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Dancap New building Render
About Us

About Us

Dancap Family Investment Office is a Single Family Office based out of Toronto, Canada, that manages the investment portfolio for Aubrey Dan.

Established in the year 2000, Dancap has invested in opportunities across several different managers, strategies, sectors, regions and vintages, with the intention of growing the portfolio with a long-term point of view that is intergenerational.

The Origin of the Dan Investment Family Office

Aubrey Dan, Principal
Aubrey Dan, Principal

A Single Family Office is privately owned, where the source of wealth usually comes from the family itself, in this case, through successful entrepreneurship.

The Dan Family sold their interest in the Canadian generic pharmaceutical company Novopharm Limited in the year 2000 along with other associated assets to seed the Family Investment Office. Over the last 20 years the investment portfolio become globally diversified with over 50 specialized asset managers, in excess of 120 funds that has over 1,100 underlying portfolio companies.

EmpowerPharm Logo

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, EmpowerPharm Inc. is an early-stage pharmaceutical company developing prescription products for the North American market using 100% pure synthetic pharmaceutical grade cannabidiol (CBD) as their Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) co-founded by Aubrey Dan and Peter Billiaert prioritizing anxiety and subsequently pain as target therapeutic areas.

View the EmpowerPharm Website
Aubrey and Marla Dan Foundation Logo

At the Aubrey and Marla Dan Foundation leadership is important to us. Our belief is that giving is about more than money, it’s about using our business and investment acumen, our time and our connections to help organizations thrive. We’ve supported numerous projects over the years that fall into three pillars: community, healthcare, and education.

Visit the Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation Website

The foundation initially is set up to support academic institutions’ research and discover alternatives to prescribing various medications such as opioids and benzodiazepines; while funding charitable organizations in Canada with those suffering from drug addiction.

Visit the Complimentary Medical Research and Addiction Foundation

Our New Offices, Coming Soon

Our new headquarters is helping to preserve Toronto’s architectural heritage.

The new home of the Dancap Family Investment Office and the Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation will be a restored heritage home in midtown Toronto. Planning is underway to blend the existing century Georgian Revival house with a new four-story high-performance addition to the rear.

Learn More
Dancap's Future Office Render

Single Family Office Explained and How We Operate

A Single Family Office is privately owned and manages investments for an ultra-high net worth individual, often referred to as the Principal. The source of wealth usually comes from the family itself, in this case, through a successful entrepreneurship.

Our Investment Team, lead by our COO, CFO, Elias Toby, actively monitors our exiting portfolio and manages our pipeline of new investment opportunities. Over the years we’ve developed an extensive network of trusted relationships as well as we’re always entertaining new relationships.

 

Before a new investment opportunity is added to the portfolio, our investment team goes through a rigorous due diligence process to decide if we should proceed or not based upon our investment criteria before being presented to the Investment Committee.

Our Investment Committee, lead by our Principal, Aubrey Dan, meets with the Investment Team on a weekly basis. Some of the topics discussed include: macroeconomic events and how they impact our portfolio, performance of existing investments, and new investment opportunities. All attendees contribute to each decision that is made around the table in order to ensure that all points of view are taken into account. Our Principal has the final say before an investment is added or removed from the portfolio.

Our Strategic Asset Allocation

The goal of our investment portfolio is capital appreciation with a long-term point of view while taking into account the risks of each underlying investment.

Our approach to generating returns and managing risk begins with our long-term strategic asset allocation mix and their dynamic target bands, which are driven by many factors including:

  1. Our preference for alternative investments (including Private Equity, Real Estate and Private Debt) due to their higher returns and alpha generation compared to publicly available investments providing stability, avoiding the mark-to-market volatility.
  2. Diversification among asset classes to help reduce any potential undue risks from macroeconomic shocks.
  3. Managing our overall portfolio liquidity and cash flow needs as they relate to scheduled capital draw-downs from existing investments and new investment opportunities.
Chart illustrating mix of long term allocation for Dancap's investment portfolio
Dancap's Long Term Strategic Asset Allocation Mix and Target Bands
Opposite is a summary of our long-term strategic asset allocation mix and their target bands. We believe that this asset class mix and their associated target bands are best suited for our Family Office in order to meet our long-term investment goals and objectives of maximizing returns, minimizing risk, and managing liquidity.

Dancap’s Core Alternative Investment Portfolio Focus

Our core alternative investment portfolio is the main driver behind our overall returns and can represent anywhere from 50% to 80% of our portfolio holdings.

Since alternative investments tend to have unpredictable cash flows to some degree, we try to minimize that impact by diversifying our alternative investment portfolio across many vintages, strategies, managers, and geographies. We categorize our alternative investments into four main asset classes based on each of their unique risk profiles:

  1. Equity (Buyout, Secondaries, Growth Equity)
  2. Real Estate (Multifamily, Development, Office, Mixed Use, Seniors Housing, and Hospitality)
  3. Debt (Corporate Credit and Real Estate) and
  4. Infrastructure (Energy and non-Energy)
Dancap's Core Alternative Investment Allocation Mix as of 2020
Chart illustrating mix of alternative investment allocation for Dancap's portfolio

Our investments are comprised of third party managers through blind pool funds and pledge funds as well as individual investments in private companies or assets (i.e. direct investments and co-investments).

Blind Pools Funds are a type of private fund where investors commit capital to the fund and the fund manager has sole discretion in determining what investments are made and when they are made.

Every investor participates in each deal on a pro-rata basis based on their commitment relative to other investors. Pledge Funds work similar to Blind Pool Funds, but have the distinct advantage of allowing each individual investor to choose if they want to participate in each deal. All together, our core alternative investment portfolio over 50 specialized asset managers, in excess of 120 funds, with over 1,100 underlying portfolio companies.

World map depicting allocation of core alternative investments
Dancap's Core Alternative Investment Allocation Mix as of 2020

Dancap’s Global Asset Allocation Mix

Even though our Family Office is Canadian-based, our investment portfolio is global, with a primary focus on opportunities in the United States.

Our geographic allocations are based on where we believe the best opportunities are on a deal-by-deal basis as well as the best economic outlook. Historically, 60% to 80% of our investments are US-based and as a consequence, our portfolio is managed from a US dollar perspective and reported internally in US dollars.