Unigestion announces significant first close of its EMC III Fund – cementing its leading position in emerging manager investing
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Unigestion announces significant first close of its Emerging Manager Choice III Fund – cementing its leading position in emerging manager investing
Unigestion, the asset manager focused on private equity’s mid-market leaders, has announced the first close of its third Emerging Manager Choice Fund (EMC III) at EUR 275m. This first closing comes at more than two-thirds of the Fund’s EUR 400m target size.
Over the past 30 years, Unigestion has established a leading position in global emerging manager investing. The firm has backed more than 100 ‘next-generation managers’, supporting the early funds of firms that have since become industry leaders, such as Archimed, Blackfin Capital and Vance Street Capital.
The firm is also a leading voice in the emerging manager industry, with its Emerging Manager Conference1 having become a key event in the private equity calendar.
Unigestion launched its first dedicated emerging manager fund – EMC I – in 2018, followed by EMC II in 2022. Both have delivered strong returns to its investors by investing in funds launched by seasoned private equity professionals. EMC I is the best-performing fund-of-funds of its vintage2, while both EMC I & EMC II are both delivering top quartile TVPI and DPI 3, demonstrating the importance of both value creation and consistent cash distributions to the strategy.
Building on the success of these two predecessor vintages, EMC III will continue to target highly differentiated managers – those that have significant industry experience and expertise in their chosen specialism – that can deliver attractive net returns, accelerated deployment and low total expense ratios. The Fund will invest in spin-outs from established, hard-to-access GPs, as well as sector specialists applying differentiated strategies.
It will also target co-investments and late primary opportunities and will often seek short duration funds in order to optimise net returns and the cash flow profile for investors. The Fund aims to deliver the performance and total expense ratio of a direct fund, underpinned by strong risk management through diversification and selection.
Kim Pochon, Head of Primaries and the Emerging Manager Programme at Unigestion, said: “Investors are increasingly recognising that emerging managers can provide access to highly attractive opportunities that are often unavailable through larger, established managers. In fact, they can often outperform established managers with the same level of risk, as well as providing valuable future rights and enduring partnerships.
“We are delighted that EMC III has got off to such a strong start, demonstrating the trust our clients have in the robust investment process we have honed over the past 30 years. As established private equity firms raise ever larger funds and performance persistence declines, the opportunity to support emerging managers has never been more compelling – particularly those launching highly differentiated strategies aimed at delivering top-quartile returns.”
1 The Unigestion Emerging Managers Conference 2025 will be held later this year
2 Source: Preqin benchmarking with data as of 05.05.2025. Geography: All; Strategy: Fund of Fund
3 Both funds are first quartile for TVPI when compared to primary funds and first quartile for DPI when compared with secondary funds. Source: Preqin benchmarking with data as of 05.05.2025. Geography: All; Strategy: Buyout; Fund of Fund
ENDS
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