STARTEEPO INVEST HAS OBTAINED AN EXTENSION OF ITS LICENSE FROM THE CZECH NATIONAL BANK

Dear Investors,

We are pleased to inform you that, following a lengthy approval process with the Czech National Bank, our licence has been expanded. Until now, our fund operated as a self-managed structure with authorisation to manage itself. As of September 1, self-administration will also be added to this framework.

What changes does this bring?

The fund’s administrative processes will be made more efficient, as they will now be handled internally. This includes, for example, an expected reduction in the time required to calculate net asset value and share prices, as well as smoother settlement of investor subscriptions and redemptions. Until now, administration was provided by the Conseq Group. All administrative functions are now being taken over by the STARTEEPO team and Deloitte (who will handle accounting). Other partners remain unchanged, including the ČSOB Group, which serves as our main bank, depositary, and dealing partner (Patria Finance). The fund continues to be subject to audit by EY. We believe these changes will have a significantly positive impact on the fund’s overall operations.

Are fees changing?

For investors, the most important change is the reduction of the entry fee from 5.0% to 1.9% for both of our sub-funds. The method of calculating the administration fee is also changing (although in nominal terms this does not represent a significant change). The revised fee structure therefore brings cost savings on both sides. Investors should benefit from lower entry and management costs, while the fund gains additional revenue, which is already being used to expand the team (new risk analyst and administration manager) and invest in systems and processes that further improve our services.

The total expense ratio (TER) of the NEW AGE FUND sub-fund is now expected at 2.9% p.a., and CZEGG VENTURES at 2.1% p.a. This represents a reduction in annual costs by several tenths of a percent for both sub-funds. A detailed cost structure is provided in the updated statutes on the fund’s website www.starteepo.com/invest, effective as of September 1, 2022.

Truly responsible investing

At the same time, allow me to announce that our fund STARTEEPO Invest has decided to allocate 10% of its annual net income from collected fees to charitable causes each year, through our VAKOVAKO Foundation. This year, we have already donated CZK 1.5 million from our proceeds to Ukraine.

Following thorough research among selected investors, we are pleased that this initiative has been positively received. Therefore, within our sub-funds we have also introduced a unique rule—pioneering in the Czech Republic—where, in the event of a profit over the past 12 calendar months, the respective sub-fund contributes 0.05% monthly to charitable purposes (e.g., in the case of CZEGG VENTURES, approximately CZK 150,000 per month based on assets of CZK 300 million), transferred to the transparent account of VAKOVAKO Foundation, which subsequently redistributes the funds to selected projects. We are already in discussions, for example, with Klokánek from the Fund for Children in Need and other Czech organizations regarding specific projects and support.

Given that our investors have achieved an average annual return exceeding 20% p.a. since the fund’s inception, I consider this step negligible in terms of overall performance of our strategies, but extremely important in terms of the comprehensiveness of our partnership and services. In the Czech Republic, we are the only fund that does not merely speak about responsible investing in colorful terms, but actually takes real action.

I greatly appreciate that our investors perceive investing as an activity with moral overlap, one that finally has a tangible impact beyond just returns. In the September Fund Report, you will therefore read not only about the performance of our strategies, but also about the non-profit activities we are able to proudly support thanks to you.

Thank you all for your support!

Kind regards,

František Bostl, Founder of STARTEEPO