TRUE SIGNAL OVER NOISE
The noise is everywhere. The signal isn't. Independent, qualitative due diligence — on a single private technology company, or across a set of DeFi yield strategies — with no price targets and no recommendations. Just the defensible basis of conviction your committee needs.
Who it's for
Built for investors in two situations
01 — Capital, not analysts
You have the capital, not the in-house analysts.
Family offices, venture funds, and private banks face fast-moving private-tech opportunities — from AI to frontier infrastructure to crypto — but rarely keep specialists who can judge a company's architecture or the real dynamics of its market. We act as your dedicated due-diligence unit: on demand, one deal at a time.
02 — Experts, not hours
You have the experts, not the hours.
Funds and listing-review teams with strong internal benches still hit a time wall when a round is closing or a decision is due. We provide overflow research into the niches your team can't reach this week.
What you receive
One mandate. One report.
Decision-grade.
Each engagement is a fully bespoke report — single-asset due diligence on one specified company, protocol, or token, or a DeFi report comparing 3–5 yield strategies — scoped with you before we begin, and written to drop straight into your investment committee.
Format
English PDF, ~3,000–5,000 words
For the committee
One-page executive summary
Lenses
Equity, Token, or DeFi, set at confirmation
Turnaround
10 business days · 5 fast-track
How it works
A scoped process, not an open-ended one
Scope
We agree a Scope Definition Sheet — the target (a single company, or 3–5 DeFi products), the lens (equity, token, or DeFi), deliverables, and turnaround — so expectations are fixed before work begins.
Materials
You share disclosable materials — data room, cap table, term sheet, or the relevant protocol and yield documentation. The SLA clock starts once scope is confirmed and materials are received.
Delivery
You receive the formal English report and committee summary within 10 business days — 5 on the fast-track.
Trust through restraint
What we don't do — by design
We are a research firm — not an advisor, and not an auditor. To protect the independence that makes our work usable inside a regulated investment process, every engagement explicitly excludes:
Price targets or valuations presented as forecasts.
Direct buy, sell, or hold recommendations — we do not provide investment advice.
Technical security audits, including smart-contract code review.
Prescribed allocations — our DeFi reports present option-scenarios, never a recommended portfolio weighting.
What you receive instead is a defensible, qualitative basis for your own decision.
Pricing
Pricing that clears a research budget, not a board meeting
Bespoke DD Report
A single custom report on one company.
DeFi Analysis Report
A comparative, allocation-oriented read across 3–5 DeFi products — focused on USD-pegged yield — with several allocation scenarios to support your own decision.
Retainer + Advisory
One report per month — your choice each month of a single-asset DD or a DeFi report — plus a monthly 60-minute strategy call.
All reports are delivered under NDA. Detailed terms, SLAs, and retainer scoping are shared on request. Bespoke and DeFi reports are paid 100% upfront before work begins; retainers are billed monthly, with installments available on request to fit internal approval cycles.
See our work
See our standard before you commit
We don't publish our reports or methodology. Instead, we walk qualified investors through a redacted sample report directly, on a short call.
Request a sampleAbout / Founder
A practitioner's lens, not a textbook one
Orb Labs AG is a Swiss research firm based in Zug. Its work is led by Masa Nakatsu, a technology operator and investor active since 2013.
He founded Orb Inc in 2014, building one of the first linear-scalable, modular Layer-1 architectures; the company was acquired by SBI Holdings in 2018. He has since served as a lead mentor for Google's accelerator program and as Entrepreneur in Residence & Vice President at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. View career history on LinkedIn.
Orb Labs delivers independent research. We disclose any relevant interest in a covered company and decline engagements where independence cannot be maintained.
Insights
The macro lens behind the work
We don't run a content hub. The founder publishes an occasional macro letter on regime, liquidity, and where private-tech risk is mispriced — the same context that informs every engagement. It's the lightest possible on-ramp to a conversation.
Frequently asked
Is this investment advice? +
How is confidentiality handled? +
What do you need from us to start? +
How fast? +
Equity, token, or DeFi? +
Payment? +
Start with one report
Tell us the company, the lens, and your timeline. We'll return a scope and a quote.