Reimagining the family office for a new generation

Taking family investment beyond real estate

Robin Lauber, CEO and co-founder of Infinitas Capital, is part of a new generation redefining the family office. As a third-generation heir to a Swiss property company, Lauber has been leading its investments since 2015, but he has not settled for simply maintaining its heritage in bricks-and-mortar.

Instead, he has built a forward-thinking venture firm that not only sustains the Lauber family legacy, but invests in transformative technologies and high-impact start-ups addressing global needs.

Lauber’s interest in capital markets goes back to secondary school. A traineeship at UBS taught him that the corporate ladder didn’t suit him; instead, he wanted to make money on his own terms. His first entrepreneurial success was introducing Dunkin’ Donuts to Switzerland. He partnered with two friends, bought the master franchise and opened 14 stores before selling. He also took naturally to real estate investment, sourcing deals through his personal network. The family company had been passed down to his parents’ generation “in a fairly unstructured manner,” says Lauber. After seeing the way he was managing his personal portfolio, he was invited to do the same for the family.

It was a logical step, but property was never his passion. “It’s more the deal itself that I like,” says Lauber. While studying in London, he began connecting with friends in venture capital. He was drawn to the fast-paced, dynamic culture, and soon became involved in deals with major players, such as Peter Thiel. Lauber began to reimagine the family office. Around 2019, he rebranded Lauber Investment AG as Infinitas Capital, a four-pillar project encompassing real estate, venture capital, platform creation, and sports and private equity.

Backing innovation with long-term capital

Since then, Infinitas, which has grown to a team of 25, including partners, analysts and investment associates, has invested widely with a particular focus on pioneering longevity science, drug-development companies and biotech. This has been led by Lauber’s personal passion for this space, as well as his inclination to be a “bit of a hypochondriac with a personal fear of death”. He does not claim to have specialist expertise in science, but has built out a team with a deep understanding of the sector to bolster decision-making. A number of the start-ups he has invested in are expected to go public in the coming years.

For Lauber, family offices can offer founders and start-ups something distinct from traditional venture capital. “More patience, definitely,” he says. “Or more patient capital.” An entrepreneur-led office, such as Infinitas, can offer invaluable insights and support for a founder on the ups and downs of what it takes to be an entrepreneur, says Lauber, “helping them build resilience.” The incentives also differ from those of traditional VCs, making family offices more tolerant of headwinds. “We don’t really give up as quickly,” he says. “You don’t want to throw good money after bad money, but I think family offices tend to be more creative about how to turn around companies.”

Investing in the future of sport

The investment strands at Infinitas are all shaped by a consideration of what the world might look like in 10 to 20 years. It is what led Lauber to partner with Christian Angermayer’s family office, Apeiron Investment Group, to establish Chiron Sports Group, a strategic investment firm specialising in global sports ventures. The sector has been maturing as an asset class over the past decade and this is only going to continue, Lauber believes. “People are more and more alone… and in the future, with the AI dividend, people will have more time on their hands,” he says. “People will need to find ways to re-engage, to share emotions together.”

As the partnership with Angermayer illustrates, family offices are increasingly opening up to different kinds of investment, becoming more entrepreneurial, adopting hybrid models and working with external capital. This is only going to accelerate, Lauber says, as the transition of wealth continues. Traditionally quite secretive operations, family offices are becoming more visible and open to collaboration as younger generations step up. “Some family offices still don’t want to disclose who the beneficial owner is and so on. You don’t really talk about what others are doing. And I felt that has to change. It’s way easier to do business if you’re not alone, right?”