Valentus Capital Management, run by Behzad Taufiq, a former executive at Hudson Advisors, plans to digitize a $250M+ investment fund with Realio, a fully compliant platform to tokenize institutional-grade digital assets on the Algorand blockchain.
“Decentralized finance is the way of the future,” says Algorand Founder, Dr. Silvio Micali. “Our technology allows for far greater scalability, speed and efficiency than other alternatives., I am pleased to see Realio and Valentus leveraging our next-generation platform to provide opportunities to investors of all types who can now access top-shelf investments in a secure and scalable manner.”
Focusing on credit assets backed by consumer and commercial entities, the partners plan to help turn the tide in finance and open Wall Street’s doors to Main Street, granting mainstream investors access to a digitized claim to a Valentus fund offering.
The partnership will facilitate the creation of Valentus Digital, an online portal for tokenized investment opportunities issued as Algorand Standard Assets (ASA), a next-generation public blockchain network that provides security, scalability, liquidity, and decentralization.
These digital tokens facilitate greater tradability of the asset while allowing issuers to remove excessive restrictions on transfer that are commonplace in the private secondary markets. Algorand has recently announced a partnership with Archax, an FCA approved digital securities exchange.
“Partnering with Realio is an exciting stepping stone,” stated Behzad Taufiq, CIO and founder of Valentus Capital Management. “Having a Valentus fund token in this ecosystem will create tradability of the fund that wasn’t available before. Its transparency and flexibility will benefit institutional and retail investors alike, and we are excited to break this new ground.”
Investors seeking institutional-grade opportunities that offer attractive returns often require inside connections and tens of millions of dollars just to gain access to these vehicles run by top-tier managers, such as private equity firms or hedge funds As such, a select community of large institutions often manages to grow its wealth in a way that more moderately sized investors, such as family offices and individuals, can’t. Blockchain technology is changing that, opening broader access to institutional-grade investment opportunities. With low barriers to entry and a global community of p2p investors, assets can be bought and sold in ways previously unthinkable in private equity.
“We are thrilled to partner with Valentus and kick off Valentus Digital,” says Derek Boirun Co-founder and CEO of Realio. “Providing broad, global access to top-tier private equity opportunities is not just the vision for our platform, but also something that the markets are demanding, as evidenced by the surge of capital flowing into blockchain technologies and decentralized finance. The benefit also extends to larger investors who will enjoy increased liquidity of the asset.”
Unlike other digital assets, the VAL1 token gives the holder a digitized claim to the limited partnership interests of a Valentus fund, whose investment manager Valentus Capital Management anticipates becoming an SEC-registered private equity firm. Valentus’ first fund, Credit Opportunities Fund I, is targeting at least $250M, with a target raise of $50M through Valentus Digital. The fund will make opportunistic investments based on market-price dislocations, relative value, or securitization/re-securitization potential. The minimum investment threshold is $2.5M, but through Valentus Digital investors can join with only $10,000, opening up the doors to top-tier investing on a greater scale than before.
Realio is both a technology provider and a fund manager that actively sources investment opportunities across many asset classes, with an emphasis on real estate private equity. Realio, provides 3rd-party issuance tools to digitize assets and raise capital within the network or to use its tech stack as a private white-label solution. Realio’s ecosystem seeks to provide a link between the global retail investment community and cash-generating investment opportunities. It opens up access to previously untapped global capital markets where transactions occur 24/7, instantly, with little-or-no cost, and without borders.
