'Raising significant assets in the current difficult fundraising climate is a major validation of Wood Creek's focus on niche investments,' says Brett D. Hellerman, chief executive of Wood Creek. 'This transaction cements Wood Creek's position as the market leader focused on new and esoteric alternative investments. With it we continue to add leading global institutional investors to our client roster.'  

Over the past four years Wood Creek has found a broad range of unique investment ideas in the world of alternative alternatives.

'Given the recent experience in traditional public and private markets there is a huge demand from institutional investors for investment products that lower correlation to more traditional asset classes, hedge funds and other alternative investments. Wood Creek is meeting that demand by offering investable solutions to increase portfolio efficiency,' says Jonathan P. Rotolo, managing director of Wood Creek.

The firm expects the alternative alternatives universe to experience a lot of growth over the next two to three years as institutional investors review their investment allocations, alter how they manage their portfolios and become more active participants in the investment process.

Wood Creek was formed in August of 2005 by management in partnership with MassMutual Financial Group. The firm was created to develop and manage the next generation of alternative investment funds - what it calls alternative alternatives.

Areas of focus for Wood Creek include: intellectual property; hard assets; intangible assets; new non-financial markets; trade finance; and environmental finance.

Wood Creek generally does not invest in financial securities arbitrage strategies or in traditional debt and equity securities.