MPowered Capital LLC, an investment firm established to invest in female and other underrepresented talent in the alternative investment space, has launched.
MPowered was founded and will be led by Marcia Page, co-founder and executive chair of Värde Partners, a global alternative investment firm with over $14 billion of assets under management. Page is joined by Chrissie Chen Pariso, a long-time advocate in supporting industry-wide diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, with twenty years of investment experience.
“Female and other underrepresented talent in the investment management industry has long been undercapitalized and disadvantaged, resulting in what we believe is a significant capital mismatch, and therefore opportunity,” said Page. “Research indicates that diverse talent has generated incremental alpha and often outperformed their non-diverse peers. Our mission is to create more representation within the industry by addressing the dearth of funding for this talent and demonstrating the compelling opportunity to deliver strong performance.”
Pariso added, “Despite increasing attention being paid to diversity, equity and inclusion among investment firms, we are not seeing this translate to meaningful capital commitments due to a variety of structural forces in our industry as well as unconscious bias. It’s time for this dynamic to change and to create a more equitable future for this pool of exceptional investment talent.”
The firm recently closed a direct investment and completed a structured transaction with L2 Point, a female-founded firm that specializes in making structured equity investments in growth companies.
“Finding capital partners for pre-fund transactions has allowed us to prove our thesis, sourcing, and underwriting capabilities without a formal track record,” said Kerstin Dittmar, founder and managing partner at L2 Point. “Additionally, our working capital facility will enable us to hire a team and build out our organization sooner than we would have otherwise been able to afford, accelerating our path to an institutional fundraise.”