Investors who want to bet on the global robotics industry can now do so through a newly-launched specialist fund, the RoboCap UCITS Fund.
Managed by ‘regulatory incubator’ Sturgeon Ventures and investment adviser RoboCap, the fund will invest in technologies such as 3D-printing in manufacture and high-precision surgical robotics, Sturgeon and RoboCap said in a joint announcement today.
The fund will aim to hold between 22 and 30 long positions in companies listed in the US, Japan and Western Europe, with an investment time frame of approximately 12 months.
RoboCap managing director Jonathan Cohen said: “Robotics and automation are creating disruptive changes in every single industry. But we are now at an inflexion point, because the cost and performance of robots and the average wages in manufacturing are now converging.”
RoboCap said robotics and automation stocks have delivered an internal rate of return of more than 17% over the last 10 years. It estimated that the market for the sector will exceed $10trn by 2025.
The London-based fund is targeted at institutional, high net worth and family office investors, with a minimum investment of £10,000 (and the approximate equivalent in euros, US dollars and Swiss francs). It is open to international investors, Sturgeon and RoboCap said.
The RoboCap UCITS Fund is the latest robotics fund to launch in the last three months. Pictet Asset Management launched its own such fund in October.
