J-P Conte’s Family Office Reflects a Shift: 70% of Peers Now Invest Directly, Not Through Funds

Seventy percent of family offices made at least one direct private investment last year, according to Citi Private Bank’s 2025 Global Family Office Report.

J-P Conte’s family office, Lupine Crest Capital, was built for exactly that kind of structure. Conte is the founder and managing partner of the firm, which launched in March 2025 with a focus spanning healthcare, financial services, software and industrial technology. Its design says more about where the family office model is headed than any single transaction it makes.

The Clock a Traditional Fund Runs On

A traditional private equity fund operates on a fixed clock. It raises capital from outside limited partners, commits to specific hold periods, and typically has to sell its portfolio companies within five to seven years to return capital on schedule, whether or not that is the best moment to sell.

Family offices are increasingly built to avoid that clock. “They don’t need to sell every five or six years like a traditional fund would,” said Nader Afshar, managing partner at Bastiat Partners, whose firm surveyed more than 75 global family offices with Kharis Capital on the shift toward permanent capital.

“They can have a dividend recap every five or six years, as opposed to an exit,” he said. Half of the family offices in that survey said they plan to increase direct investment in private companies over the next two years, and 52% said they would rather participate through a syndicate led by an established sponsor than go it alone.

Avoiding the clock also avoids a tax bill. A fund forced to sell on a schedule realizes a taxable gain whether the timing suits the owner or not, while a holding company built around a dividend recapitalization can pull cash out of a business periodically and let the underlying asset keep compounding rather than resetting the position entirely.

What “Direct” Replaces

Going direct means buying a stake in a company itself instead of committing capital to a fund manager who buys on the investor’s behalf. It cuts out the layer of fees a fund charges for that service and hands the family office control over which businesses it owns and how long it holds them.

The shift is uneven in how far it goes. Half of family offices making direct investments have a private equity professional on staff, and only 20% take board seats in the companies they back, according to the Citi research. Most are buying access to specific businesses without necessarily building the full apparatus a private equity firm runs around each one.

Growth-stage companies draw the largest share of that direct capital. Fifty-two percent of family offices investing directly favor growth-stage rounds over earlier-stage ventures, and close to three in ten have also moved into secondary transactions, buying existing stakes from other investors rather than writing a first check themselves.

Where Lupine Crest Fits the Pattern

Conte’s family office fits inside that pattern by design. Lupine Crest Capital is a family office.

A family office answering to one family can hold a position as long as it wants and add to it on its own schedule instead of a fund’s. 

Read Also: JP Conte of Lupine Crest Capital On How a Single Choice Can Redefine A Leadership Journey