Bob Long, CEO In recent years, the demand to invest in private markets has grown exponentially. However, the trend of emerging companies staying private for longer has limited the ability of individual investors to access innovative, high growth firms. In addition to private equity and venture opportunities, investors are also seeking differentiated return streams in private infrastructure, debt, and real estate.
One of the largest allocators to the private markets globally, StepStone Group Inc. (Nasdaq: STEP) leveraged its experience in creating customized portfolios for institutions to develop convenient, efficient, and transparent solutions for individual investors in private markets. In October 2020, it launched StepStone Private Markets Fund (SPRIM). The flagship evergreen product has exceeded its target return and outperformed its benchmark since inception. SPRIM is also one of the lowest fee providers in its market.
As of December 31, 2022, StepStone was responsible for approximately $602 billion of the total capital, including $134 billion of assets under management. Its clients include some of the world’s largest public and private defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and insurance companies, as well as prominent endowments, foundations, family offices, and private wealth clients. StepStone partners work with clients to develop and build private markets portfolios designed to meet their objectives across the private equity, infrastructure, debt, and real estate asset classes.
During 2022, StepStone allocated $80 billion of client capital to private markets in over 500 transactions, making it one of the largest allocators to these markets worldwide. In 2023, it participated in over 4,700 meetings with private market managers across its platform.
StepStone’s proprietary database, StepStone Private Intelligence (SPI), tracks the performance of over 81,000 private companies, 42,000 funds, and more than 16,000 managers.
“With a commitment to open architecture, data analytics, and a deep network of relationships, StepStone has proven that it can provide access to top-performing managers in investor-centric solutions for the wealth management community,” says Bob Long, CEO of StepStone.
In November 2022, StepStone launched StepStone Private Venture and Growth Fund (SPRING), an evergreen venture capital and growth equity-focused fund, which has garnered strong traction with investors and achieved a 20% return to date in a challenging environment.
“We believe there are no truly comparable funds to SPRING offered in the market today,” says Long.
Both SPRIM and SPRING are designed to convert the private market advantages enjoyed by large institutional investors into opportunities for high-net-worth and small institutional investors.
With a commitment to open architecture, data analytics, and a deep network of relationships, StepStone has proven that it can provide access to top-performing managers in investor-centric solutions for the wealth management community
SPRIM seeks to provide broad exposure to private markets under an open architecture concept, accessing the top investment managers in the world. Approximately 80 percent of the fund is allocated to traditional private equity as of January 2023. The remainder is allocated to private real assets and private debt, which provide not only diversification but more regular cash flow to meet the liquidity needs of the fund.
StepStone’s private wealth platform now manages over $1.6 billion in total. In addition to its U.S. presence, it has operations, partnerships, and feeder vehicles established in South America, Canada, Europe, and Australia, with further global expansion in the works.
Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher thanthe performance data quoted.
Before investing you should carefully consider the Funds investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information is in the prospectus, a copy of which may be obtained from StepStone Private Wealth at 704.215.4300. An investor should read the prospectus carefully before investing.
An investment in the Funds involves risks. The Funds should be considered a speculative investment that entails substantial risks, and a prospective investor should invest in the Funds only if it can sustain a complete loss of its investment. Fund fees and expenses may offset trading profits. Fund shares are illiquid and appropriate only as a long-term investment. There is no market exchange available for shares of the Funds thereby making them difficult to liquidate. Use of leverage may increase the Funds volatility. The Funds are non-diversified, meaning it may concentrate its assets in fewer individual holdings than a diversified fund. Investments may consist of loans to small and/or less well-established privately held companies that have reduced access to the capital markets, resulting in diminished capital resources and the ability to withstand financial distress.
Foreside Financial Services, LLC, Distributor.
