ABS Global pitches interval fund as RIA route into pre-IPO shares

ABS Global Investments launched its Pre-IPO & Growth Fund in February 2026 as an interval fund, InvestmentNews reported on October 9. An interval fund is a registered closed-end fund that buys back a set portion of its shares—typically 5% to 25%—at periodic intervals, according to the SEC's investor bulletin.

Stephen DiMaio, head of private wealth at the Stamford, Connecticut-based firm, says the structure opens pre-IPO investing to clients who do not clear an accreditation test. The old route ran through ten-year lockups and seven-figure minimums.

ABS research puts the average US company at more than 11 years old at IPO. DiMaio says roughly 86% of US companies with more than $100 million in annual revenue are private, and the median company spends about 12 years in private hands before listing.

The wrapper does not transfer selection risk. Seed and Series A deals fail 65% to 75% of the time and can take a decade or more to reach liquidity, DiMaio said, while Series D and later companies carry failure rates of 5% to 15% and exits that are often one to three years away. InvestmentNews notes that pre-IPO investing without valuation discipline carries risks of its own.

Cerulli Associates estimates financial advisors hold $2.2 trillion in private capital, with interval funds at about $132 billion at year-end 2025—roughly 6% of the total.

For an RIA, the choice is less about whether a client owns pre-IPO shares than about which vehicle holds them. As this publication has argued, the private-markets gateway is now the M&A target. ABS building and marketing its own interval fund is one data point for that claim: the 5%–25% repurchase window, the eligibility rules and the shareholder register sit with whoever runs the vehicle. Family offices that have been adding private equity face the same terms on a longer horizon.