Trump family-linked investment group backs spa company offering medical screening
XWell plans to roll out AI-powered infectious disease tool at airports during World Cup
A Trump family-linked investment group is backing a wellness and biosecurity company that plans to offer AI-powered infectious disease screening to US airports during the football World Cup in June.
American Ventures in late February agreed to buy $31.3mn of convertible shares in Nasdaq-listed XWell, which at the time had a market capitalisation of less than $3mn. The American Ventures special purpose vehicle is managed by Trump Tower-based broker Dominari Securities.
Through subsidiaries, XWell provides voluntary diagnostic tests to incoming international flyers, funded in part by US government contract awards. The company separately operates several airport spas and a small chain of waxing salons along Florida’s west coast.
The securities purchase agreement between American Ventures and XWell, which has not previously been reported, closed three weeks after XWell partnered with AI predictive analysis start-up PieQ.
The two companies plan to roll out a “next generation intelligence layer” designed, according to a press release, to handle “anticipated surges in US-bound travel around major international events, such as the 2026 World Cup”.
US President Donald Trump’s two eldest sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr last month used a separate American Ventures vehicle to channel an investment into a drone company with a Pentagon contract.
It was not immediately clear whether the pair had personally invested in XWell, though a person familiar with the matter said the Trumps were involved in “most” American Ventures deals.
Trump Jr, Eric Trump and XWell did not respond to requests for comment. Dominari declined to comment. Eric Trump and Trump Jr joined Dominari’s advisory board in late 2024.
Dominari established its master American Ventures special purpose vehicle in early 2025, and has since set up more than a dozen sub-entities to direct investments into US companies in technology, manufacturing and defence.
American Ventures last year entered into a securities purchase agreement with a Nasdaq-listed toy company that later merged with crypto billionaire Justin Sun’s digital asset platform Tron.
Until last year Dominari was also a prolific underwriter and sponsor of small-cap Chinese IPOs in the US, which have slowed to a trickle in recent months amid scrutiny from regulators in both China and the US.
In March, Dominari was one of three New York brokers probed by the House committee on China about its role in the public listings of Chinese stocks implicated in pump-and-dump schemes.
XWell on Wednesday reported a net loss of $17mn in 2025 on revenue of $29.2mn, about 60 per cent of which stemmed from its 25 XpresSpa outlets that offer manicures, massages and “rejuvenation” services including LED face masks and chakra beds in airports in the US, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
XWell’s waxing salons in Naples and Fort Myers last year generated revenue of $2.3mn.
American Ventures’ deal with XWell in late February involved the purchase of 31,333 shares of the wellness group’s preferred stock for $1,000 a share.
Those shares are convertible into 66.6mn shares of common stock at an initial conversion price of $0.47, according to a securities filing at the time.
Dominari Securities’ parent company Dominari Holdings on Tuesday reported revenue of $123mn for 2025, up almost 500 per cent year on year. Its net loss jumped to $55.7mn from $8.7mn over the same period.