As part of a plan to build out its venture capital capabilities, a $12 billion outsourced chief investment officer has added a seasoned investor to its team.
Kate Simpson has joined GEM as a managing director to oversee its venture capital platform. This includes sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities, developing manager relationships, and guiding portfolio construction.
Previously, Simpson was a partner at TrueBridge Capital Partners, where she led the customized solutions business. She was also advisor at Atlas Diligence, a director at Parish Capital Advisors, and an investment associate at UNC Management Co. She serves as trustee and chair of the finance committee at St. Andrew’s School and previously served on the board of the John Rex Endowment.
Simpson told Institutional Investor that she had been following GEM for years and had long respected the firm. “So, when they called about this role a few months ago it was a pretty easy conversation to have,” she said.
In the same interview, GEM’s head of investments Jay Ripley said the firm has been building out its alternatives business in anticipation of demand for venture capital to expand in the years ahead. “We intend to grow in this area,” he said, adding that the asset class is often “misunderstood by the broader industry.”
Ripley believes venture capital “is at an inflection point,” shifting from small partnerships to a bifurcated "barbell" market. This change demands LPs be more active in key markets, prompting GEM to strategically expand its team to effectively navigate this new landscape.
“It’s a time of great change in the field,” Ripley said. “The old playbook is not going to work as well as it has in the past. Access is the name of the game. So, we’ve been growing our team to be able to sift through more opportunities and identify them more quickly.”
According to Simpson, allocators are struggling to get the returns that they want with VC. And while she admits “it’s not rocket science” to figure out the winners, “what matters is access.”
“It’s a really hard market to navigate,” she added. “It’s hard to screen and meet with hundreds of VCs. It’s hard to decipher the signal from the noise. It’s not easy to make sense of track records from that environment.”
GEM has deployed more than $2 billion into venture capital. There are now seven people at GEM that work on VC on a day-to-day basis.
Earlier this year, GEM named Matt Bank co-CIO as part of a multi-year succession plan. Bank will share the role with Mike Smith, the current investment chief, through 2025 before taking over as sole CIO next year.
