TORONTO, Oct. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veripath Farmland Funds (“Veripath”) today announced the launch of two open-ended, evergreen farmland funds – Veripath Farmland LP and Veripath Farmland (UR) LP– on DealSquare. Powered by NEO technology, DealSquare is a joint initiative between Silver Maple Ventures and NEO to make private markets better and more accessible.
Veripath is a Canadian alternative investment firm, specializing in farmland funds, based on the premise that farmland is an excellent long-term investment, driven by unprecedented worldwide demand for agricultural products needed for food, feed, and fuel. Canadian farmland alone represents a market of over 160 million acres, with an estimated total capitalization of approximately $500 billion.
The firm’s current portfolio includes two evergreen farmland offerings – Veripath Farmland LP and Veripath Farmland (UR) LP. The former is structured to own farmland in Saskatchewan and Manitoba only, the latter to own farmland across the rest of Canada. By dividing investments into separate vehicles, Veripath is able to simplify and streamline the various provincial regulatory regimes. And by using an open-ended, evergreen structure rather than the traditional fixed term approach, investors can select the holding period that best suits their portfolio requirements, allowing both shorter and longer duration holdings to exist side by side. Overall, Veripath’s current aggregate portfolio holdings include approximately 20,000 acres of Canadian farmland, diversified across geography and operators, with plans to add another 20,000, bringing the portfolio to over 40,000 acres by the end of 2020.
“We’re excited to welcome new investors into the fold as we gain access to untapped capital sources and additional market exposure through this offering on DealSquare,” noted Carmon Blacklock, Vice President of Investments & Operations at Veripath Farmland Partners.
DealSquare is an online private placement platform for dealers, investment advisors, and capital raisers. The centralized platform gives registered users the ability to efficiently find, analyze, share, and subscribe to private market deals. DealSquare offers a fully digital and automated process, allowing capital raisers to publish their private placement opportunities, dealers to complete their due diligence, and advisors and investors to electronically subscribe to a deal. Exempt securities are seamlessly integrated into client accounts and dealer back office systems using NEO technology.
“We’re proud to launch Veripath Farmland Funds on the DealSquare platform. Farmland is an attractive asset class that offers income, capital appreciation, and diversification,” said Peter-Paul Van Hoeken, Managing Director of DealSquare. “The listing of Veripath Farmland Funds on DealSquare provides dealers, advisors, and their clients better access to this unique investment opportunity.”
“By capitalizing on the low-volatility return profile of Canadian farmland, Veripath’s two funds offer an attractive investment opportunity,” added Jos Schmitt, President & CEO of NEO. “Through their private placement offering on DealSquare, Veripath gains exposure to a wider investor audience, while providing investors with a fully-digitized platform to access the investment opportunity which otherwise would have been unavailable.”
To view the Veripath Farmland LP offering on DealSquare, available in three classes (A, P and W), click here, and to view the Veripath Farmland (UR) LP offering, also available in three classes (A, P and W), click here.
About Veripath
Veripath is a Canadian alternative investment firm. Members of Veripath’s management team have decades of farmland, private equity and private credit investment experience. Veripath implements its farmland strategy in a way that seeks to preserve as far as possible farmland’s low-volatility return profile – the attribute that generates a material portion of Canadian farmland’s superior risk adjusted return profile. Veripath does this by seeking to minimize operational, weather, geographic and business-related risks – and capture the pure return from land appreciation.
Connect with Veripath: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
About DealSquare
A joint initiative between NEO and Silver Maple Ventures, DealSquare, is Canada’s first centralized dealer platform for private placements, digitally connecting capital-raisers to investment dealers, their advisory networks, and their investors. With the complete roll-out of the platform in early 2020, DealSquare supports the entire private placement process: capital raisers publish their private placement opportunities; dealers complete their due diligence; and advisors electronically subscribe to a deal, with exempt securities seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems utilizing NEO technology.
Connect with DealSquare: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
About NEO
NEO is a group of established fintech companies that provide capital markets infrastructure designed for and led by the industry. NEO’s competitive drive, innovation, and advocacy enable change for the better. The NEO Exchange is a progressive stock exchange that brings together investors and capital raisers within a fair, efficient, and service-oriented environment; and DealSquare, powered by NEO technology, is a platform that enables the distribution of financial assets not listed on a stock exchange in a way that reduces costs, minimizes operational risks, and improves the investor experience.
Connect with NEO: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn
About Silver Maple Ventures
Silver Maple Ventures Inc. (“SMV”) is an exempt market dealer and holding company of FrontFundr Financial Services Inc. (“FrontFundr”) and DealSquare Technologies Inc. (“DealSquare”). With offices in Toronto and Vancouver, the SMV team are national leaders in the private capital markets, developing and operating two fintech platforms to provide access to private markets in Canada and simplify the transaction process.