New York (HedgeCo.Net) – New hedge funds in the US netted over $34 billion in last year’s explosive launch environment, posting the best fundraising total in a decade, Absolute Return research shows.

The largest was the Two Sigma Absolute Return Macro Master Fund from leading quantitative investor Two Sigma. The vehicle raised a whopping $3.3 billion as of January 1.

In total, 84 managers raised $34.11 billion, compared to the $20.77 billion total one year earlier. 2014’s total was close to the peak for new launches in 2004 when 81 new funds raised $39.5 billion.

The top 12 launches each raised a billion or more, accounting for more than $20 billion – or nearly 60% – of total assets raised.

eVestment reports that hedge fund assets increased 2.02% in February of 2015 bringing the industry’s total asset under management to $3.082 trillion. Investors added an estimated $13.0 billion of new capital to the industry in February and performance gains increased AUM an additional $48.1 billion.

Event driven funds also saw new money come in during February, with estimated inflows of $2.6 billion during the month. Interest in funds that employ activist approaches appears to be strong so far in 2015. This subset of event driven funds accounted for nearly all of the broad strategy’s reported inflows in February.

The top five launches can be found below:

Alex Akesson
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