Dieter Schwarz: Is there a single family office?

Dieter Schwarz: Is there a single family office?

This article directly stems from the research process for our European single family office database. Our list of European single family offices includes the most important family investment vehicles that invest in various areas, such as financial markets, real estate, venture capital, private equity and renewables.

Dieter Schwarz is a German billionaire who owns the global retail chain Lidl. Dieter Schwarz inherited the company from his father Josef Schwarz who was a partner at the fruit wholesaler Suedfruechte Grosshandel Lidl & Co in 1930. In 1973, Schwarz then opened the first Lidl discount store in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine. In 1968, Lidl launched another supermarket chain called Kaufland. Today, Lidl operates more than 12,300 stores in over 30 countries. With an annual turnover of €167.2 billion, it is one of the largest retail chains in the world. With his shares from Lidl Dieter Schwarz made a fortune. In 2024 his wealth was estimated at around €38 billion.

In this article, we investigate whether there is a Dieter Schwarz family office, which would be directly a major family office in Europe.

Investment funds and philanthropy, ZFHN as Schwarz family office

Schwarz is an active venture capital investor. First, he initiated the Heilbronn-based BORN2GROW, which provides capital to early-stage startups with investments between €0.5m and €1m. Portfolio companies include Unchained Robotics, SpinDrive and baseclick. Many of the startups come from the life sciences and technology sectors. Recently, Schwarz also launched ZFHN, the Zukunftsfonds Heilbronn, which is responsible for later stage investments. The fund has a volume of €200 million and invests between €2 million and €15 million per investment. Portfolio companies include smartGAS, INSPEKTO and seleon. The firm also supports management buy-outs. ZFHN describes itself as a “privately funded family office”, so it can be seen as the Dieter Schwarz family office.

Picture source: Marjan Blan

Last Updated on November 25, 2024

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