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Matthias Knab, Opalesque for New Managers:

Asia-focused hedge funds are having a banner year. The With Intelligence Asia Hedge Fund Index gained 9.73% in the second quarter of 2026 - the best result of any region by nearly three percentage points - and is up 8.23% for the first half, after returning 14.71% in 2025. Asia Pacific managers attracted net inflows of $1.6bn in Q2 and $3.8bn in the first half, and regional industry assets grew from $291bn to $348bn over the course of 2025, a near 20% increase.

And yet, according to the latest With Intelligence Hedge Fund data pack, almost nobody is launching new hedge funds there.

Just 4 Asia Pacific hedge funds were in development in the second quarter of 2026 - the lowest reading in the entire data set, which stretches back to Q2 2023. That compares with 13 in the first quarter and marks a dramatic decline from the 25 funds in the regional pipeline as recently as Q3 2024, and 23 in Q1 2024.

A three-year slide

The quarterly numbers tell a story of steady erosion. The APAC launch pipeline held in double digits for nearly three years - 15 in Q3 2023, 23 in Q1 2024, 25 in Q3 2024 - before drifting down through 2025 (11, 11, 10, 12) and then falling off a cliff in the most recent quarter. At 4 funds in development, Asia Pacific now trails not only North America (75) and the UK (11), but also continental Europe (8), and sits barel......................

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