Axiom Asia completes $1.6b fundraise

The fundraising process began towards the end of 2017 and the final close comes approximately two years after the firm raised just over $1 billion for its fourth fund. Axiom’s deployment strategy is unchanged. The objective is to build a diversified portfolio with about 20 managers across buyout, growth, and venture strategies; 80% of the corpus is earmarked for primary fund commitments and 20% for secondaries and co-investment.

The addition of the co-investment sidecar reflects rising demand among the firm’s LPs, according to a source familiar with the situation. There are prudential limits tied to the main corpus that prevent it from having too much direct exposure, hence the need for a sidecar.

Axiom’s fourth fund was the first raised after the firm completed a leadership transition that facilitated the exit of two co-founders. The four managing partners who run the firm – Edmond Ng, Chris Loh, Alex Lee, and Marc Lau (pictured, left to right) – remain in place, but there has been expansion in the lower ranks. There are now 18 investment professionals, up from 10 for Fund IV, while overall headcount has risen from 17 to 30. Most of the team is based in Singapore, with satellite offices in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Shanghai.

Axiom remains somewhat unusual among its peer group for eschewing multiple separately managed accounts in favor of a single co-mingled fund-of-funds with no potential conflicts of interest. The firm’s primary selling point is that it offers exposure to managers that LPs might not otherwise be able to access, because the funds are either in high demand or too small and risky to warrant a direct allocation. As such, there has previously been a sizeable allocation to spin-outs and new GPs established by experienced investors.

Disclosed investors in Axiom Asia V include Montana Board of Investments and State of Michigan Retirement Systems. Both also participated in Fund IV alongside the likes of Sweden’s AP3, Caledonia Investments, and State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, according to AVCJ Research.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Fund-of-funds
• LPs
• Greater China
• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• North Asia
• Australasia
• Asia
• Axiom Asia Private Capital