In a bid to expand its US$13 billion evergreen platform, the firm is capitalising on high-net-worth investors seeking “disruptive innovations” within private markets.
The Hamilton Lane Global Venture Capital and Growth Fund (HLGVG) aims to provide investors with access to Hamilton Lane’s global venture capital investment platform, supported by the firm’s extensive experience in private market co-investments and secondaries.
Structured as an evergreen vehicle, it is diversified across vintage year, transaction type, manager, strategy and geography, Hamilton Lane stated.
The fund will be available to high-net-worth investors and their advisers, as well as institutional investors, in parts of Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, as well as in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
It follows the launch of the firm’s venture evergreen fund to US investors in May this year.
For nearly three decades, Hamilton Lane has been active in the venture and growth equity space, with a total of US$117.8 billion in assets under management (AUM) and supervision.
James Martin, Hamilton Lane’s head of global client solutions, noted that the launch represents “one of the few venture-focused evergreen products globally”, even as burgeoning evergreen funds have become a significant component of the private market landscape.
In recent years, evergreen and semi-liquid structures have transformed the private market space by simplifying access to more investors.
However, despite the benefits, consulting firm bfinance pointed out earlier this year that such funds also carry risks. In particular, bfinance noted the potential for liquidity mismatch and diluted returns, attributing the latter to the substantial cash buffers used in these products.
As well as this, it stated that some newer evergreens have limited or opaque performance track records, with fee layering and structural complexity obscuring true return alignment.
The latest evergreens – offering monthly, weekly or even daily liquidity – were identified as particularly challenging due to the incompatibility of private markets and liquidity.
“In pursuit of broader distribution, liquidity terms risk exceeding what underlying investments can reliably support,” bfinance said at the time.
According to Hamilton Lane’s website, its suite of evergreen strategies are designed to provide private markets access with “a single allocation, monthly or quarterly limited liquidity, low investment minimums and immediate exposure”.
Additionally, the firm stated that HLGVG’s focus is on innovation, diversification and institutional-grade assets, in an effort to overcome typical entry barriers in the evolving tech sector.
Co-head of venture capital and growth equity at the firm, Matthew Pellini, said with more companies choosing to stay private for longer, many of the most attractive investment opportunities can only be found in private markets.
“By capitalising on disruptive innovations in established and emerging market segments, the HLGVG portfolio aims to offer an edge in adaptation to new technological advancements, like AI, as it drives a wave of growth in tech businesses,” Pellini said.
According to the firm, proprietary data, technology and artificial intelligence will also be leveraged by the fund to enhance decision making and operational efficiency.
As a major investor in private market tech companies, the company also developed proprietary tools through its HL Innovations initiative, designed to optimise client portfolio solutions.
