A year ago, Michelle Urben made a seed investment in a Washington, DC-based nuclear fuel recycling startup called Curio. Now, she is managing a new fund for Curio’s founders, Yechezkel and Yehuda Moskowitz, that draws on the flexible model used by the brothers’ family office, Synergos Holdings.
The Synergos fund is an evergreen “continuum” fund that will invest in companies from seed to scaling to commercialization, Urben tells ImpactAlpha. It expects to invest some $150 million by the end of 2026 into categories including reshoring of critical industries, resilient energy solutions, sustainable materials and minerals, and “next-generation” agriculture.
“We’re building company by company, within the structure of one portfolio, and that is very unique,” says Urben. The fund also seeks to invest in companies that have access to non-dilutive government funding, such as grants.
Perennial returns
The multi-stage model, Urben says, is designed to produce more regular distributions to LPs, including “meaningful distributions in a two to three year time frame.” LPs may also direct more of their investments toward particular stages, such as seed or scaling.
The fund has gathered commitments from an initial set of investors and is calling capital, to be paid in full up front, in preparation for its first investment, in a company that helps farmers increase crop yields and save on water usage.
LP friendly
With an investment minimum of just $1 million, the fund aims to reach a broad range of family offices and high net worth individuals and address challenges Urben says she has encountered over three decades in wealth and asset management.
“Fee issues,” she says, “have continued to plague the investment management industry.”
The Synergos fund gives “fee-sensitive” LPs the option to allocate some of their capital to a fixed income fund that will generate enough income to cover their management fees. “This makes venture accessible to so many more LPs and family offices,” Urben says.
The fund charges the standard “2 and 20” fee structure, but doesn’t bill for custodial, accounting or other services that she says can add another four or more percentage points in fees in some funds over the course of an investment. Synergos’ fund administrator uses AI to help keep costs low, she said.
Family office
The Moskowitz brothers — the grandsons of Irving Moskowitz, a businessman and founder of the Moskowitz Foundation — have made a half-dozen investments through their family office. They include USA Rare Earth, a domestic supplier and processor of rare earths, such as lithium, and critical minerals; climate-smart agtech company Opti Harvest; and Carbon Solutions, which provides consulting and support services for carbon-related projects.
