Altura Opens Access To New Managers

Many limited partners have mandates to invest with emerging managers, but finding these firms can be difficult. And conversely, it can be challenging for small, new firms to catch the attention of large pension funds.

A new database created by New York-based Altura Capital Group should help resolve the dilemma. The Altura Emerging Manager Platform, which will be available in mid-August, aims to give institutional investors and small and emerging financial services firms the ability to collaborate and access research, information and market intelligence.

Altura Capital’s database contains about 130 private equity firms, but the number is growing, said Monika Mantilla, president and CEO of the firm, which specializes in providing institutional research and products in the emerging manager category. Other asset classes included in the database are equities; fixed income; hedge funds; funds of hedge funds; REITs; broker dealers; and real estate partnerships.

Founding subscribers include the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Comptroller of the City of New York and the Illinois Sate Board of Investments.

In 2006, CalSTRS and CalPERS commissioned Altura Capital to construct a database of emerging managers and other financial service providers. The purpose was to identify new investment talent, promote transparency and access to capital, and to form a better understanding of emerging investment firms.

“We asked her [Mantilla] for a Volkswagen and she gave us a Cadillac,” said Solange Fernandez Brooks, a CalSTRS investment officer, about the Altura Capital platform.