Real assets vs paper wealth
A real asset is something physical that exists in the world and holds value on its own - a mine, a power plant, a stretch of farmland, a building. Paper wealth is a claim on value that lives in an account - a stock, a fund unit, a share certificate. Both can make you money, but only one keeps producing something the world actually needs when markets get nervous. Real assets tend to move to their own rhythm, tied to what they produce rather than to the mood of a trading screen.
Why it matters to youWhen you own the mine instead of a slip of paper about the mine, you are closer to where the value is actually made - and that is the side of the table we put you on.
SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle)
An SPV, or Special Purpose Vehicle, is a company built to hold exactly one thing and do exactly one job - own a single asset and nothing else. Think of it as a clean box: one asset goes in, a defined group of investors owns the box, and there are no other businesses or surprises tangled inside. If the asset does well, the box does well; if something goes wrong elsewhere in the world, it stays outside the box. That containment is the whole point.
Why it matters to youYou always know precisely what you own and what you are exposed to - one asset, in the open, with no hidden baggage riding along.
GP / LP (General Partner / Limited Partner)
In a private deal there are two roles. The General Partner, or GP, runs the show - sources the asset, structures the deal, and manages it day to day. The Limited Partner, or LP, is the investor who puts in money and shares in the results but does not run operations. LPs get their name because their responsibility is limited - they can lose only what they put in, and no more.
Why it matters to youYou come in as the Limited Partner, which means your job is to own a share of a good asset - not to answer the phone at the mine at 2am. That part is ours.
Carry (carried interest)
Carry, short for carried interest, is the slice of the profit the manager keeps as their reward for making the deal work - but only after investors have been paid what they are owed. A common shape is that once investors get their money back plus an agreed return, the manager takes a set share, say twenty percent, of the profit above that line. The key word is after. Carry is earned on the upside, not skimmed off the top.
Why it matters to youBecause we only win meaningfully once you have already won, our incentives sit on the same side of the table as your money - which is exactly where they should sit.
Offtake agreement
An offtake agreement is a deal signed before production even starts, in which a buyer commits to purchase what an asset will produce - a set amount of copper, power, or product, at agreed terms. It is the difference between hoping someone will buy what you make and knowing they already agreed to. That signed commitment turns an uncertain future into a far more predictable one.
Why it matters to youA buyer locked in before the first tonne ships is one of the clearest signals that a project stands on real demand, not wishful thinking - and we look for it hard.
Title in escrow
Title is the legal proof of who owns an asset. Escrow is a neutral third party that holds something valuable - money, documents, or the title itself - and only releases it when every agreed condition has been met. Title held in escrow means ownership does not change hands on a handshake or a promise; it moves only when the paperwork, the payments, and the checks are all genuinely complete.
Why it matters to youYour ownership is not real until it is legally airtight, and escrow is how we make sure nothing changes hands until every box is truly ticked.
Capital call
In many private deals you do not hand over all your money on day one. Instead you commit a total amount, and the manager requests it in stages - as the asset actually needs the funds - through what is called a capital call. So if you commit a sum, you might send part of it now and the rest later, when the project reaches the point of needing it. It keeps your money in your hands until it is genuinely put to work.
Why it matters to youYour capital goes in when the asset is ready to use it, not before - so your money is working, not just parked and waiting.
Distribution waterfall
When a deal produces cash, that money is paid out in a set order, step by step, like water filling one pool before spilling into the next. This order is called the distribution waterfall. Typically investors get their original money back first, then an agreed return, and only after those steps are met does the manager share in the remaining profit. The order is fixed and written down before anyone invests.
Why it matters to youYou get to see the exact order in which money comes back before you commit a single dollar - and in every version we structure, you are near the front of the line.
IRR (internal rate of return)
IRR, or internal rate of return, is a way to express how fast your money grew, as a yearly percentage, taking into account not just how much came back but when. Getting your money back sooner counts for more than getting it back late, and IRR captures that timing. So a deal described as returning, say, eighteen percent IRR grew at roughly that annual pace over its life. It is a speed measure, not a total.
Why it matters to youIRR tells you how hard your money worked per year - and knowing how to read it means no one can dazzle you with a big final number that took a decade to arrive.
MOIC and DPI
These are two simple ways to measure how much you got back. MOIC, or multiple on invested capital, is the total value your investment reached compared to what you put in - a MOIC of two means it doubled, on paper or in cash. DPI, or distributions to paid-in, counts only the cash actually returned to your pocket so far. MOIC includes value still tied up in the asset; DPI is the money you can already spend.
Why it matters to youMOIC shows the promise and DPI shows the proof - and we would rather you watch both than fall in love with a number you cannot yet withdraw.
J-curve
Early in many private investments the value on paper dips before it climbs - money goes in and costs are paid before the asset starts producing returns. Plotted over time, that path looks like the letter J: down first, then up and past where it started. The dip is normal and expected, not a sign of trouble; it is simply the shape of building something real before it pays.
Why it matters to youKnowing the J-curve is coming means you will not panic at the early dip - you will recognize it as the cost of building value that has not arrived yet.
NSR royalty (net smelter return)
A royalty is the right to receive a small slice of what a mine produces, paid off the top, without having to run the mine yourself. An NSR, or net smelter return, royalty pays you a set percentage of the value of the metal sold, after the basic cost of refining it is subtracted. You do not carry the operating risk or the payroll - you simply hold a claim on a cut of the output for as long as it flows.
Why it matters to youA royalty lets you share in a mine's production without owning its headaches - a quieter, steadier way to sit close to real output.
Tailings reprocessing
When ore is first processed, older or cruder methods often leave valuable metal behind in the leftover material, called tailings. Tailings reprocessing means going back through those piles with better technology to recover the metal that was missed the first time. Because the material is already dug up and sitting on the surface, you skip much of the cost and disruption of a fresh mine. It is value that was left on the table, recovered.
Why it matters to youPulling metal from what someone already discarded can mean lower cost and lower risk than digging new ground - which is precisely the kind of overlooked value we hunt for.
Due diligence
Due diligence is the deep, unglamorous investigation done before any money moves - checking the legal title, the numbers, the permits, the geology, the people, and everything that could go wrong. It is the work of turning a good story into a verified fact, or of walking away when the story does not hold up. Done properly, most of it happens where you never see it, long before a deal reaches you.
Why it matters to youBy the time an opportunity reaches you, the hard questions have already been asked and answered - because saying no to the weak deals is how we protect the strong ones.
Accredited / qualified investor
Accredited or qualified investor is a legal label for someone who meets certain thresholds - a level of income, wealth, or experience - that regulators treat as a sign they can take on private investments knowingly. These deals sit outside the public markets, so access is limited by rule to investors who clear that bar. It is not a judgment of character; it is a line the law draws about who may participate.
Why it matters to youThis is simply the door you have to walk through to reach private markets at all - and part of our job is making sure you cross that threshold cleanly and correctly.
Minimum ticket
The minimum ticket is the smallest amount you are allowed to invest in a given deal - the entry size. Private deals set one because each investor has to be brought on properly, with paperwork and legal care, so there is a floor that makes participation workable for everyone. If a deal has a minimum ticket of, say, a hundred thousand, that is the smallest commitment that gets you a seat.
Why it matters to youKnowing the ticket up front tells you plainly whether a deal is meant for you today - and if it is not yet, we would rather tell you straight than stretch you into it.