i. Start
Founded ourselves
Most of the Rodara portfolio began at our own desk. We only start what we are willing to run.
The Rodwell family office
Patient capital, privately held.
We start, buy and build operating businesses with our own capital, over horizons measured in decades.
01Purpose
Operators at work.
Rod — heritage, roots. Ara — the altar, the constellation. Rodara is the place where the family gathers, prepares, and builds. — Rodara Charter
Rodara Capital is a private investment office. The capital deployed is our own; the businesses are ours to run; the horizon is ours to set.
02What we do
Start. Buy. Build.
We back what we know, run what we own, and hold for as long as it takes.
ii. Buy
Acquired to hold
We acquire operating businesses where we can add governance, capital and time. The terms reflect the holding period.
iii. Build
Operated by us
We take board seats, set strategy and stay close to management. Compounding is what we are paid in.
03Current portfolio
Companies we own. Companies we run.
Each venture sits inside the Rodara group, funded by our own capital. The list is short, and grows slowly.
Our property division. Long-hold land, modular housing and hospitality assets across New Zealand and Australia.
Born in Canggu. Built for the world. A daytime kitchen and gathering room with an editorial sensibility, expanding at our own pace.
A year, intentionally lived. Twelve-month curated residencies in Bali, designed for families — the hospitality counterpart to Bumi Studio's villa programme.
Villa development across the Cepaka–Cemagi corridor of Bali, operated alongside The Annum.
A hat-led luxury wardrobe brand drawing on two decades in New Zealand premium manufacturing.
A further set of ventures sits behind the named portfolio — incubating, in pre-launch, or held privately. Discussed in conversation.
04Principal
Oscar H. Rodwell
Founder and principal of Rodara Capital. A veteran of New Zealand's premium manufacturing industry, Oscar has spent two decades scaling consumer, hospitality and property ventures across the Tasman and Southeast Asia.
He operates the firm from Queenstown, supported by a small team and a board of advisors. All capital deployed by Rodara is decided in private, by people who have worked together for years.
05How we work
Slow to commit. Patient through the cycle.
We see far more opportunities than we pursue. We deploy on a long calendar, not a quarterly one.
i. Source
From people we know
Opportunities reach us through operators, long-standing relationships and intermediaries we have known for years. We do not pay for what we cannot diligence ourselves.
ii. Underwrite
Independent diligence
Financial, legal, operational and ESG review. We size positions to survive the adverse case.
iii. Structure
Terms we'd accept ourselves
Equity, secured credit or hybrid — whichever suits the business. With governance rights and the reporting we would want to receive ourselves.
iv. Steward
Operate, govern, hold
Board seats, active engagement with management, holding to maturity. We measure in decades.
A short note on why we started Rodara Capital, and how we intend to operate it.
We did not need to start an investment vehicle. We have been operating businesses for two generations, and the work has always been the reward. The enterprise has grown into something that asks for a more deliberate way of carrying capital across the next twenty years.
So we built Rodara Capital. The structure is conventional; the discipline is what matters. We start, buy and build operating businesses with our own capital, and accept a small register of co-investors where the scale of an opportunity calls for it. The terms were set so we decide what good looks like, and over what horizon.
The full letter, published each year, sets out what we deployed, what we learned, what we changed our minds on, and what we expect of the year ahead. It is written for the next generation as much as for today's reader.
07Co-investment
By invitation. Long-horizon only.
Almost everything we deploy is our own — and we prefer it that way.
From time to time, the scale of an opportunity calls for partners. When it does, we open a small register of co-investors who share our long-horizon outlook. The register is intentionally narrow.
The vehicle is a New Zealand PIE, NZD-denominated, supervised by Public Trust and audited by EY. Subscription is by invitation, following a private introduction.
08Contact
Quiet conversations.
If you'd like to talk to us about a business, a property, or a possible co-investment, please write.
Email Oscar →