Cathie Wood touts plans for ARK's new 'crossover' fund
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Cathie Wood offered investors more details on ARK Invest’s upcoming foray into private markets.
The founder and CEO of ARK indicated Wednesday in an interview at the UP.Summit in Bentonville, Ark. that her firm is planning to launch a “crossover fund” that invests in public and private assets. Wood declined to reveal more details for regulatory reasons.
"We're [the] closest to a venture capital fund in the public equity markets, and we're going to start a crossover fund,” Wood said, speaking at the annual, invitation-only event.
ARK's next endeavor comes during a downturn across her nine exchange-traded funds — particularly the flagship ARK Innovation (ARKK) vehicle, which has lost more than 50% year-to-date.
The move also comes amid an increasingly uneasy future for the venture capital space, with lower public-market valuations and broader macroeconomic uncertainty making the environment for startups more challenging.
The star fund manager, who runs a family of nine exchange-traded funds, has previously argued that private markets are better at valuing disruption innovation than private markets.
Moreover, by investing in private companies, the strategy would allow for longer hold times on allocated capital by keeping investors locked in in turbulent markets. Wood said Wednesday this new offering will be an interval fund, meaning investors will not have immediate access to their capital.
Wood also suggested the fund will aim to make the private investment space more accessible to retail investors. "They are long term in their time horizon, and they really believe we're on to something big,” she said. “It's not fair that we are blocking these young people, most who don't have the income or asset thresholds because they are not accredited, so they don't get access to innovation."
ARK filed paperwork with the SEC on February 3 for a closed-ended interval fund, with the filing specifying the vehicle will be suitable “only for long-term investors who can bear the risks” associated with limited liquidity.
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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
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