In business, I am driven by two things — building value through knowledge and improving the world through investment. Aegis Ventures is where I translate these passions into reality.
Aegis Chairman, Bill Schoenfeld
Aegis draws on decades of experience executing $20B of global transactions since Bill Schoenfeld's founding of APL Group in 1994.
A Life Defined by Thinking Differently
Bill Schoenfeld is the Chairman of Aegis Ventures. He is also the Chairman, Founder, and largest shareholder of Asia Pacific Land (APL), a global investment firm that has completed $20 billion in transactions across real estate, private equity, renewable energy, and venture capital.
Foreseeing the path of structural growth in Asia, Bill founded APL at the age of 28 in a 10x10 windowless office in Hong Kong. From its earliest days, he differentiated APL by pursuing unorthodox opportunities in new markets with few other foreign investors. As the firm's reputation and resources grew, the company successfully executed some of the largest and highest-profile private market transactions in the markets in which it competes.
A dedicated impact investor for nearly two decades, Bill has devoted the next phase of his career to integrating his larger goals for improving the world with his investment efforts. Most recently, Bill led the creation of Aegis Ventures, a NY-based startup studio, to apply his decades of business-building expertise to empower the next generation of innovators to improve the world through entrepreneurship.
Bill graduated from Williams College with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, with a focus on moral philosophy. He continues to nurture a lifelong love of learning and has a particular passion for languages.
Aegis Advantage
- Differentiated Skillset & Philosophy
While building businesses is equal parts art and science, we have found that many elements of the venture creation process are identifiable and replicable — and can be learned by a broad array of talented individuals. Our venture creation playbook is founded on the expertise we have formed in other asset classes and is built on the understanding that success depends upon our ability to cultivate exceptional talent across the studio.
- Financial Strength & Flexibility
All of our capital is internal, and we are free to invest in the time and manner we see fit. With no predetermined time horizon for realizing returns, we are empowered to pursue long‑term, structural theses in high‑magnitude opportunities. Freed from the burdens of fundraising, the full breadth of our focus is devoted to the advancement of our portfolio companies and the improvement of our platform.
- Incisive Risk Management
Aegis's unified risk framework aims to identify, track, and execute upon distinct risk reduction milestones that maximize upside potential and minimize downside exposure. This analytical rigor allows our entrepreneurs to develop a disciplined, methodical approach to venture creation to vet and validate ideas with greater efficiency and effectiveness.
Our Value Proposition
Rigorously Vetted Ideas
Whether it's yours or ours, all ideas advance through our stress testing process. It’s a system that ensures we only devote time and resources to the highest potential projects. Vetted ideas are then paired with a carefully selected operating team — with the skills to advance the process of newco formation.
Significant Capital Contribution
The constant need to fundraise is a significant drain on entrepreneurs. Aegis's internal capital pool ensures that ventures have ready access to the funding needed to scale, with funding allocations increasing as companies are de-risked. Freed from the burden of capital sourcing, entrepreneurs can devote their time to core business functions.
Fully Integrated Operational Support
Aegis’s fully-integrated platform provides our startups with end-to-end operational and administrative support. Our internal teams are supported by experienced startup lawyers, accountants, bankers, and creatives. To facilitate highly scalable growth, our versatile operating team can flexibly staff ventures at all stages of development as our recruiters identify, vet, and hire permanent team members.
Product Testing and Distribution
Our affiliate business lines and corporate partners provide us with access to multiple industries and markets. These partnerships enable us to de-risk ventures through our access to testing grounds for iterative product development. Once a product-market fit is established, partner companies become our first customers and distributors.
Diversified Upside Potential
Aegis cultivates an atmosphere of entrepreneurial spirit, meritocracy, and intellectual challenge, in which exceptional people leverage the power of entrepreneurship to drive real-world impact. We foster intercompany cooperation by providing entrepreneurs with upside in other Aegis portfolio companies — driven by the belief that success for one Aegis company is success for the entire studio.
Founder Freedom
Our compensation packages make entrepreneurship accessible to a wide variety of individuals, enabling founders to focus on building products that can scale rapidly. The accelerated pace of value creation also encourages serial entrepreneurship, as founders can rejoin the ideation pool once their companies reach a stable state.