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Cantab Capital Partners is a Cambridge, England-based hedge fund co-founded in 2006 by former Goldman Sachs partner Ewan Kirk and Erich Schlaikjer, also formerly of Goldman Sachs.

As of the end of 2013, Cantab had $3.2 billion in assets. A quantitative fund that uses computer models to drive investment decisions, Cantab is notable for its fee structure model, which involves taking lower percentage commissions than other similar funds.

In January 2013, Goldman Sachs took a small stake in Cantab. In exchange, Cantab received continued access to parts of Goldman's investment infrastructure.

Performance
In line with trends also affecting other quantitative funds, Cantab's fund declined 23 percent in 2013. This was due to a “significant exposure to bonds and currencies,” according to fund founder Ewan Kirk. As of August 2014, Cantab's main fund was down 6.8 percent for the year, significantly more than similar computer-driven funds. The firm blamed these losses on "the sudden rally in the U.S. dollar and weakness in equities."

The fund rose 15 percent in 2012, having returned 48.7 percent in 2008 and losing 9.2 percent in 2009.

Fee Structure
While industry standard fees among hedge funds are often 2 percent of assets and 20 percent of profits, Cantab charges a 0.5 percent fee and 10 percent of profits. These lower fees are made possible by the firm's technological infrastructure, which lowers the cost of investing.

"They’ve lowered the fees to a point that not everybody can afford to do,” Phillip G. Chapple, an executive director at consulting firm KB Associates, commented to the New York Times regarding the Cantab model. Several other experts have also noted that such low fees are unlikely to be adopted by other funds. “I tend to doubt that we will see many managers charging a 0.5% or 1% management fee, and a 10% performance fee in the foreseeable future," Robert Leonard, global head of capital introductions at Credit Suisse, said.

Quantitative Approach
Cantab is largely staffed by mathematicians and scientists, many of whom have ties to nearby University of Cambridge.