III · The Pakalomattom family
By its own tradition the Pakalomattom family was baptised on the Kerala coast in the first century. For most of the centuries since, its sons were the archdeacons who ran the everyday affairs of the Saint Thomas Christians: other people’s money, other people’s disputes, other people’s children, held in trust and handed on intact. That is the trade. This office does it with capital.
AD 52
Tradition holds that Thomas the Apostle landed near Muziris on the Malabar coast. By its own account, the Pakalomattom family was among the first he baptised.
Centuries
For generations the Archdeacon of All India, who led the Saint Thomas Christians in their everyday affairs, came from the Pakalomattom family.
1653
At the Coonan Cross Oath at Mattancherry, the community chose Archdeacon Thomas of Pakalomattom to lead it, as Mar Thoma I.
Mar Thoma I–VI
The first six Mar Thoma metropolitans came from the family. The responsibility passed from uncle to nephew, and each handed on what he had been given.
2026
Chris, of the Pakalomattom family, founds a family office to do the family trade with capital: hold what is put in its hands in trust, look after the people who come to it, and hand things on intact.
A family does not last this long by chasing the next quarter. It lasts by holding what it is given in trust, and handing it on in better condition than it found it.
The promises
Six things a founder can hold us to. Each is checkable, and none of them is a fund term.
01
We read every note that arrives and reply to all of them, including the ones where the answer is no.
02
We are on the register before the round has a shape, with our own capital, and we are never exposed to less than you are.
03
Every account, key, contract and line of configuration we set up belongs to your company from the first day. Nothing is ever handed back.
04
Our engineers work in your repositories, on your timeline, paid for by the investment. There is no hourly rate.
05
We attend the board seats we take, and we never take operational control. A company we would have to run is one we should not have backed.
06
We invest our own money, so no fund calendar decides when your company has to be finished. Each ring is completed before the next is begun.
What it means for a founder
Our founder’s grandfather fed whoever sat down at his table. In this family that is simply what is done, and it is how we treat a company we back.
The Onam flower carpet gains a ring each day. We invest our own money, so each ring is finished before the next one begins.
The nilavilakku is lit before anything important begins, and it is never left to go out. We see a commitment through the same way.
Six plates
Six things this coast and this family have known for a very long time, and what each one means for a founder who takes our money.
IThe coast
Two thousand years ago Roman ships rode the monsoon to the port of Muziris and paid for pepper in gold. Their coins still turn up in Kerala soil.
The trade outlasted the empire, because what was grown here could not be grown anywhere else. That is the first thing we look for: work that is hard to do and harder to copy.
IIThe proof
Around 1400, Madhava of Sangamagrama wrote down infinite series for π, the sine and the cosine. The same results reached Europe more than two centuries later.
The school he founded kept working for generations, each building on the proofs of the last. That is what we mean by deep technology: knowledge that compounds.
IIIThe touchstone
Gold is never taken on trust. It is drawn across a black stone and judged by the streak it leaves.
We do the same with a company. Does the science hold when someone else runs it? Is a customer already paying? Only what leaves a true streak gets our money.
IVThe table
Our founder’s grandfather fed everyone who sat down at his table. In the family that is not a story about generosity. It is simply what is done: you look after the people who come to you.
The firm is run the same way. Money is the easy part. A company we back gets a place to work, people on the ground, its accounts and its law looked after, and a seat at our table for as long as it needs one.
VThe boat
A snake boat carries about a hundred rowers. It wins only when every oar enters the water on the same beat of the same song.
A board should work the same way. We sit in the boat and not on the bank: directors who turn up, an operating team the founders can call, and one rhythm kept between us.
VIThe carpet
At Onam a carpet of flowers is laid at the door. It begins as a small circle and gains a ring each day for ten days.
We invest our own money, so no fund clock tells a company when it must be finished. Each ring is completed before the next is begun. It is slower, and it is how things last.