EUROPE - NewAlpha, a hedge-fund seeding specialist, has launched its fourth seeding fund, dubbed Genesis 4.

The company said it hoped to raise €200m from institutional investors, family offices, private banks and sovereign funds across Europe for the fund.

The fund will invest in "French and foreign hedge funds" run by early-stage managers.

Antoine Rolland, chief executive and CIO at NewAlpha, said the crisis in 2008 had forced many investors to pool their positions with only the most established managers.

This, she said, not only created a number of "major concentration risks", it also deprived investors of the innovation smaller managers can provide.

"These early-stage managers deliver higher returns," she added, "mainly due to their relatively pure investment style and adaptability to increasingly turbulent market conditions."

Established in 2003, NewAlpha is a subsidiary of the OFI Group set up to support the development of early-stage and emerging fund managers.

To date, it has invested more than €380m in 14 fund managers on behalf of French and Swiss institutional investors.

The closing date for the Genesis 4 fund is end-October.