Vauban: The Alternative Investor - First Issue

When Ulric and I started Vauban, we aimed to create a more straightforward and more affordable way for emerging quants and traders to launch their first hedge fund. In the process, we realised how broken the whole alternative investment universe was, and the vast opportunity to use software to solve this. Our aims subsequently expanded enormously. We’re now on a mission to completely re-engineer the way people create and deploy private capital.  

A Wealth Container is what we, at Vauban, call an asset-holding legal entity. They always take the form of a corporation, a partnership or a trust and they are the building bricks of the modern economy. The building you are in and the IP you are using to view our website, as well as most things of substantial value, are held in Wealth Containers. Funds, SPVs, Syndicates, SPEs, Trusts and Holdings are all Wealth Containers; legal entities with special parameters that make them suitable for investing.

Historically , loading a ship was extremely complicated, requiring pallets, crates, and winches. Ships required adaptation for different types of goods and the process was labor-intensive and expensive, meaning most goods were simply not worth shipping overseas. 

The global adoption of standard containers drastically changed this. As the cost and complexity of shipping came down, trade was revolutionised, enabling the globalisation which defines the world we live in today.

It may not be obvious at first however the way private markets work today is not dissimilar to pallets and winches. Although the methods of investment and the assets being invested have become more sophisticated, their containers are literally share certificates and wax seals in envelopes stuffed in drawers. Setting up and deploying a container remains an archaic and expensive process; they’re often not worth creating.

Vauban is on a mission to containerize the alternative investment industry. We are engineering Wealth Containers. They are digital configurable investment entities that can be setup and deployed from a laptop.

Vauban is about operating in the alternative investment market the same change shipping containers operated in international trade.

By digitizing and standardizing these legal entities, we are taking cost and complexity out of pooling and deploying capital. We are making investment and dealmaking more straightforward, faster and immensely more accessible. This make the life of existing managers and dealmakers easier, but it will also enable a new alternative investment universe to emerge.

We are all so excited about this; about all the quants, traders, venture capitalists, property developers, angel investors, art connoisseurs and classic cars aficionado that come to us with fantastic projects.

We can’t wait for the world they will create with the tools we are giving them.

Welcome to Vauban.

Rémy, Co-founder of Vauban