DEI series (Part 1 of 4)- Resources for emerging managers
Update: I have added Xponance to the list
July 27th 2022: Plexo Capital was added
September 29th 2022: Added Social Capital and DUMAC
October 16th 2022: Added Mawsonia
January 20th 2023: Added James Heath
Sept 18th: Added CDVCA and McGuire Woods
Intro to the series:
The purpose of this series is to highlight programs/investors to improve diversity within the PE/VC space at all stages of a VC’s career ranging from support when starting out to support at the start of their careers. This part is focused on resources for emerging managers. Part 2 will be focused on resources for female-led funds, Part 3 will be focused on resources for managers based on race, disability, age, veteran status. Part 4 will be my commentary and observations on the state of diversity in the VC/PE space and where the community as a whole can improve.
Background:
There are a number of resources out there for emerging managers, but majority of the resources are paid placement advertisements for various programs and fail to give a holistic list of programs available (or even their credibility/success). This is a list of resources available to all emerging managers. If there are any groups I have missed please feel free to message me. According to Bivium, in 2015 there were 67 emerging manager programs with combined AUM of US$35B supporting 160 emerging managers. This list only highlights 32 investors.
Please note, this list of resources will not include low credibility resources meaning: poor performing VC funds teaching VC, low quality programs as determined by a combination of low quality output ( generally demonstrated by low quality VC funds coming out of the program, poorly written thought leadership, and an overall inability to add value to the community as a whole), and books.
Please click on the name of the resource to see the page related to their emerging manager program/criteria, let me know if any information is inaccurate or outdated.
Please do your homework before approaching any of these resources to make sure that you are a good fit, because: you are more likely to get a positive response, you are more likely to get productive meetings, and you are more likely to advance in your fundraising. Read SBAI’s SPARK and ILPA’s Emerging Manager Toolkit and their DD form to help get an understanding of what you need going into these meetings beforehand.
US-focused resources for emerging managers:
Investors:
Fairview Capital: Fund of Funds with an emerging manager program focused on emerging managers based in the US. They have an open email policy so feel free to connect with them, but it is recommended that you connect with them later on in your process (once you have gotten a handle of meeting with a variety of LPs minimum 30 conversations in once you understand the flow of the conversation and what different LPs are looking for).
Prudential SIRG: Prudential’s emerging manager program (note the current selection of managers seems to favor public equities strategy).
Grove Street Advisors: invests into Life Sciences and IT focused VC funds
Private Advisors, LLC (source PEI): commits $10M-$25M per fund on into 3–5 funds per year (known as “Early Evolution Funds”).
Social Capital: Invests between $1M-$5M. More details and term sheet can be found here.
CDVCA: The Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA) is a mission-driven, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, certified as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). CDVCA currently manages over $330 million of capital invested in private equity and venture capital funds, and directly in businesses in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Through investments and professional development efforts we support other mission-driven private equity and venture capital funds that provide risk capital to growing businesses. We support a national network of 168 fund managers, which manage over $4.8 billion of investment capital. 71% of these funds are run by Black or Latinx managers, and 100% are focused on investing in low- and moderate-income communities.
Events:
Venture Forward LP Office hours: admission based “get to meet various LPs” day and talk to them. Done in collaboration with NVCA.
NorthBound’s Equity Partners Platform invests into minority-led funds raising under $1B
McGuire Woods’ Emerging Manager Conference
NVCA’s Emerging Manager Connect an event organized by NVCA to have GPs connect with LPs.
Emerging Manager monthly’s - They have some quality writing that they publish monthly, and seem to be a fairly reliable source. One of my favorite diagrams comes from them. Even better is the accompanying write up, which goes into much more detail regarding what institutional investors are looking for when assessing different emerging managers.
List of pension funds with emerging manager programs for Private equity which is the super-class to Venture Capital(please click on the name of the pension funds for more details on their emerging manager program):
Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois
Retirement Plan for CTA Employees
CRPTF’s CI3 program for emerging managers
New Mexico’s Emerging Manager program
SURS: holds diverse manager week.
DUMAC (Duke University Endowment)
Pension Funds that did not have a webpage dedicated to their emerging manager program:
MassPRIM- will be launching their emerging manager program.
LACERS Emerging Managing program
Geographic-agnostic resources for emerging managers:
Investors:
Xponance (Thank you David Holmgren!): they are realizing a very unique strategy which can be found on Institutional Investor.
Cendana Capital: Fund of Funds investing into emerging managers globally. Michael Kim (the MD) goes through their DD process in great detail via this video.
Ashton Global: looking for a minimum of $500K in AUM for potential funds they will invest into.
MITIMCo: MIT’s investment fund. It is worth noting that they have invested into emerging managers based out of London to funds with an AUM of $10M.
Archean Capital Partners (Source PEI): can fund up to $100M into new PE Funds also gives back office support and can provide placement services if needed.
Blennemann Family Investments (source PEI): Targeting second and third generation funds favoring specialists over generalists. Contact- Heinz Blennemann
Brooke Private Equity Associates (source PEI): invests into funds with AUM under $250M resulting into a large number of investments into emerging managers.
GCMGrosvenor (source PEI): Has invested $11.5B to date into emerging managers.
HarbourVest Horizons (source PEI):$1.9B in capital commitments to date. Have an open door policy (meaning they take meetings with GPs).
Capria: invests primarily into emerging markets. Competitive- have reviewed 800 managers while investing into 22 funds.
Muller & Monroe Asset Management, LLC: Their website specifies that they invest into emerging managers.
Mawsonia: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6987145663553699840/
James Heath: Investing in the US and Europe in:
👉 Funds as an LP (Pre-Seed to Series A)
🚀 Some categories that I believe have an exciting 10 year horizon:
- Climate (energy, hardware aspects connected)
- PropTech (operational, ESG, construction and data)
- Healthcare (longevity, predictive, personalisation)
- Tech infrastructure (backbone of all tech stacks)
- Logistics (digitisation, decentralisation)
- Robotics (automation and assistance)
Events:
Callan Connects: A Private Equity Consultant that will meet with emerging managers every quarter via the Callan Connects program.
Verus EDM diligence days: exposure to Verus’ senior leadership.
ILPA’s Emerging Manager Showcase:
Canada- specific resources for emerging managers:
CDPQ’s various programs (Investor)
Singapore/APAC- specific resources for emerging managers:
Numerous StartupSG programmes (investor)
AIMA Acorns of APAC (event)
South Africa- specific resources for emerging managers:
Isibaya- South Africa’s Sovereign Wealth Fund invests into Sought African emerging managers through their Isibaya program
