Family office founder promotes investing with ‘joy and emotion’

High in the Swiss Alps, far from the heat gripping much of continental Europe, David Frederik von Rosen-von Hoevel appears on a video call, in a sports cap, his tone relaxed. Despite having built a billion-dollar family office through high-risk bets, he remains approachable.

Gesturing to the timber beams and sweeping views behind him, he says with a smile: “It’s not Dubai, but the mountains are a great escape.”

A German national fluent in English, French and Spanish, Mr von Rosen divides his time between Switzerland and Dubai. With degrees from the European Business School and a PhD in economics from Prague, he built a multi-sector business portfolio.

His early projects include CareerConcept, which provides student financing, and a namesake online fashion label, famously worn by Steve Jobs. He later co-founded Lottoland, a digital gambling platform with millions of users worldwide, and Favrr, a token-based app that connects celebrities, fans and causes.

His latest venture is 25 Degrees, a Dubai-based real estate company focused on high-end villas for ultra-wealthy buyers.

Building the family office

The von Rosen Family Office, based between Switzerland and the UAE, is the formal vehicle for Mr von Rosen’s entrepreneurial capital, backing early-stage, high-risk ventures. He set it up after stepping down from Lottoland in 2020.

“I was trying to institutionalise our investments,” he says. “Pre–family office, I was being approached from all directions. I wanted to be a bit more visible, build a brand, rather than just waiting for opportunities to come to me.”

His approach is deliberately hands-on, favouring majority stakes in a concentrated portfolio of 10 to 12 companies. With assets in the “10-digit range”, the office retains significant liquidity, supported by dividends, exits and capital gains. “I’d rather have a handful of substantial investments than dozens of minor stakes. I like to be actively involved and take an inside role.”

His team is small and fully remote, communicating via messenger apps. “I’ve known my partners for years. We meet maybe once a year in person. That’s the kind of environment I prefer.”

A taste for risk

Mr von Rosen’s investment style stands apart from the cautious, wealth-preserving strategies favoured by many European family offices.

“I very much like risk; in the long-term it rewards you,” he says.” And it’s not only about the financial return. It’s also about the joy and the emotion. I like the volatility, I like the up and down, it gives me energy, makes me feel much more alive. Of course, once in a while, you get punched in the face really hard, but you have to get back up again.”

He describes his upbringing as “normal” rather than privileged. His parents ran small-scale inherited family businesses. “They worked very hard,” he says, and instilled in him a strong sense of independence. His mother ran a small leather factory and was “the boss of 30 men” — a role he remembers as “really cool” — while his father traded in watch straps.

A first-generation wealth creator, he sees risk-taking as his personal hallmark. He avoids the decades-long horizons favoured by many peers, preferring to focus on the next two to three years, “even the next 12 to 36 months”.

“That’s how it was in my early days as an entrepreneur, and that’s still how I see it as an investor. I’m 49, but I still like quick changes and things happening. I like companies with a short path to potential profitability.”

When the upside is 100x, even with a 90 per cent chance of failure, it is “still worth taking the shot”, he believes.

Majority stakes   

That philosophy is tempered by discipline. What he likes, he says, is helping founders stay lean, avoiding unnecessary spending and prioritising early revenue generation. “Venture capital can make founders too comfortable, with expensive offices and company cars. It distracts from building the business.”

His ventures, from Lottoland to the fashion brand, were all “bootstrapped”.

“If you can do it without anybody else’s money, do it. You don’t get diluted. You don’t have anybody else telling you what to do.”

Mr von Rosen prefers majority stakes not just for control but for accountability. “I enjoy branding, especially early-stage online marketing. That’s where I come from.”

He often incubates ventures internally, developing ideas and then assembling execution teams. His Dubai real estate firm, 25 Degrees, began as a casual chat over red wine with his friend and partner. “I’d never have thought it would grow so fast, now we’re breaking records, selling villas at the highest prices in Dubai.” The business has drawn co-investors from family offices across the UK, China and elsewhere.

He avoids traditional private equity partnerships. “You’re always a junior partner. If you invest in one of their funds, it’s a very passive investment. You might as well, in my view, go and buy a Coca-Cola share.”

He adds that he does not expect private equity funds to outperform public markets in the future. Instead, he prefers co-investing with like-minded entrepreneurs and family offices, which is “less corporate, more human, and more enjoyable for both sides”.

Private banks, which he uses for his liquid equity investments, “always sell it as great access to deal flow, but usually take over, and you end up only having a small minority stake. That’s exactly there where I don’t want to be.”

Contrarian instincts

Wile his investments span sectors, Mr von Rosen is wary of hype-driven markets, even contrarian. He avoids chasing trends such as artificial intelligence (AI) simply because they are attracting attention.

“In AI, there’s only going to be a handful of winners and those are the big corporates, maybe a little bit from China, but certainly the US, they suck up everything,” he says. “Anybody who puts ‘AI’ in their company pitch deck expects two or three times the price.” While open to opportunities, he sees the AI space as overheated, with inflated valuations and little room for smaller players.

One recent exception is an investment in a German drone manufacturer. “Normally I would not like to go and jump on the train of a popular trend, but in this case, we are actively looking. There are younger start-ups that haven’t yet been picked up by the big VCs, and there’s a lot of capital flowing into the defence sector, with governments across Europe and around the world expected to ramp up spending.”

He has also co-invested in solar and energy storage companies, staying closely involved despite working with larger funds.

While tech remains a core focus, his curiosity extends to physical assets. “Real estate was new to me. It’s tangible. And I like learning.” That interest now includes urban mobility, supersonic travel and infrastructure more broadly.

His ventures span Gibraltar, Dubai and Switzerland, each chosen for practical reasons. “Gibraltar, we chose because of the gambling licence. Dubai, because it’s open for business. Switzerland, because of its political landscape and stability.”

What they share, he says, is a business-friendly mix of light regulation, supportive governments and attractive tax regimes. “In Germany, I don’t find that, unfortunately.”

He calls the UAE “the Switzerland of the Middle East”, commercially minded and politically neutral, while sharply criticising the UK for scrapping its favourable non-dom fiscal regime and raising other levies on the wealthy. “It was short-sighted. I don’t think wealthy people who have already left will turn around, the damage has been done. People have understood it’s not only a tax decision, it’s also a lifestyle decision.”

Impact after returns

Mr Von Rosen’s approach to impact is pragmatic. “Make as much money as possible, then give some of it back.”

His foundation, currently in development, will focus on ocean clean-up, driven by personal experience. “I ski on glaciers in Switzerland. I’ve seen them shrink year by year. It hurts. I want my children to experience the same kind of lifestyle in nature I’ve enjoyed.”

At Lottoland, he led a three-year process to achieve carbon neutrality. With Favrr, his philanthropy app, users choose which charities benefit from the platform’s revenues.

Impact, he says, must follow performance. “Do the good after you’ve done the building. If you try too early, it might hinder your growth.”

He questions whether sustainability delivers a competitive advantage. “I think it used to be, but after Trump everything changed a little bit. We’re unfortunately moving in a world where everybody’s for themselves and less thinking about the world and others than two years ago.”

Freedom and fulfilment

Freedom, more than wealth, is what Mr von Rosen values most. He tried investment banking early on in London, but quickly realised it was not for him. “Once you’re an entrepreneur, you can never really squeeze back into a corporate framework,” he says.

“Freedom is something I’d never give up; I do a lot of sports, spend time with my family and travel. If it’s a sunny day, I go skiing.” He is also passionate about motocross, downhill biking, kitesurfing and rock climbing, and collects modern art and sports cars, true to his interest in design and performance.

He stepped back from day-to-day operations five or six years ago but remains closely involved in strategy and founder support. “I can think about business on a bike ride, but I can also completely switch off.”

To emerging wealth creators, his advice is to “spend some of it, time and money”. Passing everything on to the next generation, he suggests, “might not even be healthy”. Better to “give them a chance to make it themselves”.

Even after two decades of entrepreneurship, Mr von Rosen shows little sign of complacency. “I’m not a proud person. Pride makes you lazy,” he says. He likes different industries and new ideas and does not want “to be boxed in”.

Looking forward, he hopes to build “lasting impact and real change”, through business or technology, not simply through giving money away. As for legacy, he does not name a single goal. “It’s not one thing. It’s a mix. But if I can say at the end that I made some kind of positive impact, that would mean something.”