Bringing the Endowment Model used so successfully by US institutions to Europe’s private wealth segment - in particular the mass affluent - is one of the core missions for LIQID, with multi-asset liquid and illiquid investments part of its DNA. Since it was established in 2016, LIQID has grown to become one of Germany’s largest independent asset managers.
The firm’s founder, Christian Schneider-Sickert, had previously carved a successful career in the media world before entering the world of private wealth. He served as COO at Fremantle Media (responsible for TV shows such as the X Factor) and immediately prior to setting up LIQID he was running digital and international investments for Europe's biggest media group. This brought him to Berlin, where LIQID is headquartered today.
“From day one, our mission was to make that smart money style of investing accessible to mass affluent investors,” says Schneider-Sickert. “Private markets have always been part of our offering but we were limited by what was possible under the existing legislation.”
Up until last year, LIQID was running (semi-) professional investor vehicles in Germany across private equity and venture capital with an investment minimum of EUR200K. From a balanced portfolio perspective, this equates to investable assets of EUR1 million. LIQID wanted to also serve clients with EUR200K to EUR300K - i.e. more mass affluent than HNW investors by definition - who historically have never had the opportunity to participate in the real economy.
“Overall, our target client has between EUR200,000 and EUR2 million of investable assets. Hence why the ELTIF 2.0 regulation was really helpful for us as it allowed us to open up private markets to a much wider audience. Philosophically it hasn't changed what we do. It’s unleashed what we've always wanted to do,” says Schneider-Sickert.
By leveraging the ELTIF framework, the firm created LIQID Private Equity NXT, a semi-liquid product that gives investors a unique opportunity to access global mid-market co-investments alongside Neuberger Berman.
Since it launched in June 2024, it has become one of Europe’s fastest growing ELTIFs.
The semi-liquid product sits alongside LIQID Private Equity PRO, a closed-ended fund-of-funds offering that provides investors with access to a range of top-tier GPs including Bain Capital, EQT, KKR. Using another key strategic partnership - this time HQ Capital (the private equity arm of the Harald Quandt family) - this tax transparent vehicle enables HNW investors to invest side by side with HQ Capital’s institutional LPs.
“They were one of the first asset managers to follow the endowment model in Germany. I’d recently moved to Germany and still had the Nutmeg model in my mind and thought offering something like that for the mass affluent market could be interesting. That led us to partner with HQ Capital,” explains Schneider-Sickert.
LIQID uses the same pari passu (equal footing) principle with its venture capital feeder, which invests with VenCap, a leading European venture capitalist based out of Oxford.
With LIQID Private Equity NXT, its semi-liquidity characteristics influenced the decision to avoid using a fund-of-funds commitment model. “We realised that a co-investment strategy would be the best way to support quick capital deployment and keep things very lean from a cost perspective. Neuberger Berman have deep expertise in accessing co-investment deals, having successfully been running a co-investment strategy for their institutional clients. We tap into that co-investment pool on a pari passu basis with Neuberger Berman’s institutional clients. We can make co-investments at the GP's initial deal stage, at the mid-lifecycle stage, as well as secondaries,” outlines Schneider-Sickert.
One of the key advantages to having a partner like Neuberger Berman is that it guarantees quality of deal flow. This avoids the risk of ending up with leftovers. In addition, each co-investment has to be at the same level in the waterfall as institutional clients.
The minimum investment in LIQID Private Equity NXT is EUR10,000. However, to capitalise on the long-term benefits of private markets, LIQID also offers a monthly savings plan where clients can choose to save EUR200 per month.
Indeed, as a digital platform, innovation has played a key role since the firm began offering private equity solutions to its clients in 2017. To illustrate the point, LIQID chose to launch its NXT product in two phases.
Phase one involved a standalone investment in the fund, as a satellite investment in a client’s broader portfolio. Phase two involved modelling an optimal allocation in each of LIQID’s discretionary portfolios. Clients can now choose to stick with a plain vanilla allocation to public markets, or toggle their exposure to private equity accordingly.
“As a Germany-focused business winning the IPEM award for Best Wealth Manager is a fantastic opportunity to take what we do to an international audience,” concludes Schneider-Sickert.