Ami Capital has reached a USD 40m first close on its debut fund that will invest in US and European consumer brands seen as having Asia expansion potential.

The fund, which has a target of USD 75m, has already made five investments – ranging from a team in the MotoGP competition to a winter sports league founded by former Olympic snowboarder Shaun White. It is tracking opportunities across wellness and longevity, lifestyle, sports, and entertainment.

“Most of the innovation is still in the US and Europe, so that’s where we deploy, but we will help these brands access Asian markets,” said Tyler Bulakul, a managing partner at Ami Capital.

“We see the kind of double-digit CAGR growth in wellness and longevity that we’ve previously seen in luxury. We are mainly interested in tier-one cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok and Seoul, where there is a concentration of individuals who have capital and are used to purchasing foreign brands and where there is strong tourist traffic.”

Bulakul is one of three managing partners alongside Charles de Carvalho and Seiji Liu. They first met at Wharton Business School and then forged separate careers as investors and operators.

Bulakul most recently worked for L Catterton in Asia, while de Carvalho – whose family is the controlling shareholder in Heineken – started out in the region with Lazada before transitioning into private equity in Europe with the likes of McKinsey & Company and Cherry Ventures. Liu is a US-based banker-turned-entrepreneur who founded health and wellness platform Forme Science.

The goal is to leverage their connections and Asia expertise to win allocations to funding rounds as a non-lead investor. Target companies are typically at the Series B or C stage with enterprise values of USD 50m to USD 100m. Ami Capital writes initial cheques of USD 2m-USD 3m – one-third of the fund will be reserved for follow-ons – for ownership stakes in the 3%-10% range.

“Targeting stakes of that size, the dilution is more for the founder, and it’s relatively easy for them to go to the board and say, ‘Ami Capital will get 3% and they will help us in Asia.’ For most consumer brands, Asia is going to be a big part of their story, even it isn’t right now,” said de Carvalho. “I’ve yet to speak to a founder that is unwilling to carve out 3% for us.”

The five existing investments, which were warehoused before being placed in the fund following the first close, are the Red Bull KTM Tech3 MotoGP team, winter sports league The Snow League, performance running apparel and lifestyle brand Bandit Running, six-on-six football and media streaming platform Baller League, and pet food brand Omni.

MotoGP, now a sister asset of Formula One following an acquisition by Liberty Media last year, has a 500m-strong fanbase, two-thirds of which is in Asia, said Bulakul. There are already races in Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and Ami Capital is helping MotoGP explore opportunities in Vietnam.

“Vietnam is the next logical place. When we raised it with MotoGP, they said, ‘If you can find us a good partner, we would happily consider it,” he added.

Ami Capital sees similar upside for Baller League, which was founded in Germany. It has barely penetrated Asia but seems a good fit for the region as an indoor, short-form concept – each match comprises 15-minute halves – that appeals to younger, digitally active audience. Events are not ticketed and matches are streamed for free, so most of the revenue comes from sponsorship.

“We want to invest where the next generation of consumers are going to spend time and money, and that’s sports, live events, ticketing, and short-form content,” said de Carvalho.

“This kind of football is bigger than 11-a-side in Asia, so they see a big opportunity out here. One of our LPs owns a Malaysian football team, and they are keen to build a relationship with Baller League. There are plans to enter Malaysia and even to do a mini-World Cup in Southeast Asia.”

The Fund I LP base is dominated by family offices and high net worth individuals. More than one-third of the capital in the first close was raised out of Asia, and the Malaysian example is typical of the strategic angle. Families might have already made money helping Western brands expand in the region, or they own distribution assets that can support such efforts.

De Carvalho observed that LPs were attracted not only by the prospect of co-investment follow-on rounds, but also by the size of Ami Capital’s GP commitment – at 33%, it is high by industry standards. The relatively small fund size was also a factor, with few sponsors in this segment offering cross-border competencies but plenty of larger players willing to facilitate exits.

“We’ve been LPs in funds where the lifespan gets dragged out to 15-plus years,” he said. “We wanted to devise a strategy with shorter holding periods and faster DPI [distributions to paid-in]. Small cheques are part of that because it’s easier to get in – you can get an allocation – and it’s easier to exit.”