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Scitech Management
Founded in 2001 by Philip Ziff, Scitech Management emerged from the Ziff family's publishing fortune built through Ziff Davis, the technology magazine empire...
Scitech Management
Founded in 2001 by Philip Ziff, Scitech Management emerged from the Ziff family's publishing fortune built through Ziff Davis, the technology magazine empire behind PC Magazine and other computing titles. The firm formalized a family investing tradition that began in the mid-1990s, converting what was originally a single-family office allocation vehicle into an SEC-registered investment adviser that opens its strategy to institutional and qualified outside investors. Scitech runs a concentrated, multi-asset-class portfolio anchored in public equities, private investments, credit, and real estate. The public equity book skews heavily toward biotechnology, life sciences, and technology companies — sectors where the firm's willingness to hold positions through clinical trial binary events and product cycles mirrors the long-duration capital typical of family offices rather than quarterly-marked hedge funds. Private investments span direct venture rounds, growth equity, and select buyout co-investments alongside general partners. Real estate exposure includes direct property holdings and joint ventures. The geographic footprint concentrates on North American assets, with selective European and opportunistic Asian investments. Scitech manages capital estimated in the mid-nine-figures range, drawing from the Ziff family's core wealth and a limited set of external institutions. The firm maintains a deliberately lean team structure, consistent with its family-office DNA and preference for concentrated conviction bets over diversified portfolio management. While separate from the Ziff family's philanthropic vehicles, the firm's investment mandate reflects the long-horizon, risk-tolerant posture that characterizes second- and third-generation family capital management. Scitech's structural differentiator is its fee alignment anomaly: the firm charges external investors the same performance and management fees that the Ziff family's own capital pays internally. In an industry where family office spinouts often create preferential share classes for founding-family capital, Scitech inverted that norm — a governance choice that has attracted institutional allocators seeking genuine alignment with a sophisticated, committed principal.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2001
AUM
$500M - $1.5B (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Principals
Philip Ziff
Founder and Chief Investment Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Scitech Management?
Philip Ziff serves as Founder and Chief Investment Officer and holds ultimate authority over portfolio construction and capital allocation. He has led the firm since its launch in 2001, building on a family investing track record that dates to the mid-1990s. The investment team operates with a concentrated, high-conviction mandate.
Where does Scitech Management's underlying capital come from?
The foundational capital originates from the Ziff family fortune, generated through Ziff Davis — the publishing company behind PC Magazine, Car and Driver, and other technology and enthusiast media titles. The Ziff brothers sold the company in the mid-1990s, creating the liquidity pool that Philip Ziff and the family office initially managed before spinning out Scitech as an external investment adviser.
Is Scitech Management a family office or an external hedge fund?
Scitech operates as a registered investment adviser that manages capital for both the Ziff family and external investors. It is formally an asset manager with hedge fund and private investment vehicles, not a single family office. The firm's lineage and largest LP is the Ziff family, but its structure allows institutions and qualified individuals to co-invest alongside that internal capital.
What asset classes does Scitech invest across?
Scitech deploys capital across public equities, private equity, direct venture and growth investments, credit instruments, and real estate. The public equity portfolio concentrates heavily on biotechnology and life sciences, supplemented by technology positions. The private portfolio includes direct company investments and co-investments alongside selected general partners.
Does Scitech charge external investors different fees than the Ziff family pays?
Per the firm's documented structure, Scitech charges external investors the same management and performance fees that apply to Ziff family capital inside its vehicles. This fee parity is an intentional governance choice intended to eliminate the conflict of interest common in family office spinouts where founding capital enjoys preferential economics.
What sectors does Scitech explicitly avoid?
Scitech does not publicly disclose a formal exclusion list. The portfolio's observable concentration suggests a deliberate avoidance of commodity-cyclical industrials, extractive industries, and sectors where the firm lacks the scientific or technical domain expertise it applies to biotechnology and technology investments. No tobacco, gambling, or defense-specific mandates have been reported.
What is Scitech's known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
Scitech participates in direct co-investments alongside general partners in private equity and venture capital transactions, consistent with its hybrid mandate that blends direct investing with fund commitments. The firm's family-capital backing provides flexible co-investment check sizes and the ability to hold positions for extended periods without forced liquidity timelines.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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