Compass EMP Funds's team is expanding and management is pondering acquisitions. It's all thanks to a new private equity offering, the 18-year-old Nashville-based mutual fund firm's first outside capital raise, that Compass EMP revealed yesterday.

Rob Walker, president of Compass EMP Funds, confirmed that the asset manager filed to raise up to $3 million and that the offering was "fully subscribed," thanks to individual investors. (No private equity firms or investment banks were involved.)

Walker told The MFWire that, thanks to the new capital, he's already hired four new employees in the past month, and he plans to add eight to ten more over the next several quarters. He's even considering acquisitions, though he doesn't have a target in his sights just yet.

"We are strategic in our acquisition process," Walker said. "We would have to find a manager with a similar strategy."

Compass EMP first entered the mutual fund business three years ago. Now the fund family boasts three open-ended mutual funds with about $330 million in assets and 34 employees. (The non-mutual fund side of the business boasts more than $400 million in assets.)

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Company Press Release

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Compass EMP Funds announced today the closing of a private equity offering to secure growth capital. The offering was fully subscribed and proceeds will be used to accelerate the nationwide marketing and distribution of the Compass EMP Mutual Funds to financial advisors and their broker-dealer platforms.

"We are excited to partner with this collection of private investors who believe in our vision and wish to participate in our continued growth," said Rob Walker, president of Compass EMP Funds. "Financial advisors are seeking new strategies for their clients in these volatile markets. By making our mutual funds available more broadly, we hope to be part of that solution."

Compass EMP Funds manages a family of three open-end mutual funds that have brought investing in alternative asset classes to mainstream investors at a low minimum investment. Alternative asset classes (which exclude traditional securities like domestic stocks and bonds) can serve as a hedging strategy because they tend to react to market conditions differently than traditional investments. Access to these strategies has typically only been available to large, institutions and high net worth investors.

About Compass EMP Funds: Compass EMP Funds is a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC and offers globally diversified, multi-asset class investment portfolios and mutual funds to institutions, financial advisors and their clients. Compass EMP Funds was founded in 1996 by David J. Moore, CFP®. Stephen M. Hammers, CIMA® serves as Chief Investment Officer. For additional information, visit the websites www.CompassEMP.com and www.CompassEMPFunds.com

SOURCE Compass EMP Funds 

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