Continuation vehicles: what the preliminary research says
Continuation vehicles have gone from five transactions in 2018 to 85 in 2025. We review what the first wave of empirical research — including the largest CV dataset assembled to date — says about which managers launch them, which assets get transferred, how LPs decide, and whether returns actually differ.
Measuring what matters: benchmarking for the year ahead
As a new year begins, allocators face a deceptively simple question: How do we measure success in a market that keeps changing?
In public markets, benchmarking is straightforward. Returns are compared against widely accepted indices. Risk is assessed through volatility and expected loss. Performance can be observed daily.
Private markets are different.
Webinar: cash flow forecasting and predictive analytics in illiquid markets
Following the publication of “Takahashi–Alexander Revisited: Modeling Private Equity Portfolio Outcomes Using Historical Simulations” in The Journal of Portfolio Management, CFA Society Boston hosted a webinar featuring authors Alex Billias and Sam Holt, COO and Principal at Bella, to discuss challenges in liquidity modeling. They explored the strengths and limitations of the industry’s traditional forecasting […]
Knight Foundation diversity study
In a study funded by the Knight Foundation, we offer a comprehensive look at diverse ownership of asset management firms. In addition to quantifying the representation of women- and minority-owned firms in the U.S. asset management industry, this report also explores the performance of diverse-owned funds and finds them to perform just as well as […]
Best practices for angel networks
In 2019, Bella was commissioned by Victorian state-government funded body LaunchVic to conduct a deep dive into the global investing landscape and to provide recommendations for newly-formed and seasoned angel investors alike. View a summary of the report on LaunchVic’s website here. To request a copy of the full report, please email hello@launchvic.org. The Report […]
Angel groups: giving startups their wings
Entrepreneurs and the companies they start are pivotal for stimulating the innovation needed for economies to grow and societies to progress. We all know the stories of the founders who built their global companies out of a one-car garage or their freshman dorm room, but the individuals and groups that provided them the needed funding […]
Digitization: a path to creating value
Have you ever walked into the office and pulled out your phone to check your schedule for the day— only to see a notification that it’s your mother’s birthday? And you forgot to get her a gift. Luckily, you recently sent her flowers for Mother’s Day through the local florist’s new website. The payment information […]
An intolerance of failure? Evidence from U.S. private equity
In our 2018 Diverse Asset Management Study (found here), we show that the asset management industry is characterized by extremely low levels of diversity in ownership. Overall, diverse-owned managers – defined as asset managers with significant female or ethnic minority ownership – control just 1.3% of all US-based managers’ assets [1]. Our results also indicate […]
2018 diverse asset management study
Few people would be shocked to learn that the asset management industry remains a [white] boys’ club. But we have the evidence. Our 2018 Diverse Asset Management Firm Assessment (and update to our 2017 diversity study) funded by the Knight Foundation, shows that the industry is characterized by strikingly low levels of diversity. In our […]