( www.redherring.com ) – Lending money to fast-growing startup companies that could fizzle out as quickly as they caught flame may not be thesafest investment approach in the world, but it’s a money-making strategy that seems pretty staid compared to the kind of highly leveraged bets hedge funds usually make.
And with venture capital investment beginning to heat up again after the slump that followed the dot-com bust, the time is ripe for venture debt investments, according to the portfoliomanager at one hedge fund.
“The period of time we’re in right now is probably the best environment we’ve seen in the last several years,†said Bill DeMars, a senior managing director who heads the newly created,venture-debt arm of Ritchie Capital Management, a Chicago-based hedge fund.
