Kenanga Investors launched a frontier fund to link retail investors with early-stage startups
Kenanga Investors Berhad (KIB), a fully owned subsidiary of Malaysia’s Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad has formed a frontier fund.
The “Kenanga Sustainability Series: Frontier Fund” will largely invest in equity securities of global cutting-edge, creative enterprises that have long-term sustainable growth potential or are on the verge of going public. It will also support businesses that have established or will develop technologically-driven goods and services.
Kenanga focuses on next-generation or forward-thinking inventions that are reshaping future industries including the space economy, the metaverse, healthcare, fintech, and cybersecurity.
The frontier fund will provide investors access to these firms’ long-term value development, which was previously only available to institutional investors.
According to Ismitz Matthew De Alwis, CEO of Kenanga Investors, the goal is to transform Malaysia’s current private equity industry by addressing the absence of accessible gateways for investors to access investment possibilities in notable, hard-to-reach early-stage firms.
“Since 2016, emerging digital companies have won over the “old economy” by being among the top five most valuable corporations. Given the constant development of new technologies, it is unsurprising that new technology companies are sprouting. We began bridging the gap between prominent players of the new ‘Big Tech’ and our investors back in 2019,” he said.
“The resulting outcome has been fulfilling for our investors in many ways; from portfolio diversification to the exploration of a new investment universe beyond the traditional investing realm, and so, demand for similar offerings has risen. We are glad to introduce the Fund to the market where investors who were not able to participate previously will have an opportunity to do so this time”, he said.
Frontier technology, in his opinion, offers several prospects for accelerating future progress. Utilizing technology to cut carbon emissions, breakthrough medical discoveries to push patient empowerment, and the democratisation of financial services are just a few of the possibilities.
The fund is geared for sophisticated investors with a medium to long-term investment horizons and feeds into the Ericsenz Frontier Fund (a VC and PE business). The first offer will be available from October 27 through December 3, 2021. It comes in both MYR and USD denominations, allowing investors to invest in their preferred currency.
Kenanga Investors established Kenanga Global Unicorn 1 (KGU1) in June 2019, with the goal of generating medium-term returns by investing in unicorn enterprises.
According to a report in the Malay Mail, Bursa Malaysia Securities publicly chastised JAKS Resources and its key adviser Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd for violating the exchange’s Main Market Listing Requirements.
