Fairview Capital, a minority-owned investment management firm that specializes in backing diverse and emerging managers in venture capital and private equity, has invested over $10 billion on behalf of public and private pension plans, foundations, endowments and other institutional investors since 1994.
The investment from New York Life Insurance Company “will create even more opportunities for Fairview,” said Larry Morse, who co-founded the West Hartford, Conn.-based firm with JoAnn Price. “This includes accelerating our growth and expanding our investing with the industry’s foremost venture capital firms, along with the leading diverse and emerging fund managers,” Morse said.
Price and Morse will retain majority ownership of Fairview, alongside partners Kola Olofinboba, Alan Mattamana, Aakar Vachhani and Kwesi Quaye.
Institutional impact
Diverse managers, who manage less than 1% of the trillions of US assets under management, are more likely to build diverse teams and invest in diverse founders.
Ford Foundation enlisted Morse in 2019 to establish a fund-of-funds to channel endowment capital to high-performing managers that may have faced obstacles winning mandates from institutional investors (read and listen, “Fairview Capital’s emerging wisdom about emerging and diverse fund managers (podcast),”).
“Standing ovation to New York Life for its leadership in advancing the common good through its strategic deployment of market rate investment capital,” Ford’s Roy Swan writes in a Linkedin post. The insurer, he added, “has set a new standard for corporations seeking to achieve market rate returns while generating positive economic impact.”
Racial equity lens
Since 2021, New York Life has tapped Fairview for $200 million in mandates, as part of the life insurer’s $1 billion impact commitment to bridge the racial wealth gap by investing in underserved and undercapitalized communities. “Our investment is a testament to our long-standing relationship and Fairview’s established and storied track record,” said New York Life’s Tony Malloy.
Through Fairview, New York Life has backed Momentus Capital to make small business loans tailored to entrepreneurs from underserved communities; Enterprise Community Partners’ Enterprise Community Loan Fund to improve access to affordable housing for low-income families; and IMPACT Community Capital to preserve US affordable housing.
Fairview’s Morse sits on New York Life’s impact advisory board.
