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The Native
Sergey Skatershchikov's Swiss holding company that acquired Paddle8 and invests across art, crypto indices, and Australian real estate from Lausanne.
The Native
The Native was founded in Lausanne by Sergey Skatershchikov, a Russian-born financier who previously founded Indekon Group and served on the board of RGI International. The firm operates as a Swiss holding company that blurs the line between operating business and investment vehicle. Its most public transaction came in 2016 when it acquired Paddle8, the New York-based online auction house that had counted the Winklevoss twins among its early backers. Izabela Depczyk, who had served as Paddle8's CEO, also took the CEO role at The Native, cementing an operational link between the Swiss holding company and the art-market asset. The firm's deployment spans a deliberately eclectic set of asset classes. In real estate, it holds the Richmond Funds Management portfolio of mixed-use Australian properties. In financial infrastructure, it maintains a position in Blockchain Lab AG and in Jakota Index Portfolios Inc., a New York and Tokyo-based vehicle tied to cross-border index strategies. The Paddle8 acquisition brought intellectual property and a brand name into the portfolio, though the platform's auction activity has since wound down. The Native's public record shows it targeting growth-stage opportunities, but its structure — a holding company with operational subsidiaries rather than a blind-pool fund — makes its deployment more closely resemble a permanent-capital vehicle with the flexibility to hold assets indefinitely. Geographic reach spans Switzerland, the United States, Australia, and Japan. The firm maintains a deliberately low public profile. Team size and assets under management are not disclosed. In a notable structural shift, the firm's vehicle Youngtimers AG was subsequently acquired by C Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, with Ben Cheng — a Skatershchikov associate — becoming CEO. Adam Lindemann, a prominent New York art collector and gallerist, previously served as Chairman and significant investor in both The Native and Youngtimers, reflecting the blend of art-world networks and investment capital that defines the firm's ecosystem. No verifiable operational event from the last 24 months is publicly available. The structural differentiator is The Native's refusal to conform to standard asset management categories. It is neither a traditional family office nor a conventional fund manager. The firm functions as a networked holding entity where legal domicile in Switzerland, art-market operating expertise in New York, and crypto-index exposure in Tokyo coexist under a single umbrella without the reporting obligations of a regulated fund. This architecture gives Skatershchikov the freedom to hold or exit positions without LP pressure, but it also means that counterparties face limited visibility into the firm's full balance sheet — a deliberate tradeoff.
General information
Firm type
Generalist
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Switzerland
City
Lausanne
Corporate office
Lausanne, Switzerland
Additional offices
New York, NY · Tokyo, Japan
Principals
Sergey Skatershchikov
Founder
Izabela Depczyk
Former CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at The Native?
Founder Sergey Skatershchikov drives investment decisions. He has a background in Russian finance and real estate through Indekon Group and served on the board of RGI International before establishing The Native in Switzerland. Izabela Depczyk, formerly CEO of both Paddle8 and The Native, played a key operating role, though her current involvement is not publicly confirmed.
How is The Native related to Paddle8?
The Native acquired the online auction house Paddle8 in 2016. Paddle8 had been backed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and focused on art, luxury goods, and collectibles. Izabela Depczyk, who was Paddle8's CEO, joined The Native in the same role after the acquisition. The Paddle8 brand and intellectual property remain part of The Native's portfolio, though the auction platform is no longer active in its original form.
Does The Native manage outside capital or is it proprietary?
The Native operates as a Swiss holding company, not a regulated fund, suggesting it deploys proprietary or closely-held capital. It does not publicly market itself to institutional LPs, and no evidence indicates it accepts outside commitments. The involvement of figures like Adam Lindemann as a significant investor points to a network of private co-investors rather than a traditional limited-partner base.
What is The Native's relationship to Youngtimers AG?
Youngtimers AG was a publicly listed vehicle associated with The Native, focused on acquiring and operating classic-car and collectible-asset businesses. The entity was subsequently acquired by C Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm. Ben Cheng, who previously worked alongside Skatershchikov, became CEO of Youngtimers following the C Capital transaction.
What sectors does The Native actually invest in?
The portfolio is unusually diverse for a firm of its opaque size. The Native holds or has held positions in online art auctions (Paddle8), Australian mixed-use real estate (Richmond Funds Management), blockchain and crypto-index vehicles (Blockchain Lab AG, Jakota Index Portfolios), and the classic-car market (Youngtimers AG). There is no stated sector exclusion policy, but the firm's bets cluster around assets where cultural cachet and financial value overlap.
Why is The Native domiciled in Switzerland?
Swiss incorporation gives The Native access to a stable legal framework, a network of private banks and wealth managers, and favorable holding-company tax treatment for the kind of cross-border, multi-asset portfolio it maintains. The firm has no publicly stated operational presence in Switzerland beyond its Lausanne headquarters — its actual business activity appears concentrated in New York, Tokyo, and Sydney.
Is The Native a single-family office?
The Native does not fit cleanly into the single-family office category because the source of underlying wealth has not been publicly disclosed and the firm operates through operating subsidiaries rather than a pure asset-management mandate. It functions more like a permanent-capital holding company with a concentrated decision-maker, sharing some characteristics with family offices but lacking the wealth-origin transparency that typically accompanies that label.
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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