Litigation Funder Bentham Launches $200M US Investment Vehicle

One of the world’s largest litigation funders has just launched a $200 million vehicle expressly to back its growing US portfolio.

The new facility was raised by Australian-based IMF Bentham on behalf of its US affiliate Bentham IMF.  It’s the parent company’s first formal investment vehicle and will exclusively be used to finance its US cases and investments. Bentham’s unnamed partner, affiliated with a prominent hedge fund, is committing $150 million while IMF Bentham will commit up to $50 million.

Since launching US operations in 2011, Bentham has made 45 separate investments in American litigation matters, concluding 14 of those with an average internal rate of return of 83% over a typical time period of around 1.4 years. Overall, IMF has completed 187 dispute matters globally since 2001, with an average IRR of 59% and an investment period of around 2.4 years.

“This capital raise underscores investor confidence in litigation finance and Bentham’s position as one of the top companies in the industry,” said Charlie Gollow, Bentham’s U.S. Chief Executive. “It will allow us to increase the average size of our investments.”

IMF CEO Andrew Saker added, “Bentham has established an impressive track record within the United States over the past six years. This fund affords us additional capital to maintain that position while meeting the demand we expect to see in the market in the next three years. It will also enable us to scale up our U.S. operations accordingly, with the launch of one new office this quarter and another on the horizon.”

Bentham is considering the launch of a separate funding vehicle to back non-US investments in the coming year.