Our Story

Saudi Investment Company SICO SA was incorporated in Geneva on the 19th day of May 1980, as a Swiss Société Anonyme dedicated to the management of long-term private capital. From the outset, the founders chose Geneva not by accident, but by conviction: the city represented — and still represents today — one of the most rigorous, discreet and stable financial centres in the world, governed by a legal framework that prizes prudence, the protection of investors, and the long-term stewardship of wealth.

For more than four decades, that founding choice has shaped everything we do. The world has changed dramatically over the years; markets have transformed, asset classes have multiplied, and the very nature of value creation has been redefined by technology, globalisation and the energy transition. Through all of these cycles, SICO SA has remained anchored in the same place, on the same street in Geneva, guided by the same fundamental belief: that capital, when patient, when intelligent, and when responsibly deployed, can shape industries and improve lives across generations.

To understand SICO SA, one must first understand what it means to be a Swiss private investment company. We are not a venture capital fund chasing fashionable narratives, nor a hedge fund seeking short-term arbitrage. We are a private investment house — a maison, as one says in Geneva — whose role is to deploy capital with discernment, hold it with patience, and grow it with discipline.

This identity carries with it a particular ethic. Swiss private investment houses have, for generations, embodied a set of values that have made the country's financial sector one of the most respected in the world: the long horizon over the short trade, the considered position over the impulsive bet, the relationship over the transaction, and discretion as a fundamental principle of how business is conducted. SICO SA inherits this tradition and applies it to every commitment it makes.

We are headquartered at Rue François-Le-Fort 2, in the 1206 district of Geneva — a quiet street, a discreet building, a working office. We do not seek publicity. We do not announce every deal. We do not measure our success by the size of our marketing campaigns. We measure it by the quality of the businesses we help build, by the trust we maintain with our partners, and by the integrity of our process.

Like all institutions with a long history, SICO SA has known periods of transformation. Companies that endure are not those that remain unchanged — they are those that know when to evolve, when to renew their leadership, and when to reaffirm their core mission with fresh energy.

The chapter that defines SICO SA today was opened under the chairmanship of Mr. Charles Rochat, a respected figure in the Geneva financial community whose stewardship has anchored the company in a renewed standard of governance, rigour and forward-looking ambition. Under his leadership, the firm has reaffirmed its founding philosophy — patient, multi-sectoral, internationally minded — while modernising its investment thesis to reflect the realities of the contemporary economy.

The team that has gathered around the chairman reflects this ambition. SICO SA today is composed of investment professionals, financial officers and operational executives who bring together decades of combined experience in private capital, asset management, corporate finance and international business.

SICO SA does not invest in everything, and it does not invest everywhere. Our mandate is deliberately multi-sectoral, but our approach is highly selective. We have chosen, over time, to concentrate our attention on the verticals where we believe the next two decades of value creation will take place: financial technology, healthcare technology, web3 and blockchain, agrifood technology, e-mobility, art and alternative assets, real estate, and selected positions in public equities.

Across these verticals, we invest through whichever instrument best fits the situation: direct equity, convertible notes, structured loans, listed securities, or hybrid arrangements designed in close partnership with the entrepreneurs and managers we support. What matters to us is not the label of the instrument, but the alignment of interests, the quality of the management team, and the long-term potential of the business.

Although our home is firmly in Switzerland, our reach has always been international. SICO SA invests across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, and the geographic diversity of our portfolio is not a coincidence — it is a deliberate expression of our belief that great companies can emerge anywhere, and that the most rewarding opportunities are often found at the intersection of regions, ideas and capital flows.

This bridging role — between regions, between cultures, between maturities of capital — is one of the most distinctive features of what SICO SA does. It is also one of the most difficult to replicate. It is the product of forty-five years of relationships, of trust patiently built, of confidentiality scrupulously kept, of commitments honoured.

When SICO SA commits to a company, it does so with the understanding that capital alone is not enough. We see ourselves not merely as financiers, but as partners in the long-term development of the businesses we invest in. We bring to the table not only money, but also access to our network, the experience of our team, the governance discipline of a Swiss institution, and a horizon of patience that few institutional investors today are willing or able to offer.

We do not impose unrealistic timelines. We do not pressure management into pursuing growth at any cost. We do not demand exit at the first opportunity. What we ask, in return for our patience and our support, is rigour: rigour in the way the company is managed, in the way its accounts are kept, in the way its strategy is communicated, and in the way its commitments to its stakeholders are honoured.

Forty-five years after its founding, SICO SA stands today as a Geneva-based private investment company with a clearly defined mission, a disciplined process, an experienced team, and a portfolio that reflects the convictions outlined above. We are not the largest investment house in Switzerland — and we have never sought to be. We are, however, one of the most patient, one of the most discreet, and one of the most internationally connected within our particular niche.

The years ahead will bring new opportunities and new challenges. The transformations underway across the global economy — the energy transition, the artificial intelligence revolution, the redefinition of healthcare, the reshaping of finance — will require capital that is willing to think across decades rather than across quarters.