Bermuda-based HedgeWorld Ltd. went live last week with an Internet site providing information to investors, administrators and managers involved in the booming hedge fund business.

The venture is backed by Tremont Advisers, Inc., a Rye-based consultancy which founded the Bermuda company. Tremont has an office in Bermuda. Hedgeworld has four employees in Bermuda.

Bob Schulman, chairman of HedgeWorld and president and chief executive of Tremont, yesterday said the online venture will make public information that wasn't previously available to a wide range of investors.

He said while a lot of news and information on hedge funds will be available free of charge at the site, the main revenues will come from hedge fund managers looking for a more efficient way of handling administration and service provision to investors.

"We think this is the sweet spot,'' he said yesterday at a press conference in New York. "Hedge fund managers want to manage. They don't like doing the administration and service provision. We believe that HedgeWorld is a vehicle that can reinvent the way the hedge fund industry manages information. By taking advantage of the efficiency and effectiveness of the Internet, HedgeWorld will be the catalyst for ushering in a new era of transacting business.'' Tremont recently bought TASS , a London-based, subscriber database for the hedge fund industry. TASS will channel data through to HedgeWorld (www.hedgeworld.com). TASS has data on 2,200 hedge funds run by about 1,700 managers globally.

For a fee qualified investors will have access to further research and subscription information at the site. Fund managers will be able to build Web sites within the site. Investors will get net asset values, current news, research and contact information.

HedgeWorld currently has two editorial staff and is hiring additional freelancers to provide news content for the site, founding president Johann Wong said.

"Our mission is to become an indispensable source of information and intelligence to all facets of the community,'' he said.

To maintain independence Tremont's investment has been kept to a "significant'' minority shareholding, he said. Another private investor has a similar stake. Tremont is a consultancy focused on the alternative investment industry.

Mr. Schulman said the hedge fund industry has been attracting capital at an average rate of 26 percent a year since 1990 and had grown to about $325 billion in base capital by March this year according to a study done by the company.