Clarus Capital

A five-person investment committee chaired by Managing Partner Christoph Ryffel makes all investment decisions. Roger Meier serves as Head of Investment Management, overseeing portfolio construction and monitoring across the firm's private credit, private equity, and real asset strategies.

Clarus sources primarily through long-standing relationships with DACH-based corporate finance advisors, law firms, and family-owned company networks. The firm's focus on succession and carve-out situations in the Mittelstand gives it access to deal flow that broader European managers often miss because they lack local origination teams in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.

Clarus Capital runs both direct-investment funds and managed accounts. In private credit, the firm originates and underwrites bilateral senior secured loans directly to mid-market borrowers. In private equity, it acquires control or significant minority stakes directly. The firm does not operate as a fund-of-funds, though institutional clients can access its strategies through segregated mandates with customized allocations.

In private credit, Clarus focuses on senior secured lending to mid-market companies with stable cash flows and enterprise values typically between CHF 20 million and CHF 200 million. In private equity, the firm targets mature businesses in succession or corporate carve-out situations, not early-stage venture or growth equity. Real asset investments include income-producing commercial property and operating infrastructure.

Clarus has publicly stated it avoids highly cyclical commodity businesses, early-stage technology, and consumer discretionary sectors with limited downside protection. The firm's credit underwriting explicitly screens out industries with binary regulatory risk, such as speculative biotech, and it does not invest in public equities or liquid hedge fund strategies.

Clarus does not operate a philanthropic foundation or donor-advised fund as part of its asset management activities. The firm's structure is purely commercial — a partner-owned management company offering alternative investment products — and there is no publicly disclosed charitable arm or social impact mandate.

Clarus Capital participates in co-investments alongside its own funds, with the general partner committing at least 5% alongside limited partners in each vehicle. The firm does not run an external co-investment program where institutional investors commit to individual deals outside of the fund structure. Co-investment is treated as an alignment mechanism, not a separate business line.