Good evening,

Tis the season for pre-IPO fund raises. With its Alpha Fund notching its seventh year anniversary, Alium Capital Management is back in capital raising mode, this time seeking $200 million for a series of public and private company funds.

The Sydney investor, headed up by partners Rajeev Gupta, Jason Rich and Michael Considine, is set to launch its new Innovation Fund on May 1 to wealth groups, family offices and superannuation funds.

Like the $300 million-plus Alpha flagship fund, Alium will invest in private companies with a focus on mid- to late-stage technology and innovation, investing alongside founders and taking minority stakes, and look for secondary opportunities. However, the new fund is likely to be more concentrated, investing in 10 to 20 names, and will seek to tie everything up within five years.

Partners Gupta and Rich told Street Talk that rather than raise one large fund every seven or so years, the aim is to raise smaller amounts. The $200 million target will be spread across several funds, responding to feedback from their investors. While competitors are moving towards evergreen funds – those which allow investors to redeem assets periodically – Alium is returning to a fixed end date, closed end structure, which they say is more investor friendly and enables better internal rates of return.

Alium was founded in 2016 and has backed the likes of ASX-listed Nitro, online shopping rewards platform Cashrewards and in-home care brand operator Caring Group. The Alpha Fund, which launch a year later, has put out some decent numbers, recording 37 exits, a 23 per cent internal rates of return and a 2.3 times multiple on invested capital.

But it’s been a difficult few years for pre-IPO houses across the board, and Alium is no exception, temporarily increasing its redemption time frame to two years in 2023 amid liquidity challenges. It still has some tricky positions to iron out, namely mattress outfit Koala, which, as reported, is facing a big debt call.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

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