Betashares has today announced a significant expansion of its investment offering with the formation of Betashares Private Capital, a dedicated division focused on delivering institutional grade private market investment solutions to wholesale investors, Australian financial advisers and their clients.
The development marks a significant milestone in our mission to help Australians achieve their financial goals by providing access to intelligent investment opportunities. Private assets can offer a compelling risk-adjusted return profile and can be highly complementary to a diversified investment portfolio of equities and bonds. As a result, there has been strong demand from investors and their financial advisers for high calibre exposures in Australia.
Betashares Private Capital will selectively partner with leading global private asset managers to deliver improved access to institutional-grade investment opportunities that traditionally have been reserved for the world’s largest investors.
The first partnership is with US-based fund manager, Cliffwater. Underpinning this partnership is a shared belief in the value of cost-effective and diversified investments, which in this case will extend to offering an AUD-hedged exposure to their flagship US private credit strategy.
The underlying Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund Platform provides exposure to direct loans to primarily US middle market companies. Cliffwater utilises an innovative ‘multi-lender’ model, partnering with a number of the world’s leading lenders, such as Carlyle, HPS and Barings (among others), to build a highly selective and diversified portfolio of loans with attractive yields.
The Fund Platform currently has exposure to over 3,900 loans across varied industries including IT, Healthcare, Industrials and Financials. It has provided investors with attractive, income paid quarterly, by investing predominantly in senior secured, floating-rate loans to healthy businesses. This high-quality loan portfolio historically has demonstrated a high degree of capital stability and has returned 9.63% net annualised in US dollars since inception in June 2019, as at the end of June 2025.1
In recognition of their track record and pedigree, Cliffwater has had strong support from US financial advisers and their clients and ranks among the top US private credit fund managers for investment inflows. The firm now manages the largest suite of private markets interval funds, including US$30 billion in its flagship private credit fund that Betashares will access. Over time, Betashares and Cliffwater will look to deepen their partnership by extending the range of investment exposures available to eligible Australian investors.
Importantly, we will offer exposure to private assets in a responsible way that aligns with the liquidity profile of the underlying portfolio holdings. The new fund will be initially made available in Australia as an unlisted fund via investment platforms to financial advisers for client portfolios, and to investors who qualify as wholesale clients, via Betashares Direct. As part of its new offering, we are committed to enhancing investor education in this market segment and will be delivering institutional grade investment materials and educational content about private assets, their risks, benefits and their place in a well-rounded portfolio.
Betashares’ first private credit exposure is expected to launch in late August.
1. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance of any fund. Returns of the underlying Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund do not take into consideration the impact of currency fluctuations or any fees and costs of the Betashares fund. Performance information relating to the Betashares fund will be available on the Betashares website after the fund launches.
