Insights from Investor Day 2025

Opening Remarks

Speaker: Adam Said (Chairman & Co-Founder)

Adam Said opened the day by setting the broader economic context. He emphasized that while 2024 experienced a sharp contraction in private equity, with declining deal activity and fundraising, 2025 marked a return to stability and cautious optimism. ACE’s disciplined investment approach, long-term strategy, and internal momentum positioned it “above the clouds,” staying resilient through turbulent conditions.

Key firm statistics:

• Team: 39 employees, with a new office opened in Zurich (total of 5 offices)
• Deal filtering: Out of 973 qualified opportunities, only 26 investments were made (a highly selective 2.7% execution rate)
• Performance: Inception-to-date gains grew from $644M in 2024 to $810M in 2025
• Distributions: Over $110M returned to investors in the past 12 months

Inside the Mind of an Economist

Speaker: Tony Riley (Chief Economist, Unifund)

Tony Riley provided a sober but optimistic macroeconomic assessment:

• The U.S. remains the engine of global growth, with no recession in the short-term outlook
• Inflation is easing, though the Fed may delay rate cuts until clearer disinflation data emerges
• Risks include Trump’s proposed tariffs (10% on imports, 60% on Chinese goods), which could hit consumption
• He dismissed the likelihood of a severe crisis, noting the underlying strength of U.S. fundamentals
• Despite the dollar weakening, it will remain the world’s dominant reserve currency
• Long-term concerns about U.S. fiscal sustainability and rising geopolitical instability were flagged but not seen as immediate threats
• Tony’s bottom line: “You don’t need to flee U.S. assets,” but you should prepare for “greater volatility”

ACE Secondaries Strategy Overview

Speaker: Sherif El Halwagy (Partner)

Sherif detailed how ACE’s Secondaries strategy capitalizes on market dislocations:

• Execution rate of just 2.7%, reflecting intense focus on quality
• Investments often recycle capital within two years, supporting liquidity
• ACE’s advantage lies in proprietary deal flow, disciplined pricing, and structuring aligned with downside protection
• Portfolio design reflects lessons from past cycles — short duration, opportunistic positioning, and ability to deploy quickly when markets dislocate

AI at ACE: Driving Operational Improvements

Speakers: Lee Lowicki (Managing Director), Alessandra Agnello (Principal, ACE Ventures)

This session explored how ACE is using AI to enhance performance and scalability:

• Introduced Atlas, a proprietary data lake that centralizes investment and operational data
• AI models are now integrated into sourcing, diligence, and monitoring, allowing faster, data-driven decisions
• Automated dashboards flag performance deviations, risk factors, and operational inefficiencies
• AI has improved internal collaboration and reduced time spent on manual tasks, boosting operational leverage

Challenging the Limits of Time, Space, and Human Potential: 1-to-1 with Destinus

Speakers: Charles Lorenceau (Partner, ACE Ventures), Vitali Shkliarov (Partner, Destinus)

Destinus presented its breakthrough work in hypersonic, hydrogen-powered flight:

• The company’s ambition: combine net-zero aviation with hypersonic speed
• Shkliarov shared how his background in global political strategy complements Destinus’ high-risk, high-reward engineering roadmap
• Charles Lorenceau emphasized ACE Ventures’ mission to back visionary deep-tech founders who tackle planetary-scale problems like transportation and sustainability

Science, Scaled: How AI and Automation Are Transforming Biology

Speakers: Alessandra Agnello (Principal, ACE Ventures), Julian Englert (Co-Founder & CEO, Adaptyv Bio), Daniel Nakhaee-Zadeh (Co-Founder & CTO, Adaptyv Bio)

Adaptyv Bio revealed how it is industrializing protein engineering:

• Adaptyv uses machine learning to design proteins, predict function, and optimize synthesis with minimal human input
• The platform merges hardware and software to automate lab workflows, boosting reproducibility and reducing costs
• CEO Julian Englert emphasized making advanced protein engineering available to startups and researchers — not just large pharma
• As Alessandra Agnello shared, Adaptyv reflects ACE’s belief in science-as-a-platform — where AI and automation can reshape the future of biotech

A New Playbook: ACE’s Buyout Strategy

Speakers: Rob Callahan (Partner), Lee Lowicki (Managing Director)

Rob and Lee outlined how ACE has reshaped its buyout strategy to navigate today’s more selective and risk-aware environment:

• The focus is on smaller, agile companies in essential sectors such as infrastructure, education, and business services, where there are clear paths to operational value creation
• ACE targets deals where it can actively drive performance post-close through initiatives like leadership upgrades, tech adoption, and process improvement
• ABCA Systems was highlighted as a recent success story, providing fire safety and security solutions with mission-critical services and stable, recurring revenue
• The firm prioritizes controlled deal structures, clear governance, and repeatable playbooks to ensure consistency across portfolio companies

Investing in Essential Services: ABCA

Speakers: Lee Lowicki (Partner), Ali Khanbhai (Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Trimountain Partners)

ABCA Systems, a UK-based fire and security services firm, was transformed post-investment:

• The team implemented leadership changes, pricing upgrades, and back-office integration to streamline performance
• Trimountain and ACE helped source and integrate bolt-on acquisitions, allowing ABCA to enter new verticals and geographies with synergy
• The success was attributed to a trust-based partnership between ACE, Trimountain, and ABCA’s leadership, with shared decision-making and a long-term view

Identifying Trends in Private Equity: A Conversation with Fiona Frick

Speakers: Adam Said (Chairman & Co-Founder), Fiona Frick (Board Advisor)

Fiona shared a board-level perspective on the evolving role of private equity:

• ESG and sustainability are now basic requirements for LPs, not differentiators
• Investors are increasingly focused on a GP’s ability to govern data and manage risk transparently
• There’s a growing expectation that private equity firms behave more like long-term partners than capital allocators

Steady Capital in Unsteady Times: ACE & Company’s Resilience Across Markets

Speakers: Adam Said (Chairman & Co-Founder), Sherif El Halwagy (Partner), Rob Callahan (Partner), Steve Salom (Partner, ACE Ventures)

This final panel brought together ACE’s leadership to reflect on how the firm has maintained strong performance across strategies in one of the most challenging market environments in recent memory.

• Secondaries will stay strong: Sherif El Halwagy sees rising supply but cautioned that ACE will remain highly selective, leaning into complex, short-duration deals where it has an edge
• Buyouts set to re-engage: Rob Callahan noted that seller expectations are resetting; ACE is preparing to increase activity in essential, operationally scalable businesses
• Venture stays disciplined: Steve Salom emphasized that ACE Ventures will continue backing deep-tech, mission-driven founders, with support beyond capital to build through the cycle
• Firmwide resilience is structural: All speakers reinforced that ACE’s systems, team structure, and platform model were built for volatility, enabling them to act with confidence while others wait