Republic, the largest online capital formation platform in the world, has revealed a partnership with Hamilton Lane (Nasdaq: HLNE), which will add exposure to Private Equity (PE) on its marketplace. The “first-ever” infrastructure evergreen fund will now be available to US investors for an initial minimum investment of just $500.
Republic announced a partnership with Hamilton Lane at the beginning of the year. At that time, the two firms revealed an initiative to bring digital assets to retail investors.
The Hamilton Lane Private Infrastructure Fund (HLPIF) is a digital asset or tokenized fund available to non-accredited investors. It operates as a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The shares in the fund are illiquid, but quarterly options to sell shares are expected to be made available to investors.
The Fund will acquire both direct equity and debt positions in Infrastructure Assets and companies alongside infrastructure sponsors, as well as secondary interests in infrastructure funds and assets. The portfolio is expected to hold assets like data centers serving AI players, critical energy pipelines, and essential airports and ports.
A prospectus for the Fund is available here. Bitgo Trust Company will act as custodian of any shares purchased via Republic.
Private equity is typically the realm of the very wealthy or institutions. Private equity is less risky than, say, venture capital funding as the business is typically more established. Republic has mostly enabled investments in early-stage firms as well as certain other verticals in the private securities markets. Republic notes that PE, in aggregate, has generated a return of 296%, with Public Equities up 161% in the past ten years.
Hamilton Lane currently has approximately $956 Billion in assets under management and supervision.
Victor Jung, Head of Digital Assets at Hamilton Lane, said the launch of HLPIF on Republic is a major step forward for their commitment to delivering access to investors of all types, including retail investors in the U.S.
“We believe the evolution of the private markets industry broadly will be driven by technological innovation – including tokenization – spurred by retail demand for different structures, lower minimums and easier access.”
Mentioning infrastructure and AI plus energy specifically, Brent Burnett, Head of Infrastructure and Real Assets at Hamilton Lane, said they are excited to expand access to this sector’s historically consistent performance, consistent cash flows, and manageable downside risk opportunities.
Andrew Durgee, Republic co-CEO, noted in an email that “with market volatility, private infrastructure investments have historically provided consistent performance, steady cash flows, and low correlation to the public markets.”
“We believe HLPIF is a valuable asset for anyone seeking performance and diversification in a well-balanced portfolio.”
Durgee added that tokenization of real-world assets is the key to bringing institutional-grade private market investors to everyone—not just accredited investors. By partnering with Hamilton Lane, Republic is at the forefront of expanding access to private markets.
The listing of shares in the PE Fund is emblematic of online capital formation platforms expanding offerings beyond exempt securities for accredited and non-accredited investors. Some platforms that launched to serve early-stage issuers have morphed into providing access to a broader portfolio of assets and funding vehicles.
Republic reports over $3 billion has been deployed through investment platforms, funds, and firms within the Republic family of companies in the US, the UK, the EU, the UAE, and South Korea.
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