It pays out 7.2% a year and invests mostly in middle-market bank notes.
Another example is GroFin, which invests mostly in African small businesses.
The Commissioners fund, which invests mostly in UK companies and property, achieved returns of 15.9% last year far outstripping the average 1% returns of UK mixed investment funds, according to Trustnet.
The Acumen Fund, for instance, a $48 million private-equity fund begun in 2001, invests mostly in private companies and entrepreneurs that serve the world's poorest populations; before spending its dollars, Acumen compares the effectiveness of any potential investment with that of a more traditional charitable option.
The fund he comanages, Excelsior Value & Restructuring, invests mostly in companies trying to avoid a nosedive into oblivion.
A decade later, Cook has survived the dot-com stock bust and now invests mostly in energy, metals and yield stocks.
The firm invests mostly in seed and sometimes in Series A rounds.
The AllianceBernstein Corporate Bond Fund, which invests mostly in domestic bonds in the B-ratings range, nearly reached a 12% year-to-date return.
A business development company is a holding company that invests mostly in the debt or equity of operating companies, typically private businesses.
"I would bet on Irene," says Andrew Whitman, a onetime Kraft executive who now runs 2X Management, a group that invests mostly in emerging consumer products companies.
