Executive Leaves BlackRock to Set Up Own Fund -- WSJ
April 16 2019 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Dawn Lim
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (April 16, 2019).
A BlackRock Inc. director involved in the firm's early
technology bets on Twitter Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. is
launching his own investment fund.
Daniel Daniel stepped down recently from his role as a managing
director at BlackRock, people familiar with the matter said. He is
starting a new venture, named Twenty Acre Global LP, to invest in
technology companies, one of the people said.
His newly launched Newtown, Pa.-based firm is looking to raise
at least $500 million to invest across debt, equity and illiquid
positions, the person said. It expects to hire about a dozen people
in coming months.
The strategy planned by Twenty Acre continues aspects of what
Mr. Daniel did on BlackRock's global allocation team. For eight
years, Mr. Daniel was part of that group, investing in a range of
strategies and investment types. The global allocation team
oversees about $60 billion in assets, of which a small portion is
in companies that haven't had an initial public offering.
Mr. Daniel helped oversee billions of dollars of that group's
technology bets at BlackRock. He was involved in pre-IPO bets on
technology companies such as Twitter, Uber, Dropbox Inc., Palantir
Technologies Inc. and Domo Inc., the people said. BlackRock is the
largest money manager in the world, with some $6 trillion in
assets.
A surge of pre-IPO investments in recent years from family
offices, mutual funds and financial institutions has lifted the
valuations of tech companies and created paper billionaires out of
some founders. Some pre-IPO investments have been lucrative bets
for investors such as BlackRock. At the same time, others have
questioned if the lofty valuations of several so-called unicorns
can be sustained.
Mr. Daniel's new fund will have no deadline for returning
investor capital or exiting its wagers. It will be able to invest
up to one-third in illiquid positions.
Mr. Daniel, 44 years old, grew up in a military family and
attended high school and college in Utah. He received a Master of
Business Administration degree from the University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
Write to Dawn Lim at dawn.lim@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 16, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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