Karyn West

Apostle Funds Management (Apostle) has announced its partnership with US venture capital Fund Safar Partners (Safar).

Safar invests in early-stage companies developed at leading universities Harvard, MIT and Rochester to address today’s biggest challenges. It invests one third of its capital in early-stage companies, with two thirds reserved to support companies through their successful growth stages.

With US$620 million assets under management^[1] the partnership offers Australian wholesale and institutional investors access to a diversified Fund focusing on healthcare, AI and IT and clean tech.

Fund I was launched in May 2019 with US$287 million in commitments and has since completed 34 deals. Fund I is now closed, Fund II is closing, and Fund III is expected to enter the market later this year. Safar targets a return multiple of over 4x on invested capital and a net IRR of over 20%.

Safar has multidisciplinary expertise on their Scientific and Business Advisory Boards to assist the thirteen-person investment team with strategic advice to help scale and grow portfolio companies.

The board is comprised of scholars and experts from Harvard, MIT, and the University of Rochester who are committed to seeing a more efficient technology transfer and faster scaling of ideas that will change the world.

Speaking on the partnership Apostle’s Managing Director Karyn West said, “We are excited to be working with a group that partners with the best universities in the world, to solve the most urgent problems facing the world. We have had a long-standing relationship with Safar’s Managing Partner Nader Motamedy beginning over 20 years ago, and we believe in its ethos and investment strategy.

For example, Safar invests in one of the leading companies in fusion in the world. Commonwealth Fusion Systems is an energy company aiming to commercialise fusion energy production to take advantage of the extraordinary market opportunity for carbon free power. This is a tangible, quality, impactful investment opportunity which we can now offer Australian investors.

At Apostle, we are committed to connecting pools of capital with the problems that face our economy and partnering with aligned managers like Safar who have deep sector expertise to deliver is critical to our mission.”

Safar’s Managing Partner, Arunas Chesonis said, “Our flexible strategy allows us to take technologies from inception to global scale. With access to the most promising technologies developed by the brightest minds, we are often one of the first investors in our portfolio companies, helping them grow and achieve technological and financial success. We are excited to partner with Apostle to bring our offering to Australian investors.”

——–

The post Apostle Funds Management partners with US VC Safar Partners appeared first on AdviserVoice.