Too Many Managers, Not Enough Value Creation
The biggest risk facing many companies is not valuation; it is organisational complexity. Airtasker's Tim Fung on why scale and capability are not the same thing.
Read Founder-led equity indices
The founder effect, classified and indexed
Lumenary classifies founder and family influence across a screened global universe of listed companies; that classification underlies a family of indices and a decade of published research.
17.10%1
p.a. from founder-led companies, 2016 to 2026, against 13.53% for the benchmark and 11.9% for non-founder-led companies
5,0312
the founder-led series indexed to 1,000 at the start of 2016; the benchmark reached 3,665
26.4%1
of global equity market capitalisation in 2026, up from 11.6% in 2016
¹ Lumenary Research, The Founder Effect Annual Report 2026. Annualised total return, January 2016 to April 2026; an advantage of roughly 357 basis points a year over the benchmark. Risk over the same period: 18.66% annualised standard deviation and −42.65% maximum drawdown for the founder-led cohort, against 14.23% and −33.60% for the benchmark. Results are historical and partly backtested; past or simulated performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. ² Total-return series indexed to 1,000 at January 2016.
The research behind the indices
From a listed universe to a family of indices
One body of research narrows a screened global universe to the companies still shaped by the people who built them; each index then applies its own lens to that founder-led universe.
- Screen~14,700
listed companies screened worldwide, across every capitalisation band
- Classify~4,500
identified founder-led on founder and family ownership, governance and leadership, in 46 countries across 11 sectors
- Index
A defined lens for each index
What Lumenary provides
Methodology
The founder-led classification: what founder-led means, how the universe is maintained, and how the framework evolves.
Explore the methodologyLicensing
Products & Mandates, Implement and Reference licences, aligned to how capital is applied to the index.
See licensingResearch ↗︎
Annual reports, data notes and founder interviews, published by Lumenary Research.
Read the research ↗︎Latest research
The Founder Effect: China and Hong Kong 2026
Founder-led China A-shares returned 13.75% a year from 2020 to 2026 against 0.63% for the China all-cap index. Hong Kong went the other way.
ReadThe Founder Effect: Annual Report 2026
Founder-led companies returned 17.10% a year from 2016 to 2026 against 13.53% for the benchmark, with higher volatility and a deeper drawdown.
ReadResearch on founder-led companies, delivered when published.
The Australian fund
Australian offering
Lumenary Global Founders Fund
The methodology in practice: a portfolio of founder-led companies worldwide, managed by Lumenary for Australian wholesale investors since 2017.
About the fundEvery Lumenary index is calculated and administered independently, on a classification Lumenary refreshes annually and records in a public change log.
Talk to us about licensing the indices.
Contact sales