Macquarie opens late-stage venture to Australian wealth clients
What's the deal? Macquarie Asset ManagementDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has launched the Macquarie Wellington Venture Growth Fund, an evergreen vehicle giving Australian wholesale investors access to late-stage growth and pre-IPO companies. The fund, built in partnership with Wellington Management, requires a minimum investment of $25,000 and targets net returns of 13-15% a year.
How it works: Macquarie Professional Series, its external manager business, has made the fund available as an Australian unit trust. The vehicle invests almost all of its assets in the Wellington Venture Growth Evergreen Fund, a Luxembourg sub-fund.
Why now? "Companies are staying private for longer and opportunities exist to invest in their growth before they reach the public markets," said Caitlin Hollebone, head of Wellington Management Australia. Over the past two decades, Wellington's private markets platform has made more than 350 investments and achieved over 130 IPOs, M&As, or other liquidity events.
What's the endgame? The launch expands Macquarie's wealth business across Australia and New Zealand. "Private wealth clients are increasingly seeking access to private markets," said Brent Andal, Macquarie's head of ANZ wealth.
What could go wrong? The fund is not a conventional liquid product: quarterly redemptions do not begin until January 1, 2030, and remain subject to liquidity. The 13-15% target is an objective, not a guaranteed outcome.
The signal: Macquarie's move adds to an Australian push to package private markets for wealth clients, after J.P. Morgan introduced an evergreen private-equity fund in August and Perennial launched a wholesale pre-IPO vehicle in October. The backdrop is mixed — venture fundraising remains subdued overall, even as capital concentrates in a few late-stage names — but improving IPO and secondary-market activity may ease the sector's liquidity bottleneck.
Read more: financialstandard.com.au
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
