Asset Manager Mint Seeks to Invest with an Owner’s Mindset

It’s the owner’s mindset that fattens the cattle—drives online sales, boosts student performance, or improves any part of a business where investors closely oversee day-to-day operations. Based on this premise, Mint Capital—founded nine years ago—is positioning itself in the Brazilian market with an uncommon investment approach inspired by U.S. models.

Operating like an investment holding, Mint acquires significant stakes in small and mid-sized companies with solid management, track records, and fundamentals. Key aspects: their investments are permanent, with no set exit timeline, and investors maintain active board roles while supporting the company as fellow owners.

The team behind Mint comprises younger heirs of successful business families who bring both financial and industry expertise. “Families want to continue growing their wealth by investing in companies—after all, that’s how their fortunes were built,” says partner Cássio Beldi. “We don’t want to be investing in something unrelated to our DNA, like a CDI factory—we believe in building things, and that’s how you create lasting wealth.” valor.globo.com

When explaining Mint’s investment-holding model—modeled after U.S. firms like Adventur.es, Baupost Group, and Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway—Beldi often focuses on what Mint is not. It is not a private equity fund with capital-raising mandates, specific deployment obligations, or forced exit timelines. Nor is it a family office managing all of a family's wealth, nor a wealth-management division of a bank. Mint does not charge management fees, take rebates, or employ career executives detached from a long-term ownership mindset. 

“Investors become partners, and because we invest together, we ‘wear the jersey’ together,” says the 32‑year‑old Beldi. “This model eliminates potential conflicts of interest and aligns the investment horizon with the business’s needs.”

Mint operates by sourcing opportunities first, then structuring the right investment vehicle. Investors commit capital directly into each business—becoming shareholders rather than fund participants. Their first significant move was investing in education group's Bahema. In H2 2017, Mint created a dedicated fund and acquired a 37% stake; by 2018, it increased its holding to 44%, making it the controlling shareholder—worth approximately R$ 34.5 million.

Bahema’s model isn’t about rolling up schools under a standard methodology but retaining each institution’s leadership, educational approach, and autonomy—while achieving synergy through shared financial management and best-practice exchange. 

Founded over 60 years ago, Bahema was nearing winding-down before its third-generation leaders, including Guilherme Affonso Ferreira Filho, obtained R$ 30 million in seed capital. As more resources were required, four other investors showed interest, but Bahema chose Mint’s proposal for its long-term alignment—Mint matched that with similar philosophy. “Education is a decades-long business,” says Beldi. 

This kind of investment structure—bringing together wealthy families and experienced investor families in deep, committed equity ownership—is rare in Brazil but poised to grow. According to Ricardo Rocha (Insper), it mirrors how firms like Abilio Diniz’s Península Fund invested in companies like BRF in 2013, bringing long-term capital and board presence.

Mint's founding partners, including Beldi, learned this approach during studies at Columbia University under value-investing guru Bruce Greenwald. The firm currently includes contributions from three leading families and one international fund, with ambitions to onboard a total of eight family investors with operational or geographic expertise. 

Investors commit through capital pledges, with Mint earning a percentage on capital committed—not on assets under management—and payouts are typically annual. Returns are realized via dividends or long-term value growth, with no guaranteed positive results each period. 

Alongside its holding structure, Mint also offers a public value-investing fund (open to retail investors), with recent investments in companies like Marisa. In total, Mint has around R$ 80 million invested, plus significantly more in committed capital. 

Mint is also spinning off its innovation arm into an independent, tech-driven operation—targeting low-cost systematic equity products based on factors like strong cash flow, dividend yield, and low price-to-book ratio. https://valor.globo.com/financas/noticia/2018/08/19/gestora-mint-busca-investir-com-visao-de-dono.ghtml