Mondiale Asset Management has raised $25 million from Canadian hedge fund investors in 2001, primarily through advisors, according to a report from HedgeWorld.com

The firm tells HedgeWorld.com that most of its assets are invested in the Horizons Mondiale Hedge Fund, which is organized as a mutual fund and sold through brokers in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta. Vincent Grdina, Mondiale’s managing director says that getting distribution through brokers has been the key to its growth.

“Getting on brokers’ A-list — or approved list — is important for us. That’s especially true when you’re a small independent firm, as many hedge funds managers are,” he says.

“You’ve had a number of big firms launching alternative products in Canada, but I think the interest is still only developing,” said Grdina. “There hasn’t been a tidal of wave of investment, but we’ve been seeing steady inflows of $2.5 million to $3 million per month this year. And that’s not bad considering that we’ve done very little marketing on our own.” The fund is flat to down this year, outperforming the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

Grdina tells HedgeWorld.com that Mondiale is considering the creation of a version of the hedge fund strategy that would not be registered as a Canadian mutual fund. “That would give us more flexibility in the instruments we use and allow us to do things that we couldn’t as a mutual fund. We haven’t found anyone interested in doing this yet, but if when we do, we’d likely set it up.