Regina Green, Catalyze

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Regina Green

Managing Director, Investments

Catalyze

play_circle_outline Catalyze platform supporting underrepresented investment managers

play_circle_outline GP Runway Fund provides working capital loans for first-time fund managers

play_circle_outline Bridge between philanthropic and for-profit investors

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Regina Green, Catalyze

Regina Green

Managing Director, Investments Catalyze

Catalyze's Vision at Forward Global Summit 2025

Regina Green, the managing director of investments at Catalyze, shares insights from the Forward Global Summit 2025. As a leader in the GP Runway Fund, an impact-driven initiative, Green illustrates how Catalyze shapes the future of investments with inclusivity and innovation at its core.

Regina Green spearheads strategies at Catalyze, channeling expertise into supporting underrepresented investment managers. Engaged by analysts from theCUBE Research, Green outlines how the GP Runway Fund prov... Read more

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What is the focus of supporting capital entrepreneurs and underrepresented and innovative investment managers in the asset management space? add

What is the purpose of the GP Runway Fund and what kind of support does it provide to managers raising their first fund? add

What are the benefits of the Catalyze team joining forces and bridging the gap between philanthropic funders and mission-aligned investors with the more commercial for-profit side of the industry of finance? add

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Regina Green, Catalyze

>> Welcome back everyone to theCUBE here in Los Angeles for the Forward Global Summit 2025. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. We're here where there's a confluence of thinkers, innovators, entrepreneurs, finance, philanthropists, all coming together to make collective change, new innovations in the systems. But the game is still the same, make the world a better place. Regina Green is here, managing director of investments at Catalyze. She leads the GP Runway Fund, which is an impact fund. Regina, thanks for coming on theCUBE.

Regina Green

>> Thanks for having me.

>> We're getting backed up here, but thanks for waiting and coming on. Appreciate it.

Regina Green

>> Of course. Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here.

>> All right. Talk about what you're doing because you've got some innovation happening. Set the table, what's your main role? What's the focus?

Regina Green

>> Sure. So just maybe to level set. Catalyze is a national platform. We focus on supporting what we call capital entrepreneurs. We describe that as underrepresented and innovative investment managers. So our focus from an impact standpoint is really trying to equip potential investors to build their first few investment funds, whether that's in venture capital, private equity, private credit. We think that the asset management space today doesn't reflect the full range of perspectives in our brighter society. And a lot of that is because it's really expensive and difficult to raise a first or second time fund. And so we want to provide support and advice. We started providing that support through a fund fellowship program where we provided operating support to new investment managers to think about how they build their firm, how do they execute best practices in their operations so that the funds that they're raising would be attractive to institutional investors. And we consistently heard from managers, especially those who didn't come from family wealth or have a prior exit of a company they started or something like that, that it was really expensive to start a fund and there wasn't a source of capital to help pay for some of those early fund formation and operational expenses. So we started the GP Runway Fund specifically to address that gap. So managers who are raising their first fund generally are not a credit that a bank would be willing to lend to. So we've now begun raising this Impact First Fund to provide working capital loans as managers are going through that fundraising process for one of their first three funds. And it's really to help address legal costs, hiring fund admin, a number of service providers that you need and that you want to have in place to demonstrate the strength of the firm and hopefully attract investors into the fund.

>> So I love the Runway name because it's just I say, "I need more runway, I need more cash."

Regina Green

>> Exactly.

>> So the target audience for this product, is that just people who want to start their own fund to deploy capital?

Regina Green

>> Yes.

>> Is that like a solo general partner kind of vibe? Is it more partner?

Regina Green

>> Yes. So we often have solo general partners. We sometimes have teams that they've been working together, maybe they've been investing in some of their own capital or they work together at another firm and they have a perspective that they feel like there's an investment opportunity that's not being captured. We're specifically focused on investors who have a different perspective that's not already present in the asset management space. So whether that's something from their demographics or their lived experience that gives them a different lens on identifying opportunity.

>> Yeah, not your classic banker type mentality, MBA that's out there.

Regina Green

>> Yeah. Exactly.

>> The mold that was... And also domain expertise.

Regina Green

>> Exactly.

>> That's why solo GP, I brought that up because I'm seeing entrepreneurs want to take that first round of funding from someone that they know.

Regina Green

>> Exactly.

>> Or they respect that has domain expertise. Certainly knowledge in the trenches early.

Regina Green

>> Yeah.

>> Do you see the same thing?

Regina Green

>> I think that's right. I mean, a lot of folks have prior operating background. Maybe they were a founder, they've built a network of other potential founders that they want to invest in, or they have some unique subject matter expertise beyond just, I happen to also have been a business school grad, but beyond just being an MBA or having worked at an investment bank.

>> I do too, so I can't .

Regina Green

>> But people often have really deep technical expertise, especially in areas like climate or healthcare where there's no shortage of problems that need to be solved and having capital directed in the right way could be-

>> Okay. So Regina, here's a scenario. So pretend for a minute I want to start theCUBE Fund. I see a lot of deal flow, I could have invested in Databricks, Snowflake, I had a lot of chances I could have. I just didn't think about it, but I've got to raise money. But hypothetically, if I come to a system like yours because my alternative is stop what I'm doing, my focus, go out and raise money, which is probably really a lot of hoops to jump through. What's the alternative? What would I do? Let's just say I want to do a CUBE Fund, I would need to have access to prospects to get debt, institutional money, whether it's family money or endowments or whatever, have the big money. People who usually put money in funds. That's what you do, right? So how does that work?

Regina Green

>> Yes. So I think part of it is you'd ideally have a network of whether it's high net worth individuals, family offices, relationships with asset managers who would want to invest as limited partners in your fund. And if you have those relationships, great. Usually that goes really smoothly with a lot of people.

>> Well, they have to agree.

Regina Green

>> Yeah, they have to agree, you're negotiating with them. For a lot of people, they don't have that network. They maybe have some friends and family who want to back them, but to raise enough capital at scale to really properly take advantage of the investment opportunity they need to build relationships with potential limited partners. Especially when it comes to the more institutional investors who are going to write those larger checks, they're going to really do deep diligence, they want to understand the operations of your firm, who's the team that you're working with? Who's the legal service providers? Do they feel good about your cybersecurity, your fund administration? How do we know we're going to get good reporting? And all of that stuff that costs a lot of money.

>> Yeah, that's a lot of bank and time.

Regina Green

>> Yeah, and a lot of time. Ideally, once you raise money from limited partners, they're paying you a management fee and that's going to cover those costs. But it's kind of a chicken in the egg because when you want them to be comfortable, ideally you'd have some money up front that you could invest in some of these operational expenses.

>> Yeah. And the big money donors, they have to have trust.

Regina Green

>> Yes. And that takes a long time to build.

>> That's why it's always been an inside game in the past. Which you're democratizing basically?

Regina Green

>> Yes. So we're really trying to help people expand those networks, expand what does an investment manager look like? Where do they come from? What's their background? I think today when you look at venture capital or other areas within asset management, we do see a lot of concentrations, 80% of capital goes to three states across the US. So maybe people are coming from different geographical backgrounds or networks or graduates from a handful of the top universities. So getting people who maybe went to a local college and have a network from the innovation labs that are started in some of these places, access to capital that they can invest.

>> Well, that's awesome work. Congratulations. You mentioned you've got a fiscal sponsor, so you got into the game too. Talk about that really, because I think that's the innovation, I'm seeing this idea of teaming up, partnering.

Regina Green

>> Yeah. What I was really excited about the Catalyze team and joining them is that they are trying to play this bridge between, we see often a lot of philanthropic funders or mission aligned investors who have capital that can be deployed in a really specific way. And sometimes the more commercial for-profit side of the industry of finance, they're very siloed spaces. So I think we were able to build a bridge between raising capital as a nonprofit ourselves, bringing in grant capital that helps us fund the fund fellowship program I mentioned. And then our GP Runway Fund is an Impact First Fund and so we were able to raise capital from foundations and from other investors who intentionally want to be catalytic in this space.

>> And it moves fast.

Regina Green

>> Yeah, it moves fast.

>> All right. So I have to ask you, since we're here at Forward Global, what do you think about the summit so far? What's your takeaways? Describe what they're doing here? I think they're innovating. I mean, I don't have a lot of comparables, but my perception of what the system was before I came here and got involved was not what I see now. So I commented on earlier. But from your perspective, what's the vibe? What's innovative about these guys? And what's the content like?

Regina Green

>> Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you. So this is my first Forward Global experience and it's been very different from my expectations. Some of my big takeaways are, one, just the cross-sectional. A lot of people are focused on a wide variety of issues here. So you've got folks who are focusing on journalism, the future of news, and how do we make sure that people across a range of different communities? I live in New York City, but there's a lot of local communities where the news business has really exited their space. And I think people are being really thoughtful about how can we enliven some of that? News is really critical both to our democracy as well as some of these areas that I'm focused on. And when you're thinking about what the future of a particular sector is going to be and where you should invest, you need information. I've been really inspired by the range of innovations, the willingness to be creative. Several of the sessions have been around this theme of breaking fake rules and how do we take some of the long held conventions and think about is there an opportunity to innovate or change the way we've historically thought about some of these issues or structural limitations on how we can deploy capital?

>> I love the other angle, to add to that. The radical imagination is a word I loved yesterday. I heard that from one of the speakers. And the other one was, "Stories drive movements." Which all innovation and change comes from movements, collective people working together and trust.

Regina Green

>> Yeah.

>> And you're providing that service to entrepreneurs and fund managers. So congratulations. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. Appreciate it.

Regina Green

>> Thank you for having me again.

>> Okay.

Regina Green

>> Lovely.

>> All the actions here, again, innovation in the systems are changing. That's the big takeaway. But the game is still the same. Provide good, create opportunities. Of course, theCUBE is doing its part sharing that data with you. Stay with us. I'm John Furrier, your host. Thanks for watching.