Cairn Partners is a private investment and venture office.
We build and back early-stage ventures in health AI, deep tech, and consumer, and advise growth-stage companies on positioning and capital strategy — the work of deciding what a company is, and funding what it’s becoming.
The name
Someone has been here. This is the way.
A cairn is a stack of stones left by those who went before, marking the route — at trail junctions, on summits, in fog. That’s the job. We’ve spent decades on the founder’s side of the table — raising capital, executing acquisitions, carrying a firm through a strategic-stake sale — and we bring that accumulated judgment to a small number of companies at their inflection points, when positioning, capital, and organization have to change together.
We keep the portfolio small, work directly with principals, and measure ourselves the way our companies do: by what gets built.
Principal
Mike Bowers co-founded Rayliant Global Advisors in 2016, a spin-out of Research Affiliates, and served as Global COO, running operations across Hong Kong, the UK, the US, and Taiwan. He led four successive capital raises, each at a higher valuation, and the sale of a strategic stake to East West Bank, and executed two acquisitions. He was CEO of Rayliant US in 2025. Nearly twenty years in asset management; before Rayliant, close to a decade at Research Affiliates in operations strategy and global brand.
MBAs from Columbia and Berkeley-Haas through the joint Berkeley-Columbia executive program. BA in Business Economics, UCLA. YPO member since 2018.
Work
Critical-thinking education for kids — programs, games, and materials. Built and operated in-house.
Health AI
Co-founder and COO of an early-stage venture applying AI to clinical-trial design and de-risking.
Advisory
Positioning and capital strategy for growth-stage companies, by engagement.
Contact
- Phone
- (626) 375-1246
- Location
- South Pasadena, California