Dakota Private Funds Newsletter (V3)

Good afternoon, and welcome to the latest edition of the Dakota Private Funds Newsletter, covering all the notable fund launches and updates from the past week.

To lead things off, New Catalyst Strategic Partners launched with some fanfare in January 2024, backed by Apollo and founders whose CVs include important roles at GCM Grosvenor, Hamilton Lane, and Vista. Now the Los Angeles-based firm is gearing up to launch its debut flagship fund, reportedly seeking $750M to provide seed and growth capital to emerging, developing, and diverse GPs. It will definitely be one to watch.

New Funds

• Andrew Koo Jr., member of a Taiwanese family valued at $6.3B according to the Bloomberg Bilionaires Index, has launched a New York-based hybrid venture capital and private credit firm, K8 Capital, and is reportedly seeking to raise $50M for his first fund.
• Secondaries and continuation vehicles show no signs of slowing down, and this past week Kline Hill Partners said it aims to raise $300M for its latest private equity secondary fund, while Essling Capital closed its fourth global generalist co-investment fund oversubscribed and announced plans to launch a new global GP-led secondary strategy targeting continuation vehicle investments.
• In venture, tech investor Level Ventures filed for the launch of its second core fund, and Transcend Fund filed for its third flagship fund that will target opportunities in the gaming and digital entertainment space.
• In private wealth, Goldman Sachs launched an open-ended global infrastructure strategy aimed at qualified investors that will have both US- and Luxembourg-registered versions, and Sagard launched an evergreen private equity investment fund designed for accredited Canadian investors that follows on a similar private credit vehicle it launched last year.
• Rounding out new funds covered by Dakota this past week, Tecum Capital, a Pittsburgh-based manager that provides mezzanine debt and equity to lower-middle-market companies in manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business services, kicked off fundraising for its fourth flagship fund.

Buyouts, Growth, and Venture

• We start across the pond, with Paris-based managers Ardian and Omnes, the former securing €3.2B at the close of its sixth-generation expansion fund and the latter closing the fifth iteration of its renewable energy fund with €2.05B in capital commitments, surpassing both its €1.35B target and €1.65B hard cap.
• We’ll remain in Europe, where Allianz Global Investors closed its €450M Emerging Markets Climate Action Fund in partnership with the European Investment Bank, before quickly heading over to Malaysia, where growth equity firm Creador closed its sixth flagship fund at $930M, well above its $750M target. 
• Moving back to North America, Novacap raised more than $1B for its first digital infrastructure fund, which will target lower-middle-market connectivity and data access service providers.
• Meanwhile, Chicago’s Frontenac may count 13 as its lucky number, after it hit the $900M hard cap on the thirteenth generation of its flagship fund targeting middle-market buyouts. 
• Fellow Windy City manager GCM Grosvenor raised $800M for the first fund of its Elevate strategy, which aims to seed small, emerging, and diverse private equity managers. It received significant backing from CalPERS, which committed $500M. 
• Rounding out the week’s buyout and growth equity fund updates, manufacturing-focused private equity firm Sky Capital of Dallas raised $300M for its second fund, surpassing its original $225M target.
• Amongst VCs, San Francisco’s SV Angel raised $330M for its sophomore growth fund that targets Series B and later investments in tech startups, and Foothill Ventures, formerly known as Tsingyuan Ventures, reportedly closed its oversubscribed third fund at $110M.

Private Credit

• The third time was certainly a charm for Thoma Bravo, Francisco Partners, and Colbeck Capital, who all exceeded expectations with the third vintage of their private credit funds. Thoma Bravo raised $3.6B for Thoma Bravo Credit Fund III, marking the software investment firm's largest private credit capital raise to date; Francisco’s oversubscribed third opportunistic credit fund raised $3.3B, a hefty $1B above target; and Colbeck closed its third flagship fund at $700M, topping its target by 40% and more than doubling the $311M raised by its 2019 vintage predecessor.
• Rounding out private credit fund updates for the week, Allianz Global Investors served as lead, alongside StepStone Group, in backing a $400M private debt vehicle from Guggenheim Investments, and Dublin-based DunPort Capital Management secured €200M (~$206.4M) for its fourth credit fund focused on small and medium enterprises.

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