Since our founding in 2012, Fundrise has relentlessly pursued a singular mission: to build a better financial system by empowering the individual investor. For that reason, we are extremely excited to announce that we will soon be taking yet another major step on that journey, making our first significant expansion outside of private real estate, with the launch of the Fundrise Innovation Fund — a first-of-its kind, $1B growth equity fund aimed at democratizing access to investments in top private technology companies.
Although we are immensely proud of what we’ve built to date, we believe we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of the opportunities that we can unlock for investors. The proprietary systems and technology infrastructure we created to tap into private real estate are now capable of disrupting ownership of other asset classes previously inaccessible to individuals — in short, Fundrise has the potential to not only open up but completely transform the entire $10 trillion private market.
Our decision to expand into high-growth technology companies is multi-factored. First, as an asset class, high-growth tech (i.e. venture capital) has proven to be one of the best performing investments,<sup>1</sup> while simultaneously being one of the most exclusive, with individuals effectively barred from investing until companies go public.
Meanwhile, we believe that the current market turmoil and distress in the venture capital industry makes today a uniquely opportune time (perhaps the best in the past decade) to launch a fund focused on the space. As the old saying goes, be greedy when others are fearful.
To that end, our aim is for the Innovation Fund to take a “multi-stage” approach, investing in a diversified portfolio of high-growth private technology companies across both mid and late stages, as well as holding some public equities. We’ve also created a significantly lower fee model for the Fund, stripping out entirely the “carried interest” profit sharing component that we believe is not only excessive in cost but also leads to inherent misalignment.
We intend to provide the opportunity to invest on a limited basis as the fund ramps up to those who have invested previously in Fundrise’s real estate offerings. Existing investors can expect to receive notifications about investing with the Innovation Fund automatically; if you have not invested with us previously and are interested in learning more, please visit the Innovation Fund offering page and add your name to the waitlist. We’ll be in touch over the coming months with more information about the fund itself, how to invest, and what to expect as a potential investor in the fund.
As always, we thank all of our investors for their continued support of Fundrise, and we thank everyone in our community for their interest in how we’re building a better financial system. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Investor Relations team at investments@fundrise.com.
Onward,
Ben & the entire Fundrise team
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P.S. Listen to the latest episode of our podcast, Onward, where CEO Ben Miller goes in-depth on our plans for the Innovation Fund.
- Listen on Apple Podcasts >>
- Listen on Spotify >>
- Listen on Stitcher >> (or wherever you get your podcasts)
P.P.S. Check out coverage of the fund by TechCrunch, here.
