Emerging Managers 2025: Where Is Smart Money Heading

May 23, 2025

In a year already marked by market recalibration and thematic investing, 2025's cohort of emerging fund managers is quietly reshaping the future of capital allocation. Drawing on recent filings, here's what stands out across sectors and strategies.

Tech Isn’t Dead—It’s Just Niche

Despite recent volatility in big tech, Information Technology remains the top thematic focus among managers, with 179 funds raising/launching funds with a focus on this sector. This suggests a shift from megacap dominance to targeted bets in sub-sectors like AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and enterprise SaaS.

Notably, Blockchain—often considered a volatile outlier—is gaining real institutional interest, accounting for 50+ new fund launches. This isn't meme investing; it's a calculated bet on decentralized infrastructure as the next economic layer.

Given below is a screenshot of Digital Funds on Radient:

 

Real Assets Are Making a Quiet Comeback

Real Estate continues to attract capital with 154 funds raising money in the space, likely fueled by distressed asset opportunities and a belief in inflation-hedging income streams. In a rate-sensitive environment, this signals a contrarian but calculated risk.

Real Estate Fund Launches by Firm AUM Cohort

However, a large chunk of real estate funds continue to be launched by firms with 1 B+ AUM in the space.

 

From Crisis to Catalyst: Healthcare’s Alternative Revival

Healthcare, with 80 new funds, reflects renewed optimism in biotech and medtech post-COVID. The push toward personalized medicine and digital health tools is now drawing not just venture dollars, but alternative investment vehicles as well.

 

 

 

Global Ambitions, Local Roots

While Delaware is still the go-to jurisdiction, emerging managers are increasingly operating with global mandates. A notable number of new funds—especially those focused on India and Southeast Asia—are domiciled in Cayman Islands ( ~23%) suggesting that legal and tax flexibility is key for cross-border deployment.

Fund Launches by Jurisdiction - Globally (%)

 

What It Means for Allocators & Service Providers

Understanding where new managers are launching—and aligning outreach with their strategy and structure—is becoming essential for both allocators and service providers. The ability to act early, based on real-time intelligence, can shape deal flow, partnerships, and growth.

With Radient, tracking emerging managers is seamless. We provide real-time data on manager launches, and our intuitive UI with 50+ filters makes it easy to screen and target funds by strategy, AUM, geography focus and more.


👉 Explore Radient AI to start discovering the next generation of managers before everyone else does.

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About the Author

Radient AI

Radient applies cutting-edge technology to dramatically simplify asset management workflows around investment decisions, due diligence, process automation and industry research. It combines financial data acquisition, risk-based investment analytics, portfolio construction, with tailored investment insights and recommendations.