I am looking to register a venture capital fund, potentially under a structure like the UK’s Limited Partnership (LP) or another relevant structure. What are the key Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) registration or compliance steps I need to be aware of?
The decision of what domicile to set up (register) a venture capital fund in can be complex, especially if a fund manager resides in a different jurisdiction. While many fund managers ultimately decide to set up a Delaware fund, there are many factors to take into account with respect to this question, such as:
- Regulations regarding soliciting limited partners to invest in the fund (both in the fund's domicile and in the fund manager's resident domicile);
- Taxes, especially cross borders ones (including personal);
- Cost of administrative, tax, legal, accounting, and regulatory burdens across borders (which may double or more);
- A domicile's suitability for venture capital in general, including the industries or sectors a fund manager desires to invest in;
- Etc.
It's important to carefully evaluate all factors before doing any entity setup. While we aren't able to go into any specific details regarding running a UK registered Fund while residing in Canada, in our general experience, this may be...quite expensive and burdensome, regulatory-wise as well as tax-wise.