Keating to list 'pre-IPO' fund

Public investors soon get another chance to buy private company stock.

Keating Capital, a Colorado–based firm that gives individual investors the chance to buy pre-IPO shares in private companies, is planning to list its closed-end fund on December 12.

The vehicle is similar in structure to Michael Moe's GSV Capital (GSVC). The strategic difference is that Keating mostly tries to avoid social media and other large Internet issuers, instead preferring to back a more diverse group of smaller companies with expected initial market caps of between $100 million and $1 billion. In other words, no Groupons or Facebook. It also avoids companies that seem more primed for an M&A exit than an IPO.

Keating began investing back in January, and currently has around 4,000 investors. Two of its portfolio companies – NeoPhotonics (NPNT) and Solazyme (SZYM) – already have gone public. Still-private holdings include BrightSource Energy, Harvest Power, Tremor Video, Kabam, LiveScrive, Suniva and TrueCar. No new units will be offered via the listing.

Sign up for my daily email newsletter on deals and deal-makers: GetTermSheet.com