Hamilton Lane Tokenizes Flagship Fund on Polygon

Global investment manager Hamilton Lane has made its flagship direct equity fund, Equity Opportunities Fund V, accessible to individual investors via a new tokenized feeder fund on the Polygon blockchain.

Private markets investment platform Securitize teamed up with Hamilton Lane to launch the tokenized feeder fund, which will be offered on a secondary basis to individual investors with a minimum investment of US$20,000.

Equity Opportunities Fund V recently closed with US$2.1 billion in investor commitments.

“The new Hamilton Lane tokenized fund is a major step in the continued democratization of the private markets,” said Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize. “Private equity has outperformed the S&P 500 by 70% over the past 20 years, but that performance has mostly been enjoyed by major institutions, sovereign wealth funds and university endowments. Individual investors can begin accessing these opportunities, too,” Domingo said in an announcement on Wednesday.

Hamilton Lane plans to launch two additional feeder funds in the coming months with Securitize, which also has a US$25 million fine art fund also tokenized on Polygon.

Victor Jung, head of digital assets at Hamilton Lane, said the tokenized fund will allow investors to "gain access to the historically strong returns and performance opportunities generated within the private markets, while increasing usability and transparency through the use of blockchain technology."

Hamilton Lane has nearly US$824 billion in assets under management and supervision, as of September 30, 2022, and over 1,000 clients and investors.