VCC Fund Setup Singapore
Set up a Variable Capital Company with FundBridge as its licensed fund manager, and the administrator, custodian and auditor appointed and run for you
Why Managers Choose the VCC
Singapore's older fund structures, companies and unit trusts, were never designed for pooled investment. The Variable Capital Company, introduced in 2020, was. A VCC can issue and redeem shares without shareholder approval, so a fund can raise and return capital continuously. The same vehicle type carries open-ended and closed-ended strategies, and an umbrella VCC can hold several sub-funds, each with its own segregated assets and liabilities.
Managers have taken to it quickly. MAS figures put roughly 1,200 VCCs and 2,695 sub-funds incorporated by the end of 2024, with private equity and venture capital the largest single use. FundBridge has launched more than 35 funds. We set up and run both umbrella and standalone VCCs, and private limited companies and unit trusts where those suit a mandate better.
Umbrella or Standalone
Umbrella VCC
Several strategies under one entity. Each sub-fund keeps its assets and liabilities segregated from the others, while the umbrella shares one board, one governance layer and one set of service-provider relationships. Adding a strategy later means adding a sub-fund instead of standing up another company with its own board and audit, which keeps the administration cost per fund down.
Standalone VCC
One fund in its own VCC. It suits a single strategy that will not need a second sub-fund, or investors who want their fund held in an entity of its own. It keeps the VCC's flexibility over issuing and redeeming capital without the umbrella around it.
What FundBridge Does
Fills the Licensed Manager Role
Every VCC must have a permissible fund manager that is licensed and based in Singapore. FundBridge holds a Capital Markets Services licence from MAS and takes that role, along with the director and regulatory functions around it, so those are not appointments you source and pay for before launch. A launch on the platform typically takes two to three months.
Appoints and Runs the Service Providers
We appoint the fund administrator, custodian and auditor, and keep coordinating them once the fund is live. We review NAV calculations and run investor onboarding, including KYC and AML checks.
Works the Tax Incentive Applications
We have secured 13O and 13U tax incentives for many vehicles on the platform. Whether your fund qualifies is a question for your tax advisors, and we run the application alongside them.
What Stays With Your Advisors
FundBridge runs the operational half of a VCC launch. Anything specific to your fund's own terms stays with your legal counsel and tax advisors: the constitutive and offering documents, side letters, and the tax position of the fund and its investors. Where a question belongs to them, we will say so rather than absorb it.
Why legal and tax advice is not optional →
Running the VCC After Launch
A VCC carries ongoing obligations of its own. The permissible fund manager has to stay in place, and MAS circulars have sharpened expectations around custody arrangements and continuing training for directors and staff. On the platform, that work runs through a compliance team already doing it for other vehicles. You are still expected to understand what the fund must do and to work within the platform's controls.
Compare platform and standalone launches →A Singapore VCC or an Offshore Vehicle?
A VCC makes sense when Singapore is the right domicile, and that depends on where the investors and the underlying assets sit and what each jurisdiction expects by way of reporting. We decide domicile per mandate, and structure Cayman Islands and BVI vehicles when a mandate calls for one.
Offshore fund structuring: Cayman and BVI →Common Questions
Do I need my own CMS licence to set up a VCC?
No. A VCC needs a licensed permissible fund manager, but that does not have to be your firm. It can sit under your own licensed fund management company, or under a platform such as FundBridge that already holds a Capital Markets Services licence.
Can one VCC run more than one strategy?
Yes, as an umbrella with sub-funds. Each sub-fund's assets and liabilities are segregated from the others, so one strategy's losses do not reach another's investors.
Does FundBridge draft the fund documents?
No. Your legal counsel drafts the constitutive and offering documents. We work with them on how the fund will operate, so the documents describe a fund that can be run as written.
Photo by Wengang Zhai on Unsplash