Tapping into a curated "dating agency" model, AYU Capital connects family offices with funds and founders.

AYU, a private members' community for family offices and alternative investment funds, is launching AYU Capital. The offering is a matching service connecting funds and founders with verified family office investors.

AYU Capital is launching after a year’s trial, during which family offices representing more than $500 billion have been connected to deals and opportunities. The first successful deal matches and transactions have already been made, AYU said in a statement. 

“This new service has been developed in response to demand from our members for a platform that prioritises the specific needs of family offices,” Gus Morison (pictured below), chief executive of AYU, said. “Other cap intro platforms have put tech and deal flow first, but few understand that there’s no point having the tech and deal flow, if you don't have people who trust you enough to use it.”


Gus Morison

Historically, the family office to fund/founder connection has been characterised by inefficiency and floods of unsolicited and unrequited pitches for family offices, leading to unparsable data and frustration, AYU said in a statement. “Funds and founders, conversely, waste significant amounts of time and money trying to find and pitch investors. AYU Capital and its AI-driven platform, Cupid, matches opportunities and investors, makes introductions and curates meetings that solve this problem.”

Cupid builds structured profiles defining the “perfect opportunities.” Likewise, it finds the “perfect” investors for funds and deals, AYU said. Close to 500 family offices are already being connected to deal flow, it said.

In late 2024, AYU launched the AYU Approved Family Office (AFO) Programme, a vetting process for squeezing out “fake” family offices from the sector at a time when the industry has grown rapidly worldwide.