Avante has backed the Museum of Illusions, alongside our longtime partner Brightwood Capital Advisors. The most interesting part is not the illusions. It is what we saw behind them.
Four illusions. Solve each one, or hit reveal, and a piece of the story appears.
Every good deal asks the same thing: keep your eyes on the big picture and the small details at once. So how long does it take you to catch the one tile changing color?
Most people see a roomful of illusions. We saw the operator behind them, the largest privately owned museum company in the world, with more cities and countries still ahead of it. We saw where it was going.
Every deal has risks at first glance. The work is weighing what those risks actually are, and whether they are risks or opportunities. So how many of the lines below are crooked?
At a glance, it looked like risk. A museum of illusions is not a conventional credit. But judgment is reading what a business actually is, not what it resembles, and underneath the surface this was a sound, durable platform. The lines were straight the whole time.
Every complex deal arrives as a jumble of pieces. The work is putting them in the right order until the story holds together. Tap a tile next to the gap to slide it, and arrange one through eight.
MOI did not arrive as a clean, conventional credit. It was a complex story, part credit and part equity, that most firms would not take the time to untangle. We did the work to put every piece in order. Structure is what turns a complicated story into conviction.
The best deals are never done alone. They come together piece by piece, with the right partner beside you. Drag the six pieces into place, and the last one is us.
Brightwood brought the vision and the track record. Avante brought the final piece of capital, and the trust we had built with them across several deals together. A picture only completes when every piece fits. That is partnership, not just a loan.
The largest privately owned museum operator in the world, still early in its expansion across new cities and countries, and on its way to becoming a premier out-of-home entertainment platform. We saw the opportunity. Now you do too.