Singapore’s CapBridge Investment Trust launches pre-IPO fund; targets US$100 million

The fund — the first in a series of CapBridge Investment Trust sub-trust funds — wants to give institutional investors greater access to VC-backed companies

Growth-stage startups and pre-IPO companies now have a new fund to tap into when raising cash — but this one has the unique twist of giving institutional investors access to venture-backed securities.

Called the ‘Pre-IPO Fund’, it is part of the newly announced CapBridge Investment Trust (CIT). The partnership between CapBridge and Gordian Capital that was announced today.

The Pre-IPO Fund is targetting US$100 million and is the first of what CIT hopes will become a series of sub-trust funds.

CIT will provide accredited and institutional investors access to private securities issued by growth stage companies. The goal is to give these investors access to “venture capital-level returns”.

Dr. Steven Fang, the Co-Founder and CEO of CapBridge, said Venture Capital consistently out performs other asset classes and has some of the best returns in the investment industry.

“Traditionally, accredited and institutional investors have had limited access to these venture capital-backed growth companies,” he said.

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The fund will follow a rules-based structure. ‘Rules-based’ investment is typically defined as a fund that aims to generate exposure to a to a specific segment of the equities market, but operates without consideration of stock market capitalisation or portfolio weighting. In the case of CIT’s Pre-IPO Fund, the hope is to increase exposure to securities issued by growth-stage companies.

“While rules-based processes are applied in the trading of publicly-listed investments, this is the first time, as far as we know, that a rules-based structure is being applied to investments in venture-backed securities issued by private companies,” said Dr. Fang.

He went on to express hope that the fund will help accelerate pre-IPO capital raising, which in turn could make Singapore an attractive place for growth-stage companies to fundraise.

All investments made by the fund will be from companies with a mandate to IPO.

The platform will target companies that already have lead investors — although it is extremely rare for any company to achieve pre-IPO status without lead investment.

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The fund will only invest in convertible entities for companies curated on the CapBridge platform.

Gordian Capital will act as the investment manager and will pre-screen opportunities that meet their internal criteria.

Both CapBridge and Gordian Capital are Singaporean companies.

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