Our People > Max-Hervé George

Max‑Hervé George is a French entrepreneur and private markets investor, best known as the Founder and CEO of AiOnX, Icona Capital, and Chairman & Co‑CEO of SWI Group. Over the last decade, Max‑Hervé George has built a track record spanning ultra-luxury hospitality, cross-border real estate, and alternative investments, and now also plays a key role in the development of digital infrastructure platforms with AiOnX, reinforcing his long-term commitment to high-barrier, future-facing sectors. With operational hubs in Europe, the Middle-East and Asia, his ventures have attracted international recognition from Forbes, The Telegraph, and Challenge, and positioned him as a new-generation investor with institutional depth and entrepreneurial range.
Founding Icona Capital
Founded in 2019, Icona Capital was established as a global investment platform focused on scalable, asset-backed opportunities with asymmetric upside. Operating out of London, Luxembourg, Geneva, and Singapore, the firm deploys long-term capital across data centers, real estate, private credit, and structured alternatives.
As part of SWI Group—a diversified investment consortium—Icona manages and co-manages over €10 billion in assets, with exposure to both developed and emerging markets.
Flagship Deals & Initiatives
Cromwell Platform Acquisition (Oct 2024): Led the €280 million purchase of Cromwell Property Group’s European platform, adding €3.9 billion in AUM and over 160 assets across 12 countries
SWI Group Formation (Mar 2025): Spearheaded the creation of SWI Group, a €11 billion investment platform uniting real assets, credit, financial institutions, liquid strategies and digital infrastructure across Europe, North America and Asia.
AiOnX Platform Launch (June 2025): Backed the creation of AiOnX, a hyper-scale data-center platform spanning Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Italy, and the UK—aiming for 2 GW total capacity and over €20 billion in investment
Investment Philosophy
Max‑Hervé George leads with a founder-first, value-oriented approach anchored in long-duration capital, operational clarity, and strategic patience. His philosophy—evident across Icona Capital and SWI Group—focuses on sectors with structural resilience, where macro thematics intersect with high barriers to entry.
Key principles include:
- Strategic Alignment: Deep partnerships with operators, founders, and management teams, ensuring aligned incentives and executional continuity.
- Sector Specialisation: Targeting capital-intensive verticals such as digital infrastructure, real estate platforms, and private credit, where scale and structuring provide a durable advantage.
- Long-Term Horizon: Investments designed to compound across cycles, avoiding short-termism and enabling platform growth at scale.
- Ecosystem Leverage: Harnessing SWI’s €11 billion asset ecosystem to unlock synergies across data, logistics, hospitality, and core infrastructure.
This framework has powered acquisitions like the Cromwell–Stoneweg deal and supports joint-venture scaling across Europe and Asia through platforms such as AiOnX.
Associations & Awards

Forbes 30-U-30 (2019),
later featured on the cover of Forbes magazine

Partner at the International Judo Federation; medal presenter – Tokyo 2020

Chairman & CEO

Speaker at World Economic Forum – Davos

Speaker at Paris Fintech Forum

Strategic Shareholder

Chairman & Co-CEO
Expertise
Real Estate
Structured Finance
Private Equity
Private Debt
Credit Strategies
Special Situations
Data Centers