Jacob Asset Management

Ryan Jacob serves as the firm's CEO, CIO, and sole portfolio manager. He founded the firm in 1999 after gaining prominence managing the Kinetics Internet Fund, which returned 196% in 1998. No other named investment professionals share portfolio management responsibilities, and the firm does not publicly disclose a formal investment committee.

The firm invests exclusively through the Jacob Internet Fund, a publicly traded mutual fund (ticker JAMFX). It targets small and mid-cap companies that generate the majority of their revenue from internet-related businesses. Disclosed holdings have included Digital Turbine, Ziff Davis, and other enterprise software, digital advertising, and e-commerce companies. The portfolio typically carries 30 to 50 positions and is weighted toward growth-stage public companies.

No. The firm operates exclusively as a public-equity manager. Its sole vehicle, the Jacob Internet Fund, invests only in publicly traded securities. Jacob has not launched a private fund, a venture capital vehicle, or a crossover strategy during the firm's history. He has occasionally held shares in pre-revenue or early-stage public companies, but these are purchased on the open market.

The firm is organized as a small, owner-operated boutique. Ryan Jacob is the majority owner and sole portfolio manager. The firm advises a single mutual fund — the Jacob Internet Fund — which is a registered investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Jacob personally owned a 27% stake in the fund as of its most recent proxy filing, creating a direct co-investment alignment with outside shareholders.

As of early 2025, the firm managed roughly $61 million in assets, per public filings. The Jacob Internet Fund peaked north of $300 million during the dot-com era, but suffered massive redemptions after the bubble collapsed. The fund never regained significant asset scale. An attempt to launch a second product — the Jacob Small Cap Growth Fund — failed to attract sufficient assets and was liquidated in 2017. The firm's concentrated, high-volatility strategy has historically limited institutional demand.

Jacob's record is defined by extreme cyclicality. The Kinetics Internet Fund gained 196% in 1998 and his eponymous fund rose more than 100% in its first year. It then lost over 90% of its value from peak to trough during the dot-com crash. The fund recovered partial ground during the 2010s technology bull market, but declined 59% in 2022 — more than 20 percentage points worse than the Nasdaq Composite — as rising rates punished its growth-heavy holdings.

There is no public record of a related family office, philanthropic foundation, or operating company affiliated with the firm. Jacob Asset Management is an independent registered investment adviser. Ryan Jacob's personal stake in the fund remains the primary vehicle for his liquid net worth, but he has not disclosed a family-office structure or a significant philanthropic vehicle tied to the management company.