Hi,
Astute Alts subscribers (that’s you) know Alts has two communities for you to enjoy:
🥂 Altea is our private community.
It’s for accredited investors who want access to unbelievable deals (really, you won’t believe some of the stuff that comes across my desk), join us on life-altering trips, and meet incredible people.
🗣️ Separately, we just launched our public community.
Shoot the sh*t about alternative investing, dive into gated content, drop questions into AMA sessions with deal sponsors, dig into our library of book recommendations, find investable gifts, and read my cattle gallstone business plan.
Altea members get an All-Access pass for free, usually costing $200 annually.
Altea members get an All-Access pass for free, usually costing $200 annually.
From now on, you’ll see all the best from both communities in this note.
Wait, you’re not a member yet?!
For a limited time, you can join Altea – the world’s most enriching community for alternative investors – for only $99.
Get stuck in if you’ve not already, and you could be in next week’s highlights.
LFG 🚀
Table of Contents
Best of Altea
First, let’s celebrate a win and welcome our newest members.
As of yesterday, Film I is fully allocated, with 100% of the funds put to work across five different films. They’re earning an average annualized IRR of 96%.
New members
Please welcome several folks who’ve joined us recently:
- Xander Leanos – Xander is a managing partner at Dynastic Capital in Virginia and an alum of GWU.
- Raymond C Loughlin – Ray, who lives in Massachusetts, is a hard money lender with expertise in real estate, litigation finance, and private credit.
- Akhilesh Rao – Akhilesh is a nephrologist (Dr of the kidneys) in Ohio. He’s got extensive experience with alts, having invested in real estate, angel investing, art, crypto, precious metals & gems, and commodities.
- Mandar Mirashi – Mandar, who joined a lifetime pass, lives in the NYC area. He wants to dig deeper into collectibles, autos, handbags & watches, litigation finance, and music & film. If you’re an expert in any of these, please contact him.
- Travis Jamison – I’ve known Travis for nearly a decade and am pleased he’s joined our community. He’s an expert at angel investing and private equity if you’d like to learn more about those spaces. Make sure to say hi to Travis here.
A warm welcome to all our new members. Chaps, introduce yourselves and drop in an Ask or Offer.
🌱 Coming this Spring
We’re taking a bit of a breather this week, consolidating things after the rush of Film I and Art Opportunity I to close out 2024.
But that will change quickly with several exciting deals scheduled for the next few months.
Here’s a sneak peak…
🍹 Altea Tequila Distillery – February
If you liked Tequila I, you’re going to love this.
Thanks to relationships we’ve built in Mexico via two tequila investments and two trips to the Jalisco region, we have the opportunity to invest in a tequila distillery buyout.
👉 Drop your details to stay in the loop.
It’s still early, and more numbers are coming soon, but this is what I can share now:
The distillery is being forced to sell and has a certification called an NOM. The NOM gives it the right to distill tequila, a protected class in Mexico.
There are only 259, and you’ve got to have one if you want to call your product Tequila.
Otherwise, you’re just making agave spirit slop.
Altea has negotiated the right to buy up to around 30% of the equity.
We’re also partnering with two industry experts to ensure it’s cash-flowing from the start.
- A leader in tequila brand creation and private label production, and
- A US-based alcohol producer offering co-packing, import, distribution, and group purchasing.
The acquisition includes onsite state-of-the-art facilities that are already operational but working well under capacity.
This is early days, and we’ll have more info soon.
PS: If this goes ahead, we’ll have a launch party for investors in Jalisco
👉 Express Interest (Altea members have priority and pay no management fees)
🍷 Carnation Capital – February
An alternate way to invest in spirits, Carnation Capital specializes in trade finance for the wine industry.
Run by Elaine Lau, who has deep expertise in both wine and finance, Carnation will offer trade credit, private debt, and equity financing to revenue-generating wine businesses across Europe and Asia.
With targeted returns of 20–25% per annum and semi-annual distributions, it offers an income-generating way to get exposure to the industry.
👉 Express Interest (Altea members have priority and pay no management fees)
👉 Join the conversation (including Travis’s notes on his meeting with Elaine)
🏇🏻 Horse Pinhooking | 40% IRR – May
If you don’t know what horse pinhooking is, start here.
Tl;dr: Pinhooking buys a horse when it’s a foal (less than a year old) and sells it when it becomes a yearling (between one and two years old). In the meantime, the investor does everything possible to increase the value of that horse.
Altean Beata Aldridge brought us this unique deal, which is one of the best I’ve seen this year.
Pinhooking is one of those industries (like film finance and art) where industry insiders can achieve huge returns (forecast here at 40%) due to a lack of transparency and efficient markets.
More to come on this one soon.
👉 Express Interest (Altea members have priority and pay no management fees)
🔜 Deals Closing Soon
🏢 Tomball Industrial Real Estate | 40% IRR
This class-B industrial real estate opportunity is taking final commits and has nudged into oversubscription territory.
If you’re on the fence with this one, please give me a shout or drop your thoughts in the comments.
👉 Commit here
🏎️ The Car Crowd – Three Ferraris | 30% funded
We’ve partnered with The Car Crowd to bring you 2025’s fastest investment opportunity — three investment-grade Ferraris acquired in the UK to be sold at arbitrage levels in the US.
Check out our fireside chat with the sponsors.
👉 Review the deal memo, which includes a thorough interview with the sponsors.
👉 Commit here
👉 Join the conversation
✉️ Contact the Sponsor Directly
This is where you’ll find deals we like but didn’t create an SPV for. There can be various reasons for this, but the deal wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t rated it.
⚒️ Mega Tech Metals | Crazy IRR potential | Sri Lanka
As much as I love this deal and the potential to 10x with it, I don’t think I have the expertise to diligence it sufficiently despite three phone calls with Neil and the team, even with the community’s help.
If you want to get involved, please contact Neil directly. He’s a fellow Altean.
💃 Samba TV Secondary
This fantastic opportunity didn’t reach escape velocity in the community. Due to a forced sale, it’s a secondary offering at a significant discount.
If you want to get involved, please contact the sponsors directly here. Tell them Altea sent you.
🧳 Altea on Tour
🖼️ TEFAF – March
Nicho and I will be at TEFAF Maastricht in March, hunting for Art Opportunity I acquisitions while connecting with potential investors and dealers. Please let me know if you’ll be in the area and would like VIP access. (Must be an Altea member)
🍻 Spring Meetups – April / May
We’re looking to arrange meetups in various cities around North America and Europe this April and May.
This list will probably shrink, but here’s the list of locations we’re considering:
- 🗽 NYC
- 🍕 Chicago
- 🍑 Atlanta
- 🎞️ Los Angeles
- 🌁 San Francisco
- 🌮 Mexico City
- 🇬🇧 London
- ⛰️ Switzerland (city TBC)
Each meetup will be different, but we’ll aim to incorporate an investment angle, drinks, a unique experience, and food.
The event will be free for Alteans, and you’re encouraged to bring along friends you think would be a good fit for the community.
Demand will determine which cities we visit, so please let me know if you’d like to attend.
We’ll open a few slots for prospective Altea members interested in joining.
🍿 All-Access
You’re missing out if you’re not in the All-Access community already.
A few of this week’s highlights:
The Rise and Collapse of the NYC Taxi Medallion Industry
Bitcoin life insurance? Bitcoin life insurance
All the news that’s fit to print (and a bit more)
Wyatt’s latest investable book recommendation.
That’s it for this week. Please let me know your questions, comments, or suggestions.
Cheers,
Wyatt, Stefan, and John