About Us
Our Founder
Our founder, The Late Mr. Rajendra Kothari, was regarded as a highly moral and principled person. An admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, his ethics and reputation were paramount. He was very straight forward and had a strong belief in regards to right and wrong. It is based on his guiding principles that The Czar Group was created.
OUR INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY
We at CZAR believe that creating and managing wealth is equal mix art and science that requires passion, focus and knowledge. However, from our experience in order to truly succeed, you require a guiding philosophy. These should be simple and easy to understand void of fancy financial jargon. The following are ours:
1. ONLY WORK WITH "PATIENT" CAPITAL
Markets are cyclical, in order to create wealth, you cannot be worried about short term results, capital exits, etc. We are investors that understand value and can deal with volatility, as long as our basic investment thesis remains valid.
2. ABSOLUTE CONTROL
You will see this used as part of our brand DNA frequently; It is very important to have complete control over the investment decision making. Otherwise, you will end up making decisions to satisfy short-term goals.
3. SKIN IN THE GAME
Most Fund Managers have done very well for themselves; not necessarily for their poor investors. It's important for us at CZAR , that we will invest only with founders and managers that have "Skin in the Game". We prefer to invest directly, but have on occasion invested as part of a larger fund; However our criteria remains the same of investing in founders/managers that have something to lose if things go wrong.
4. OPPORTUNISTIC & AGNOSTIC :
As long as an investment ticks all the boxes of our proprietary Czar Preliminary Investment EvaluationTM Sheet, we are comfortable with most types of investments; Angel, VC, PE, Real Estate, Debt, etc. Our belief is that the ability to create wealth can come from different places and we have to be opportunistic yet clear about our core competency.
5. WE ARE WEALTH MANAGERS, NOT FUND MANAGERS
Wealth Managers worry about Long-Term Returns, Principal Protection, Risk, etc. Fund Managers have other functions and motivations which puts them at odds with investors:
TIME : Fund Managers spend a significant amount of time "pitching" for new funds.
FEES : As Fund Managers, their structure seduces them to the significant management fees that they get, which is not performance linked. This clearly seduces the fund manager to keep bringing in more funds to increase their Asset Under Management (AUM)
RISK : Not to generalize, but most fund managers are pressured to outperform the market and take on additional risk, which may not be prudent. The need to invest in the "hot" investments of the day could be due to existing investor pressure, new investor demand, ability to leverage and "juice" returns, etc.
5. WE ARE WEALTH MANAGERS, NOT FUND MANAGERS
Wealth Managers worry about Long-Term Returns, Principal Protection, Risk, etc. Fund Managers have other functions and motivations which puts them at odds with investors:
TIME : Fund Managers spend a significant amount of time "pitching" for new funds.
FEES : As Fund Managers, their structure seduces them to the significant management fees that they get, which is not performance linked. This clearly seduces the fund manager to keep bringing in more funds to increase their Asset Under Management (AUM)
RISK : Not to generalize, but most fund managers are pressured to outperform the market and take on additional risk, which may not be prudent. The need to invest in the "hot" investments of the day could be due to existing investor pressure, new investor demand, ability to leverage and "juice" returns, etc.
6. USE OF LEVERAGE
We will strictly not use leverage in our core investment companies; at the investment level, leverage maybe something that the operator/manager of that particular investment/business is comfortable with. For our core investment companies at Czar, we follow the below quote:
A long, long time ago a friend said to me about leverage, “If you’re smart you don’t need it. If you’re dumb you got no business using it.”
Warren Buffett
7. ADDING VALUE
As part of our portfolio is in the VC/PE space, we believe that truly adding value beyond the financial transaction is an important differentiator. Besides the primary function of Asset Allocation and founder/owner/manager evaluation, we like to work directly with portfolio companies in various aspects like Business Modelling, Strategy, Mentoring, etc.
8. US & INDIA, 2 MARKETS, PERFECTLY BALANCED
As part of our core competency, we believe we know the US and India markets best. We are absolutely clear that although we love for our companies to be global, one of these 2 markets has to be a primary market for them, preferably both. Why?
CORE COMPETENCY : We understand these markets best.
BALANCE : Both are great markets according to us, and provide great balance to the portfolio. The US is a large, mature, yet innovative market. India is a large, growth, rapidly changing market.
VALUE ADD : We have a great business network in both of these markets and can help companies accelerate the growth
LAW : We believe both of these markets have strong fundamental rule of law that gives us comfort in doing business in these jurisdictions
9. OPERATORS
What Location, Location, Location is to Real Estate; Operator, Operator, Operator is to Czar. Our firm belief is that we can do all the due diligence, analyze market size and opportunities of any business, but without the right operator(s), it will not be meaningful. Our goal is to find the most passionate, knowledgeable and driven operators for our portfolio investments.
Czar Group
8. US & INDIA, 2 MARKETS, PERFECTLY BALANCED
As part of our core competency, we believe we know the US and India markets best. We are absolutely clear that although we love for our companies to be global, one of these 2 markets has to be a primary market for them, preferably both. Why?
CORE COMPETENCY : We understand these markets best.
BALANCE : Both are great markets according to us, and provide great balance to the portfolio. The US is a large, mature, yet innovative market. India is a large, growth, rapidly changing market.
VALUE ADD : We have a great business network in both of these markets and can help companies accelerate the growth
LAW : We believe both of these markets have strong fundamental rule of law that gives us comfort in doing business in these jurisdictions
9. OPERATORS
What Location, Location, Location is to Real Estate; Operator, Operator, Operator is to Czar. Our firm belief is that we can do all the due diligence, analyze market size and opportunities of any business, but without the right operator(s), it will not be meaningful. Our goal is to find the most passionate, knowledgeable and driven operators for our portfolio investments.