The Alpha Fund is the high-commitment end of the Portugal Golden Visa fund route: a closed-end special-situations vehicle from Lisbon manager ActiveCap - Capital Partners, with a reported ten-year lock-up, a 20% carry over an 8% hurdle and a 20-25% per year return target. The pitch is credit-style downside protection with opportunistic upside; the catch is that public disclosure is thin, and most terms rest on a single directory profile rather than published manager documents.
Key takeaways
- Closed-end Portuguese alternative investment fund from ActiveCap, a Lisbon firm whose team has invested in Portuguese companies since 1998.
- Strategy targets special situations: corporate credit, loan and asset portfolios, and structured or hybrid capital for companies in transition.
- Reported terms: €100,000 minimum, 2% entry, 2% management, 20% carry above an 8% hurdle, roughly ten-year term with no interim redemptions.
- The 20-25% per year target is aggregator-sourced and ambitious; the manager publishes no terms or performance itself.
- US persons reportedly accepted, but PFIC/QEF status is unconfirmed. Capital at risk throughout.
What does the fund actually invest in?
Alpha targets complexity rather than growth. Per the manager's fund page, the mandate covers special situations in Portuguese companies and assets: corporate credit, loans and asset portfolios, delivered through structured, hybrid and equity-linked capital solutions. The typical counterpart is a business facing financial complexity, limited access to traditional bank credit, or transition-phase capital needs.
The manager emphasises downside protection through collateral, contractual protections and structural seniority, and selectively co-invests alongside global investment funds. In plain terms: the fund aims to be paid like equity while sitting closer to the front of the queue like a lender.
That positioning cuts both ways. Special-situations and distressed-adjacent investing carries elevated credit and execution risk, and outcomes depend heavily on the manager's workout skill rather than market beta. ActiveCap's team has been investing in Portuguese companies since 1998, which is relevant pedigree, but this specific fund dates from 2025 and is still in its fundraising phase, with a reported €100M target size and no published capital raised to date.
Geographically the mandate is simple: 100% Portugal, per directory data, which is also what keeps the strategy consistent with the Golden Visa fund route's Portuguese-exposure logic.
What do the fees cost you over the fund's life?
A caveat first: the manager does not publish fees, so the figures below come from the fund's directory profile and carry lower confidence than manager-documented terms. Verify each one against the prospectus before subscribing.
The reported stack is a 2% subscription fee, a 2% annual management fee, and 20% carried interest above an 8% hurdle. On a €500,000 Golden Visa subscription, entry costs €10,000. Management fees run about €10,000 per year: roughly €60,000 over six years, €70,000 over seven, and in the order of €100,000 across the full ten-year term, before compounding effects and before any carry.
The carry structure is the classic private-markets 20/8. Nothing is paid on performance until returns clear 8% per year; above that, the manager keeps a fifth of the excess. If the fund lands anywhere near its reported 20-25% per year target, the carry becomes the largest cost line by far. If it does not, you have still paid roughly a fifth of your ticket in fixed fees over a decade.
That 20-25% target deserves its own sentence. It is aggregator-sourced, not a manager-published commitment, and it signals a genuinely opportunistic risk profile. Treat it as a description of ambition, not an expectation.
Lock-up, the fund term and the citizenship timeline
This is a commitment, not a position. Directory data records the fund as closed-end with a roughly ten-year term, a 120-month lock-up, quarterly NAV reporting and no redemptions during the fund life. There is no early-exit fee because there is no early exit.
Mapped against immigration reality, the structure works in one direction. Portuguese naturalization tends to take roughly six to seven years in practice, and the qualifying €500,000 must stay invested while the Golden Visa is active. A ten-year term covers that requirement comfortably, with no risk of the fund maturing before your immigration process completes.
The friction runs the other way: the fund term, not your passport, dictates when you get your money back. Investors should expect capital to remain locked for several years beyond the citizenship decision, and should confirm in the prospectus whether the term can be extended, since closed-end funds commonly carry extension options that stretch the real holding period further.
What should US citizens know?
Less than we would like, which is itself the finding. US persons are reportedly accepted, per the fund's directory profile, but that is where the confirmed information ends. The PFIC/QEF position is recorded as unknown; as a non-US pooled fund, PFIC treatment should be assumed until the manager confirms otherwise. QEF reporting availability is unconfirmed, and IRA eligibility is unknown.
For a ten-year illiquid hold, this matters more than usual. Under the default PFIC regime, a decade of accrued gains crystallising at exit can be taxed at top ordinary rates plus an interest charge, an outcome a QEF election would avoid if, and only if, the fund provides annual information statements. Obtain the manager's written answer on QEF reporting before subscribing, and have a US tax adviser model both scenarios. FATCA reporting applies either way.
How does it compare with other Golden Visa funds?
Within our database, Alpha sits at the illiquid, high-target end of the private-equity category. Its reported €100,000 minimum matches the typical Golden Visa fund ticket, but the reported 2% management fee sits at the top of the usual 1.5-2% range, and the 20/8 carry is a full private-markets structure rather than the lighter performance fees common among open-ended bond funds.
The most decision-relevant caveat is not the strategy but the disclosure. The manager's own page describes the approach yet publishes no terms, no documents and no performance, so nearly every number here, fees, term, lock-up, even the CMVM registration, rests on one directory profile and has not been independently verified against the regulator's registry. The prospectus and the manager's legal eligibility opinion are the documents that settle what is actually true.
The sharpest comparison is in-house. ActiveCap also runs the open-ended ActiveCap Corporate Bond Fund, a liquid Portuguese bond vehicle with weekly dealing, a one-month lock-up and no performance fee. Same manager, opposite construction: Alpha trades away a decade of liquidity for a much higher return target, while the bond fund trades away upside for the shortest liquidity terms on the route. Which side of that trade suits you depends on whether the €500,000 is money you may want back soon after citizenship, or capital you are content to leave working. The full comparison set is in our fund database.
What the fund has not published
The open items, listed plainly. Current fund size and capital raised: not published (the €100M figure is a reported target while fundraising continues). Distribution policy: not confirmed. PFIC/QEF reporting for US investors: not confirmed. CMVM registration number and ISIN: recorded from directory data, not independently verified against the regulator's registry. And the fee schedule itself is single-source.
These gaps are listed for completeness, not as a judgment; their weight depends on your own situation and risk appetite. Every one of them is answerable by the manager during diligence, and the pattern of answers will tell you as much as the answers themselves.
Next step
If a ten-year commitment in exchange for a higher target return fits your plan, the next move is to request the prospectus, the fee schedule and the Golden Visa eligibility opinion directly, and read them against the reported terms above. Roots can walk you through this fund alongside comparable options, independently and without a sales agenda. Nothing here is investment, tax or immigration advice; it is information to make your own advised decision easier.
