A private investment vehicle designed to generate exceptional investor returns with lasting social and environmental impact.
aboutus
Bedford Funds is an opportunity zone private equity fund currently raising $2.0 billion to deploy through an investment strategy designed to generate exceptional investor returns net of all fees, costs, carry and federal income tax.
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Bedford focuses predominately on operating technology companies and is not a real estate fund.
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​Additionally, and in alignment with the intent of the enabling Opportunity Zone federal tax legislation, Bedford's strategy is designed to generate economic growth, wealth creation, and social impact in targeted economically distressed communities and industries across the nation.
pittsburgh builds things
ourteam
Bedford’s core team includes career private equity professionals and sector-focused tech company operations leaders, with deep experience is all phases of company and private equity portfolio creation, management, operations, back-office, and exits.
The Fund’s CEO, President, and CFO are senior private equity professionals with over 30 years’ experience in all phases of private capital investing, operations, turn-around, and portfolio management in private equity funds and family offices. The other partners all have both private capital and operating company P&L leadership experience.
The focus of the team’s expertise is heavily weighted toward building and developing energy, training, and food technology investments through direct operations of assets and portfolio management.
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Additionally, through Bedford CEO's leadership role at the Energy Innovation Center Institute, the group commands unique international convening power on investment strategy industries unlike any other investment vehicle in the U.S. at this time.
ourfounders
The six founding principals have considerable experience creating investor value over their careers.
A differentiator of the group is that their expertise also includes meaningful experience and expertise working effectively in economically distressed neighborhoods.
This rare combination of private equity asset, portfolio, and technology company operations leadership experience along with significant Environmental, Social, and Governmental (ESG) work experience aligns well with the intent of the Opportunity Zone legislation.
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The Managing Directors have been working together over the last 10+ years in various capacities and relationships.
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ourexecutives
Value creation is all about team and culture.
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Innovations decay.
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​Strategies, technologies, and revenue models come and go.
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Strong teams with a culture based on core principals will always create value in new ways and reduce operational, market, and investment risks along the way.
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Over the last year Bedford's founding Managing Directors have been assembling a team of highly talented sector-focused executives to run many of the Fund's investment strategy plays. Most of these men and women and are long-time business associates and past partners.
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OURADVISORS
OURSTRATEGY
Bedford Funds is unique in the national Opportunity Zone Fund space,
by focusing on operating technology companies in several related sectors of the economy, rather than real estate development.
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Our primary strategic investment verticals are organized around:
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Future of Energy | Future of Work | Future of Food & Healthy Living
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All investments are based upon:
team expertise,
the ability to generate exceptional investor returns, and
positive social impact.
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This value creation strategy is accelerated by leveraging a “force-multiplier effect” derived from deploying all of the investment verticals into innovation ecosystems in Pittsburgh and nationwide. When the current lineup of portfolio investments are fully scaled to multiple opportunity zones across the U.S., Bedford’s strategy will help address many of the modern redlines these communities face, by strategically driving employment and agency.
esgobjectives
When viewed holistically, Bedford's investment strategy's unifying theme is apparent, coherent, reduces portfolio risks, and also helps drive several social and environmental objectives while generating strong investor returns.
Specifically, the strategy coalesces around profitable, scalable operating businesses and technologies for which the team has deep investing and operating expertise, addresses energy related environmental issues, and that also help erase modern ‘redlining’.
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Redlining is typically best know for bank lending practices that denied or overcharge loans to distressed populations.
Modern redline also includes systematic denial of various services to residents of specific, often racially associated, neighborhoods or communities, either directly or through the selective raising of prices.
Modern redlining often now include accessible jobs at family sustaining wages, food, health, education and technologies.
Bedford's method for generating both top tier returns and the ESG outcome of addressing modern redlining, aligns well with the Economics of Mutuality or Conscious Capitalism.
Both can be defined as a business approach that emphasizes creating extraordinary outcomes for all stakeholders.
Businesses that employ theses principles are more innovative, less risky, and better positioned to deliver superior performance in the long term, because all stakeholders along the value chain have a vested interest in the success of their business and the others.
This approach is a philosophy based on a simple idea that when practiced consciously, business elevates humanity.
Of course, as investment professionals, we still want to achieve exceptional returns for our partners.
Bedford's blended risk investment strategy expect to deliver private equity returns of mid-teens IRR net of all fees, costs, carry, and investor federal income taxes. There are also multiple opportunities in the strategy for returns to exceed this target meaningfully. All while simultaneously generating positive social and environmental impact
Part of the Fund’s ability to deliver the dual objectives of exceptional investor returns and social/environmental impact is through the tax benefits of the enabling OZF legislation.
findUS
Energy Innovation Center
1435 Bedford Avenue, Suite 108
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219
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CONTACTUS
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Bedford is not a real estate fund, please do not submit real estate investment opportunities for consideration.
Bedford is NOT soliciting an investment in the Fund through this website.
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Qualified Investors should contact
Dean Praskach, Managing Director and CFO
for information.