Ainslie’s Maverick Capital Looking to Seed Hedge Fund Managers

Maverick Capital Management LP, the $11 billion investment firm run by Lee Ainslie, is planning to invest in start-up hedge fund managers as seeding grows in the industry.

The hedge fund has allocated $22 million to Maverick Seed Partners LP, according to a July 15 regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fraser Seitel, a spokesman for New York-based Maverick, declined to comment.

Maverick is joining firms such as Blackstone Group LP, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Shumway Capital Partners LLC in putting money with new managers in exchange for a share of fees as institutional investors have focused on larger firms with established track records. About $2.6 billion was available to seed managers in the first half of the year, up from $1.3 billion in the second half of 2009, according to Acceleration Capital Group, a New York-based firm that works with seed investors.

The number of money managers seeking to raise cash for hedge funds increased as banks started disbanding their proprietary trading desks to comply with U.S. legislation that restricts trading with their own money.

Goldman Sachs said it raised $158.1 million for its seeding fund as of July 14, according to a regulatory filing. Ed Canaday, a spokesman for the New York-based bank, declined to comment.

Ainslie, 47, started Maverick in 1993 after working for Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management LLC for three years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net

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Maverick Capital Management LLC's Lee Ainslie

Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg

Lee Ainslie, managing partner of Maverick Capital Management LLC.

Lee Ainslie, managing partner of Maverick Capital Management LLC. Photographer: Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg