Hidden man Ian Osborne Spac has built a $ 1.5 billion venture capital firm

When technology financier Ian Osborne invests in a company, managers have to agree on an unusual clause: not to talk about it without his permission.

Such tactics have flown under the radar of Osborne and his company Hedosophia despite largely participating in high-end investments and buying offerings over the past decade.

With early support from media baron Michael Bloomberg, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and German Burda family, the 38-year-old Osborne has quietly created a $ 1.5 billion venture capital business.

According to people familiar with the matter, Alibaba, Ant Financial and the Asian company Airwallex have received an investment from Osborne from the European companies Spotify, TransferWise and Raisin.

One tech investor compares Matthew Freud to a well-connected PR fixer who is a well-connected British citizen: “He knows everyone.” Another, who was in charge before working with Osborne, said, “He’s the guy who will come after you on a flight to Rio. He’s a real mysterious man.”

Being one of the architects of the boom in companies for the purchase of special purposes (Spacs) – those who make money from listed funds that raise money, then hunt for a company to make it public – Osborne has helped with technology valuations.

Although the US market is cooling with the phenomenon and regulatory analysis is growing, Osborne hopes to make it known. white checks vehicles in europe With the intention of raising 460 million euros with the Amsterdam Spac list.

Described by contacts as “obsessively secretive,” Osborne strongly protects his privacy and allows publicity for top partners, such as Chamath Palihapitiya, a capitalist at risk.

Palihapitiya, a huge Facebook executive who follows many social networks and has a passion for provocative comments on TV, said Osborne is “my very good yang.”

Moon throwing machine

The most popular Osborne is to relaunch Spacs in 2017 – it is merging with Palihapitiya’s share capital to support lists of companies like Virgin Galactic, Clover Health and Opendoor.

Along the way, Osborne has raised $ 300 million in shares, according to a person familiar with the matter, driven by the “promoted” shares given to the sponsors of the list.

As for friends and investors, he is an expert salesperson and a complete network that connects him with founders who need funds to expand wealthy family offices.

Others worry that it has been at the forefront of the money speculation wave, giving unproven companies stratospheric ratings.

Virgin Galactic (which helped make it public in 2019) opened the doors to the moon for submarine companies so they can be listed on Spacs through revenue. According to Refinitiv, more than 300 spaces have raised $ 97 billion this year.

As the action now shifts to Europe, Osborne is supposed to come home, as he divides his time between homes in London and Hong Kong, where he lives.

From Bloomberg to Zuckerberg

Born and raised in Richmond, London, the son of a lawyer and a doctor, Osborne attended St Paul’s School, King’s College and the London School of Economics, graduated in 2005 and worked as a consultant for Bloomberg. thread in Osborne’s career.

Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg’s longtime campaign director and communications manager, said Osborne began working for the then-mayor of New York after organizing a dinner in London, which included actress Claudia Schiffer and media student James Murdoch.

By 2007, thanks to Osborne’s ties, Bloomberg was talking about the Blackpool Conservative Party Conference. “It may seem like an easy thing to do, but connecting people is a rare talent,” Sheekey said. “Dozens of people around the world have a good relationship with Mike and I, Ian introduced us. Global business leaders never come together without a break. There is no Yellow Page for that. ”

He describes a similar quality to Zelig to Osborne: “His character is not to promote himself.”

For the next four years as an international consultant for Bloomberg, Osborne continued to unleash his networking skills, gaining access to people who would become his card in the world of tech finance.

“In the beginning it was, ‘what is this 20-something British doing in the middle of US politics?’ It didn’t make much sense, ”said Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify, who met Osborne this time around.

Initially, Osborne offered “advice, connections to people,” according to Ek. “But he was off his Rolodex list for someone who was so young. Nowadays it seems like the connection between politics and business is obvious, but at the time no one was making the connection.”

Osborne began advising on Palihapitiya’s share capital and later investing it, after joining Mark Zuckerberg in 2008.

Palihapitiya said Osborne is “very discreet and very reliable. He is incredibly connected. He is our modern version of a homeless billionaire. Ian is constantly working, constantly traveling, and gathering people.”

In 2009, he founded his own firm, Osborne and Partners, which took on clients including DST Global, a venture capital firm run by Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.

By 2010, DST was helping to direct investments in Spotify and Alibaban – there creating relationships with founders Ek and Jack Ma, respectively.

After working with DST, Osborne continued to lead PR and business development consulting, advising U.S. tech billionaire businesses from Travis Kalanick and Evan Spiegel to Zuckerberg. He was close to Bloomberg, helping Pearson in his 2013 attempt to buy the Financial Times.

That year, he settled into the tech scene as one of the organizers of Davos ’hottest party – a bash on the theme of“ taxidermy, ”thrown in by Napster founder Sean Parker and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

He also began working informally at the time for UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, and continues to work closely with him to help open doors in the US. During the 2010 election campaign, he helped prepare Cameron for televised debates. At the same time, he arranged a trip to the United States for Boris Johnson, then mayor of London.

Osborne became the “last host” – according to a person who knew the time – to gather people from politics, technology, finance and the arts. At a dinner hosted by Osborne in 2014, attended by actress Ed Norton and Arianna Huffington, an Uber executive was in trouble for suggesting that the company could make a critical journalist dirty.

Bringing ‘IPO 2.0’ to Europe

Osborne founded Hedosophia in 2012 – named after the Greek gods of pleasure and wisdom – with the goal of specializing in earlier technology companies.

Contributors include a family office like Burda in Germany and a Li-related fund, Hong Kong mogul, a person close to the group said, adding that he now has a more institutional investor base for university endowments, public pension funds and insurance companies. USA, Japan, Canada and Sweden.

At a dinner in Hong Kong in early 2017, he came up with the idea of ​​a new type of Spac with Palihapitiya to provide technology creators with an easier public list without the risks and regulatory baggage of a traditional IPO.

Despite being partners in the sponsoring company, the couple has not shared the profits equally, people who know the situation have said that Palihapitiya takes on most of the profits, but also higher capital. Palihapitiya also created Spac’s new term – “IPO 2.0” – when it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017.

Since then, hundreds of Spacs have followed this strategy, eager to enjoy the almost risk-free top of the Spac sponsor model launched by former bank executives, athletes and politicians. But those around Osborne are also wondering if the market has gone too far now. “The bubble is definitely bursting now,” one said.

The Osborne / Palihapitiya Spac franchise has been successful as the market has turned – Clover’s shares have fallen more than 50 percent from Virgin Galactic’s majority and shares – it has yet to make a commercial flight – to a peak below 70%.

Osborne has decided to get its European Spac straight, according to those close to the planet, by reducing the sponsor’s monetary rewards and assembling a heavyweight board.

This month, he will return to his early passion for theater, producing one of the first musicals to open after the end of the pandemic cuts in the West End – Everyone is talking about Jamie.

It will have to get used to being a central protagonist – at least in Europe, it doesn’t have to hide behind Palihapitiya, and studies on US Spacs have begun to raise questions for investors and sponsors as to whether the market has gone too far. , too fast.

Additional news by Tim Bradshaw and Arash Massoudi