired by Marico), Sirona (acquired by GoodGlamm), and Innov8 (acquired by Oyo). His growth stage investments include MobiKwik, Progcap, NSE, Waaree Energy and Nazara Tech.
Vegan since 2010, Siddharth has a special interest in plant-based ventures. He is a Partner at Ahimsa VC, India's first fund investing exclusively in sustainable alternatives to animal-based products.
Siddharth is a Partner at 2Point2 Capital PMS, a Venture Partner at Venture Catalysts, and an LP at Carpediem Capital. He is also a member at EO Gurgaon.
Siddharth is Chief Investment Strategist at Om Kothari Group. The Group has interests in Engineering Infrastructure, Automobile Dealerships, Manufacturing, and Real Estate. Their flagship company, Om Infra, is listed on the NSE and BSE.
Siddharth invests in listed and private companies across sectors and stages.
His notable startup investments include Beardo (acquired by Marico), Sirona (acquired by GoodGlamm), and Innov8 (acquired by Oyo). His growth stage investments include MobiKwik, Progcap, NSE, Waaree Energy and Nazara Tech.
Vegan since 2010, Siddharth has a special interest in plant-based ventures. He is a Partner at Ahimsa VC, India's first fund investing exclusively in sustainable alternatives to animal-based products.
Siddharth is a Partner at 2Point2 Capital PMS, a Venture Partner at Venture Catalysts, and an LP at Carpediem Capital. He is also a member at EO Gurgaon.
Nitesh Aggarwal is the Chief Investment Officer at Baldota Family Office fund with a deployable corpus of $130mn. The investment focus in to largely invest in the unlisted space into start-ups and VC/PE funds. They have already deployed ~40mn across 35 funds and 25 start-ups across India/US and Israel.
An alumnus of Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore, he has over 17 years of experience investing in the PE/VC asset class.
Nitesh was earlier associated with funds like Q Investments, New Enterprise Associates, and Edelweiss, among others.
Devashish has been in the Family Office Investing space for the last 18 years and has led 4 Family Offices in India. He has spent time across asset classes with passion to invest in Private Markets. Current portfolio has more than 15 LP positions and 40 direct investments.
Jai is a man who wears many hats. As the Head of the Dinesh Hinduja Family Office (DHFO), he oversees investments across all asset classes for the group: real estate, equities, bonds, structured products, private equity, and venture capital. Mr. Rupani led the real estate development efforts at Gokaldas Lifestyle, a group company of DHFO, for several years before taking the helm at the family office.
Before joining the Gokaldas Group, Mr. Rupani was part of the investment team at True North (erstwhile India Value Fund), a USD 2.2 billion private equity fund in Mumbai. During his tenure at True North, Jai led the investments into Merucabs (one of India’s first taxi-aggregation companies) and ACT Broadband (a leading IPTV and broadband service provider). Prior to True North, Mr. Rupani was an investment banker with The Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets Group in their San Francisco office for several years. At RBC Capital Markets, Jai was integral to the technology investment banking team managing IPOs, private placements, and M&A deals. He has completed his formal education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (BBA) and the University of Texas at Austin (MBA) in the United States. In his free time, he enjoys mentoring start-ups, playing golf, and spending time with his family.
Ms. Juhi Agarwal is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of the Family Office of Scan Holdings Group. She specializes in strategic wealth management and investment planning.
With a Masters in Management from ESSEC Business School in France, Juhi has studied and worked in three of the top global economies: India, France, and the USA. Her professional journey includes significant roles with multinationals such as Pepsi in India and Nestle in France, and successfully running and exiting her own ‘online’ profitable venture at an early age of 18. She has had prominent engagements in the start-up world with Carolina Angel Networks and TAP in North Carolina, USA.
Her travel exposure in over 42 countries across the globe has given her a deep understanding of business, culture, global economies and geopolitics. Additionally, she had the privilege of learning business in her early years at home from her first-generation entrepreneur parents running an international business. This made Juhi well-versed at identifying opportunities and mitigating risks in the dynamic investments landscape. She is known for her foresight to integrate global affairs with an Indian context for more effective decision making.
At Scan, she is committed to leading her team to create specialised investment strategies and comprehensive financial planning to secure and grow wealth across generations. Juhi measures her success on two fronts – the alpha generated over the markets alongwith risk control from a monetary aspect; and the lives impacted with our social efforts from a humanitarian aspect. She strongly advocates for women's empowerment and education, directing the family office’s CSR projects to these causes in rural areas of India.
Mr. Anoop Tulsyan has a wealth of experience spanning more than 20 years in the financial services industry. He is thorough professional with a diverse background in the areas of Accounts & Finance. Prior to joining Ashok Goel Family Office as the Group Chief Financial Officer, Mr.Tulsyan has held positions at AION Capital Partners, a private equity funds managed jointly by ICICI Venture and Apollo USA, and at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. He has made significant contributions to the growth of these organizations during his tenure, and has gain extensive experience in portfolio monitoring, financial advisory, equity research, financial analysis and taxation. He has also worked in the private equity fund industry for over 10 years.
Dhruv Suri is an Entrepreneurial Family Office Investment executive with 17 years experience in the VC, Private Equity, Real Estate & other Alternative assets.
Spearheaded mapping US$ 5 Billion deal pipeline in the Asian market across both Fund & Direct (startup) investment strategies.
Leading as a Family Office Principal & engagements with global Institutions he has mobilized Investment Strategy, Fund raising and Business operations.
Globally connected having established enduring relationships across Asia focused Institutional Investors, Family Offices, Investment Funds & Corporations.
Head investments for Tanas Capital, an mid-market private equity fund with a flexibility to invest across the capital structure (debt + warrants, convertibles, straight equity) albeit with a dedicated equity mindset.
Harsh Kr Dhanuka is the Chief Investment Office at SAR Group Family Office (Single Family Office of founders of Luminous, Livpure, Livguard, Lectrix). An accomplished financial Services professional with deep expertise and leadership experience in Family Office environment and the Investment management space. He leads the Investment Strategy and is responsible for setting up and managing the people, processes, policies, succession and estate planning for the Single-Family Office.
His investment expertise spans a broad array of asset classes and markets (domestic and global), giving him years of rich experience and an extensive network. He has more than a decade of experience of cross-functional leadership across Foreign Private Bank, Corporate treasury team of a large Indian MNC and an Institutional Single-Family Office. Harsh has worked closely with Ultra High Net worth Families, Corporate Treasuries, and highly placed professionals and entrepreneurs.
Harsh holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata & is a qualified Chartered Accountant & Company Secretary.
Harsh’s interests and expertise lie in dealing with complex structural issues (working on designing and implementing solutions for global wealth preservation and transmission) and also in implementing portfolio risk-reward optimization techniques (in theory as well as in practice).
Leena Dandekar is the Founder of Raintree Family Office and Raintree Foundation. She and her family have dedicated their capital, networks, and skills to driving impact in climate action, circularity and sustainability.
Raintree Foundation is the outcome of the family’s deep-seated passion and commitment to climate action. Their aim is to build climate resilience in living landscapes. Leena oversees as a strategist and drives the vision of “Dignity and Wellbeing for Planet and People.”
Raintree Family Office was established with the objective of investing the family-owned funds towards various impact and ESG asset classes. Leena has been one of the few leading the way in impact investing in India. Investments promoting innovation in climate solutions, circularity, and responsible consumption are focus areas.
Before starting the Raintree Family Office and Raintree Foundation, Leena served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Camlin Group, where she helmed various strategic and operational initiatives.
Mr. Ramakant Dokania is the Chief Investment Officer of the Family Office of Quest Global Group. He is responsible for portfolio management, asset allocation, deal sourcing, and investment evaluation. His expertise in capital allocation, estate planning, and wealth management is essential to the success of the family office. He aims to create a cash-generative portfolio that is well-diversified and high-impact. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant with two decades of corporate experience across India, the U.S., and Europe. Ramakant is from Kolkata and currently lives in Bangalore, India. In his spare time, he enjoys trekking, traveling, and reading.
Amol is the CIO of the Single Family Office of the Aga & Pudumjee Family of Thermax Ltd, which he joined in 2012.
Amol’s responsibilities towards this global portfolio include Strategic Asset Allocation, Geographical Allocation, Tactical rebalancing, Opportunistic Investing and MIS.
Amol has been instrumental in the Family Office’s move overseas. This involved Conceptualization, Overseas Trust Structuring, Obtaining regulatory Approvals, Cross Border Asset Transfers and Overseas Investments.
Amol has more than 16 years’ collective experience in Family Office Investments and Financial Research. He also holds a Global qualification in International Trust Management, conferred by STEP and the University of Manchester.
Equipped with over 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, Anirudh is a fourth-generation entrepreneur and a second-generation investor from the Damani family. He is the Director of Artha India Ventures (AIV), the well-established family office of the Ashok Kumar Damani family. While AIV has a sector-agnostic investment approach, under Anirudh’s leadership, AIV has thematically invested in travel-tech, fintech edtech, robotics, 3D printing, content platforms, e-commerce, Autotech, and health tech.
After a successful sales and entrepreneurial stint in Texas, he moved back to India in 2012. He started investing in and mentoring early-stage founders through AIV. His initial investments included multi-bagger investments in OYO Rooms, Tala, Exotel, Purplle, Interstellar, Coutloot, Mobilewalla, Beardo, ConfirmTkt, and Karza. His stellar cumulative portfolio now has over 85 investments spread across India, the USA, and Israel. In addition to Artha India Ventures, he also co-founded Artha Energy Resources and Artha Venture Fund under the business umbrella of Artha Group.
AIV got famous as it was part of the 1st large angel exit in India VC, making an astounding 150x+ return on its seed investment in OYO Rooms. AIV repeated that success in multiple category-defining startups like Exotel (154x), Purplle (120x), Tala (65x), and Coutloot (40x) are some of the many names that have been part of AIV’s portfolio.
A double major from Austin College in Sherman, TX, Anirudh has an exceptional work-life balance. He is passionate about adventure travel, focusing on deep-sea diving, sky diving, blogging, and is a die-hard cricket fan. He has recently started writing playbooks for founders to guide them through the crucial first 999 days of starting up.
About Artha India Ventures (AIV)
Artha India Ventures (AIV) is the family office of the Ashok Kumar Damani family.
Founded in 2012, AIV has an impressive portfolio of over 85 companies spread across India, the US, and Israel. Helmed by Ashok Kumar Damani, a serial entrepreneur, a well-respected stock investor, real estate developer, and hospitality assets owner - AIV’s day-to-day affairs are managed by his sons Anirudh & Animesh.
AIV operates a unique funding structure generating operating cashflows through investments in high-yielding renewable energy projects. The consistent cash flows from these investments are deployed in startup opportunities across the globe. While AIV has a sector-agnostic investment approach, it invests thematically in travel-tech, fintech edtech, robotics, 3D printing, content platforms, e-commerce, Autotech, and health tech.
AIV got famous as it was part of the 1st large angel exit in India VC, making an astounding 150x+ return on its seed investment in OYO Rooms. AIV repeated that success in multiple category-defining startups like Exotel (154x), Purplle (120x), Tala (65x), and Coutloot (40x) are some of the many names that have been part of AIV’s portfolio.
The overall portfolio multiple (MoIC) of 5.9x and a 51% IRR in a decade-long startup investment journey has made AIV a significant early-stage investor for startups in India or those who want to enter India. AIV is on the path to directly investing in over 100 startups by the end of 2022, including an indirect portfolio of 300+ startups through its GP & LP investments.
AIV has set its sight on a 1000+ startups portfolio by the end of the 2030-decade.
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