The Top Fund of Funds to Watch in 2021

We know that one one of the biggest challenges faced by alternative investment sales professionals within the fund of fund channel is knowing the underlying fund’s area of focus, and who to call on.  As fund of funds differentiate themselves based on their skill of identifying, evaluating, and monitoring managers, they often have a large number of specialized analysts with an often global footprint.

Fund of funds are often able to invest early, move quicker, and allocate larger amounts than many other allocators and should be a key area of focus for every alternative strategy across its lifecycle. 

At Dakota, we’ve been raising capital within the fund of funds channel since 2006, and have raised over $30 billion dollars over the last fourteen years. In that time we’ve also established Dakota Marketplace, a database of accounts and contacts built by fundraisers for fundraisers.

Marketplace is a compilation of fourteen years of research, and finding the right people to call on for our business. We think it can help you, too, and it helped inform this list.

To help you narrow down the size of the channel, we’ve put together a list of ten of the larger fund of fund platforms that focus on private equity strategies, hedge fund strategies, or both. By the end of this post, you should have a better idea of the channel, as well as who might be the right people for you and your team to call on.

1. The Blackstone Group
   AUM: $584,000,000,000
   New York, NY
   Focus: Diversified 
    
2. Blackrock Alternative Investors (BAI)
   AUM: $150,000,000,000
   New York, NY
   Focus: Diversified 
    
3. UBS (Hedge Funds Solutions Group & Multi-Manager Team)
   AUM: $65,000,000,000
   Stamford, CT
   Focus: Diversified
    
4. GCM Grosvenor
   AUM: $57,000,000,000
   Chicago, IL
   Focus: Diversified 
    
5. Harbourvest
   AUM: $64,000,000,000
   Boston, MA
   Focus: Private Equity 
    
6. Pathway Capital Management
   AUM: $61,000,000,000
   Los Angeles, CA
   Focus: Private Equity 
    
7. Pantheon
   AUM: $55,000,000,000
   San Francisco, CA
   Focus: Private Equity 
    
8. AlpInvest
   AUM: $44,000,000,000
   New York, NY
   Focus: Private Equity 
    
9. Morgan Stanley AIP
   AUM: $35,000,000,000
   Philadelphia, PA
   Focus: Diversified 
    
10. Man FRM
    AUM: $14,000,000,000
    New York, NY (Headquarters in London)
    Focus: Hedge Fund

What to do next

Now that you have a better idea who some of the largest Fund of Funds are, you and your team can start the process of doing outreach, setting meetings, and making calls to the right people. 

And, this is not a full list; there are over thirty more Fund of Funds to connect with within Dakota Marketplace.

To find out more about these firms, or view the full list of Fund of Funds, subscribe to Dakota Marketplace.