Committed Capital

What Is Committed Capital?

Committed capital is the money that an investor has agreed to contribute to an investment fund. The term is typically used in relation to alternative investments, such as venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds.

Unlike publicly traded instruments, such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), VC funds and other alternative investments are relatively illiquid. As such, their managers rely on investors' committed capital to ensure they have adequate resources to fund their acquisition pipeline and administrative expenses.

Committed capital should not be confused with capital commitment, which is when a broker-dealer or investment bank agrees to participate in a client trade using the firm's own money.

Understanding Committed Capital

Investors who wish to contribute funds to alternative investment firms generally believe that they will enjoy a higher risk-adjusted return than is possible in more traditional asset classes. Yet in seeking these benefits, investors must be prepared to accept more restrictive terms.

PE-type funds generally offer less oversight than their traditional peers and also require investors to commit ahead of time to their capital contributions. These contributions can either be made upfront or over an agreed-upon period of time. The size of these contributions is also much larger than in most investment vehicles, with minimum contribution sizes typically above $1 million.

Traditionally, investors who commit capital to PE funds will have several years to make good on the commitment. Failing to do so can lead to penalties, such as the forfeiture of a portion of the investor's share of future profits. In some cases, the offending investors may also be required to sell their interest in the fund, either to other existing partners or to approved third parties.

Under most agreements, investors will have a certain timeframe in which to supply committed capital. 

How Committed Capital Is Used

Depending on the structure of the fund, committed capital may be allocated toward specific investments or it might be drawn into a general-purpose fund called a blind pool. In the latter scenario, the investor will not know ahead of time which exact investments their capital will be used to fund. Instead, they will only know the general strategy being pursued, leaving the details to be arranged by the fund managers.

In other cases, funds will disclose the specific acquisitions for which they are raising capital, along with their overarching strategy. In this case, investors can decide if they wish to participate in funding each specific project. If they believe that the strategy is enticing but are less enthusiastic about the next acquisition in the fund's pipeline, they can delay making their contribution until they are presented with a more compelling option within that strategy.

This method of investing is generally favored by investors who value a greater sense of control. On the other hand, it can potentially undermine fund performance by limiting the fund managers' ability to act opportunistically in search of the highest possible investment returns.

Example of Committed Capital

Suppose you are the owner of XYZ Capital, a PE firm specializing in mature industrial companies in the Pacific Northwest. In attracting investor capital, your fund provides detailed information regarding its investment strategy, including examples of past acquisitions and a timeline of expected future acquisitions.

Rather than raising capital on a per-acquisition basis, however, your fund raises money into a blind pool. Your investors then trust that you will allocate their capital into investments that are consistent with the agreed-upon strategy, without needing to review and approve each individual investment.

To implement this fundraising model, you request that committed capital be paid at any time within a one- to three-year window following the initiation of the fund. Minimum contribution sizes are set at $1 million. If investors fail to render their contributions on time, they might be required to sell their stake in the fund to an approved party.

Once collected, the committed capital is then used to finance the planned investments as well as to cover administrative expenses, such as fees, salaries, travel expenses, and due diligence costs.