NAIC Selects Fund of Funds to Deploy Capital to Invest in Diverse-Owned Businesses and Communities

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With the goal of growing and strengthening diverse-owned businesses and the communities they serve, the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC) announced it has selected five firms that will facilitate raising and allocating billions of dollars of growth equity capital to drive scale and enhance innovation in ethnically diverse and women-owned business enterprises (DWBEs).

This marks the completion of the second phase of the NAIC Minority Growth Equity Funds Initiative (MGEFI), which was launched in October 2019 to support job-creation and foster innovation and growth for diverse enterprises. The initiative strives to provide much-needed access to capital for these companies while also identifying viable opportunities for growth investors.

The firms were selected using an RFP (Request for Proposal) process and vetted by an independent selection committee of industry veterans. The committee objectively reviewed proposal submissions and determined these FOFs were best suited to perform the requisite due diligence to identify high-performing growth equity investment firms and facilitate the deployment of capital to the DWBEs. The growth equity firms will in turn invest 100% of the MGEFI capital received with strong, scalable DWBEs. The selected firms are:

• Barings Alternative Investments
• GCM Grosvenor
• Muller & Monroe Asset Management
• Neuberger Berman Private Equity
• The Rock Creek Group

"We are very pleased to reach this important milestone for the Minority Growth Equity Funds Initiative," says Robert L. Greene, President & CEO of NAIC. "This initiative will provide diverse-owned businesses with the capital resources needed to produce an upward trend and expand capacity while participating growth investors will identify new high-performing investment opportunities among these historically underserved businesses."

Made possible through a grant from the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the NAIC Minority Growth Equity Funds Initiative is a direct response to a lack of access to capital faced by many DWBEs, limiting their ability to scale to their full potential. In addition, many of these businesses are among the hardest hit by the economic fallout of COVID-19, making this effort even more critical to their survival and future economic impact.

About NAIC: Celebrating 50 years of advocacy and performance, the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Investment Companies is the trade association for and largest network of diverse- and women-owned private equity firms and hedge funds. NAIC's membership is comprised of more than 80 firms that collectively manage over $165 billion in institutional assets.

Media Contact
Alan Hughes
[email protected]
917-993-3842

SOURCE National Association of Investment Companies