18/6/2019 – Malaysia based Kenanga Investors Bhd (Kenanga Investors) announced yesterday the launch of Kenanga Global Unicorn 1 (KGU1) fund. The first fund of its kind in Malaysia, the fund provides opportunities to invest in unicorn tech companies otherwise inaccessible.
“Unicorn companies were much rarer two to three years ago, but now there are between 80 and 100 each year attaining that status that is often associated with signs of a near term IPO,” said Ismitz Matthew De Alwis, executive director and CEO of Kenanga Investors
Asia is leading the way with at least 30 percent of unicorns today coming from China when it used to be a term mainly associated with US-based companies.”
Ismitz Matthew De Alwis supplied that the KGU1 fund will feed into Ericsenz-K2 Global Unicorn Fund. Headquartered in Singapore, the fund focuses on investing in companies with near term visibility of an initial public offering (IPO) within 6 – 24 months for superior medium-term returns.
Ericsenz-K2 Global Unicorn Fund is managed by Ericsenz Capital, a private equity and venture capital firm regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, while K2 Global, headquartered in California with a portfolio of mostly late-stage private technology companies and notable exits including Spotify, acts as the fund’s strategic advisor.
Kenanga Investors aims to provide capital appreciation at the end of KGU1’s maturity via investments in the target fund to be measured against a targeted 12% internal rate of return per annum. Kenanga Investors outlined that the adopted buy and sell discipline by the investment bank is a measured assessment of the market and macro environment to determine alpha and is not speculative.
Investors will be able to invest in their preferred currency of Malaysian Ringgit (RM) or US Dollars ($) with a minimum investment amount of RM100,000 or US$25,000.
