Securitize, a digital asset securities company, introduced a tokenized fund on Tuesday that provides exposure to a global investment firm, KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II (HCSG II).
The HCSG II provides investment capital to innovative healthcare companies in North America and Europe to go commercial and scale their growth.
Securitize said the new tokenized fund, which was launched on the smart contract platform, Avalanche, is the first time KKR’s institutional-grade fund was made available to individual investors in the United States through a digital format.
Additionally, the firm noted that the launch marks “a major step toward making institutional private market strategies more accessible to individual investors.”
Securitize in a press statement disclosed that the fund will be managed by Securitize Capital, which is its digital asset management arm.
Carlos Domingo, the Co-Founder and CEO of Securitize, told CoinDesk that the tokenized fund is “a feeder fund of the main KKR healthcare fund.”
‘A Long-Standing Challenge’
Securitize in the statement explained that private market funds have historically been inaccessible to individual investors as only large institutional investors and ultra-high-net-worth individuals could afford them.
“Unlocking broader access to private market investing has been a long-standing challenge for the industry,” the digital asset securities firm noted.
“Tokenization helps solve this by enabling technology to deliver lower investment minimums, improved digital investor onboarding and compliance protocols and increased potential for liquidity through a regulated alternative trading system,” Securitize explained.
On top of that, Domingo explained that tokenization provides potential solutions to several challenges blocking individual investors from participating in private market investments.
Tokenization powers technological and product innovations that were previously inconceivable, he further noted.
“This new fund is an important step towards democratizing access to private equity investments by delivering more efficient access to institutional quality products,” the CEO said.
Also, speaking in the statement, Dan Parant, the Managing Director and Co-Head of US Private Wealth at KKR, noted that the top investment firm is glad to be an early adopter of blockchain technology.
“With its ability to digitize operational inefficiencies and increase ease of use for individual investors, blockchain technology has the potential to play an important role in the future of private markets,” Parant said.
