Austrian business angel Hansi Hansmann has formalised more than 15 years of startup investing into a family office structure with €150 million in assets under management. The Hansmann Family Office, launched alongside partner Lisa Pallweber, expands the remit of the former Hans(wo)men Group to include private equity, real estate holdings and a dedicated philanthropic pillar.
The transition reflects a strategic pivot from Hansmann's profile as a solo angel investor. Speaking to trendingtopics.eu, Hansmann said there was no single catalyst for the change. "We noticed that our activities had long since become broader: we no longer invest only in venture capital, but are also interested in private equity, profitable companies, and basically everything that has to do with entrepreneurship," he said. The Hans(wo)men Group brand had primarily represented lead investments in startups, leaving other asset-class activity invisible to the market.
The family office branding was chosen to signal institutional permanence beyond a single individual. Hansmann noted that external holdings such as an apartment building in Spain operated under separate legal entities but lacked a unifying identity. "We think long-term and are building an organization that doesn't hinge on a single person," he said. The Hansmann name was retained for brand continuity, avoiding the one- to two-year establishment period a new identity would require.
Pallweber described the office as part of a growing cohort of first-generation European family offices emerging from founder exits. "It's not about pursuing a purely passive strategy, investing exclusively in ETFs and waiting. It's about deploying capital entrepreneurially: through startup investments, but also through philanthropic themes and the question of what kind of influence you want to have in the world with your capital," she said. She distinguished the approach from wealth-preservation models centred on inherited capital, noting that such entrepreneurial structures are proliferating in Germany and Austria.
The office operates across four pillars with a lean team of four: Hansmann, Pallweber, and colleagues Laura and Andrei. Venture capital remains the dominant allocation by time spent, while private equity exposure comes primarily through co-investments. Real estate in Spain is managed by a trusted local associate; Austrian property will involve external partners. Philanthropy is being built in-house with an operational framework borrowed from startup diligence. "Our ambition is to treat it as professionally as a startup investment: a strong focus on the people involved (the team), with clear goals and KPIs, ongoing exchange and measurable impact," Pallweber said. Hansmann serves on the advisory board of the Stiftung Unternehmerische Zukunft.
The venture portfolio combines direct investments with commitments to roughly 25 individual funds. Pallweber cited Sarona Ventures, an Israeli fund that originated from the family office of Deel's founders, as an example of funds offering network-driven dealflow access. The fund invests primarily in Israeli founders building US-based technology companies. Hansmann said fund allocations are motivated by ecosystem access rather than return maximisation. "We don't make fund investments primarily for the expected returns; in our own portfolio the returns are often better than with funds," he said.
The fund strategy targets verticals and geographies the office cannot cover through direct stakes. Hansmann is a limited partner in Austria's three largest venture funds, a positioning that gave the office indirect exposure to the Emmi transaction across multiple vehicles. The broader fund book spans Israel, the UK, the US and Germany. Hansmann recommended Israel's venture ecosystem in particular, calling it exceptional.
The office plans to expand its fund count opportunistically, targeting smaller vehicles and emerging managers with defensible niche advantages. Pallweber said the preference is for general partners capable of generating above-average returns in specific verticals, favouring concentrated exposure over large generalist funds. The approach reflects a deliberate tilt toward managers with operational edges in defined markets rather than broad-based allocators.
The pivot from angel brand to multi-asset family office marks a formalisation of investment activity that Hansmann and Pallweber say had already outgrown its original structure. Whether the combination of entrepreneurial investment and in-house philanthropy represents a novel model remains an open question. Pallweber acknowledged uncertainty on that point, suggesting the office may be defining new territory in how first-generation wealth is deployed across asset classes and social impact simultaneously.