State of Utah

What they do

The State of Utah operates multiple sophisticated investment vehicles to manage public wealth, primarily through the Utah Retirement Systems (URS) and the School and Institutional Trust Funds Office (SITFO). URS manages $58.5 billion in pension and defined contribution assets, while SITFO is a $3.6 billion sovereign wealth fund. These entities are known for their sophisticated, non-politicized governance models, allowing agile investment decisions across global equities, private equity, venture capital, and real assets.

What they look for

The State of Utah's investment vehicles have distinct but complementary theses. URS aims to preserve fund assets and generate risk-adjusted returns to meet future pension obligations, utilizing a globally diversified portfolio with emphasis on Absolute Return, Real Assets, and Private Equity. SITFO, the sovereign wealth fund, seeks to maximize return on invested principal to support perpetual distributions for education, employing a total portfolio mindset grounded in mean reversion and factor-based risk management. Both look for top-tier fund managers, with SITFO explicitly favoring micro-VCs, seed funds, super angels, and Fund I/Fund II managers.

Stage

Ideation, Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B+

Sectors

SaaS, AI, Deeptech, Fintech, Proptech, Food and agriculture, Climate, Consumer, Mobility and logistics

Based

Salt Lake City, US