How AA&Sons manages a portfolio of +100 startups using Datasset
AA&Sons is a family office created in 2016 by a family of entrepreneurs led by Romain Afflelou.
Based in London, AA&Sons invests across Europe, Israel, and the US. It focuses on Seed/Series A fast-growing companies with global ambitions.
Romain Afflelou has been an entrepreneur since the age of 23. He developed a taste for business creation through hands-on experience. He understood early on that business is not just about numbers; it's an adventure of resilience and passion.
AA&Sons’s motto is to always be by the entrepreneurs’ side at any stage and maturity to help them build success stories.
Building the foundations to increase investment pace
When the Afflelou family decided to diversify its investments into Venture Capital, it needed a dedicated investment vehicle. Romain stepped up to tackle this new challenge.
Setting up a Venture Capital investment vehicle is a complex operation, both from a financial and legal perspective. Thus, Romain immediately sought to surround himself with the right people and tools.
One of the core challenges for Romain was to quickly increase the number of investments while limiting the costs to operate it. When he met with the Datasset team, he was looking for an agile solution to meet his challenges:
- Find an all-in-one platform for portfolio management: Romain was looking for a tool that could efficiently manage transaction history, KPIs tracking, and provide intuitive document access.
- Keep a limited back office team: Romain needed to implement streamlined processes in order to accelerate investment pace while avoiding to hire multiple analysts
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Using Datasset as our single platform generated invaluable synergies for our family office, in our day-to-day operations. Datasset is for us a real partner and the teams are both professional and accessible on a day-to-day basis.
“Datasset helped us increase our operational capacity”
AA&Sons leverages Datasset's platform and Premium services, establishing a close day-to-day collaboration. The Datasset Premium Services team acts as an extension of AA&Sons’ team and performs the following operations:
- Quarterly valuation at the company and portfolio level
- Ongoing collection of portfolio company KPIs
- Systematic Digitalization of Cap Tables and Investment Terms
- Monthly newsletter and quarterly extensive report
With Datasset, AA&Sons experiences a series of direct benefits in terms of tools, processes, and access to information, but also in terms of network and investment opportunities :
- Clear vision of the investment history and performance: A comprehensive record of each startup's KPIs and performance and intuitive access to a repository for documents.
- Real-time view of the portfolio: A dynamic dashboard enables sharing of investment portfolio with team and family members, ensuring real-time control of the alignment between the investment thesis and deployed funds.
- Data-driven investment decisions: Datasset provides access to performance data by year, geography, sector, and currency in one click, leveraging data to guide decision-making and enhance overall portfolio management.
- Support from a team of seasoned VC experts: The Datasset team speaks the customer's language, understands their needs, and knows how to provide a premium, tailor-made tech service. It is a proactive team, whose advice is highly valued.
With Datasset, AA&Sons managed to accelerate its investment pace to double its portfolio within 2 years. It enabled Romain to professionalize, structure his activity, and streamline his workforce. Datasset is like having the equivalent of 3-4 analysts compiled in an ultra-intuitive app.
The Datasset’s distinctive attribute is the human aspect: expertise combined with high-performance, intuitive software.
For Romain, beyond the tools and services, working with Datasset is like joining an entire ecosystem that creates value in many different ways. Romain puts it in simple words: “I do not see Datasset as a cost center but as a real deal maker”.