New Fund Closes

• Francisco Partners closed a flagship fund at 16.4 billion dollars against a 14 billion dollar target, plus a 4.6 billion dollar middle market fund, for 21 billion dollars in total commitments
• Starwood Capital Group closed its Distressed Opportunity Fund XIII at more than 10.2 billion dollars, targeting residential, data center, industrial and hospitality assets
• KKR closed Global Infrastructure Investors V at 19.2 billion dollars, its largest infrastructure fund to date
• Citation Capital closed its inaugural fund at a 1.2 billion dollar hard cap, a record for a debut fund in Texas
• Capitol Meridian Partners closed Fund II at 1.9 billion dollars, exceeding its target by 50 percent and closing in a quarter of the time of its first fund
• Kingswood Capital Management raised 4 billion dollars across a fourth flagship fund and a debut small cap fund
• Bridgepoint closed its fourth direct lending fund at 5.1 billion euros, above target
• Serent Capital closed its largest fund yet at 1.3 billion dollars, oversubscribed
• Brookfield closed its first Middle East fund at approximately 2 billion dollars, anchored by the Public Investment Fund
• Preservation Capital Partners closed Fund III at an 877 million euro hard cap in six months
• Uplift Investors closed its first fund oversubscribed at a 670 million dollar hard cap
• Pictet Alternative Advisors closed its first environmental co-investment fund at 253 million dollars, above its 200 million dollar target
• Blue Owl Capital closed its European Net Lease Fund at 1.6 billion euros, above its hard cap
• Cerberus is targeting 4 billion dollars for a second defense and supply chain fund, up from 2.7 billion dollars for its first

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Fundraising Market Conditions

• US private equity fundraising fell 19 percent in the first half of the year even as dry powder reached 2.1 trillion dollars
• Private real estate fundraising totaled 92.6 billion dollars in the first half of the year, down 38 percent year over year and the lowest first half volume in nine years, though about 70 percent of funds still hit or exceeded target
• The number of private capital funds closing globally fell sharply, and the top ten funds took 45.7 percent of US fundraising last year, up from 34.5 percent the year before
• The top ten PE buyout funds raised roughly 129 billion dollars in the first half of the year
• First time fund closes dropped sharply over the last four years as capital concentrated into mega and large cap vehicles
• S&P Global commentary points to a flight to quality, with LPs concentrating capital in managers who can show differentiation and a repeatable process across cycles
• A 2026 PE fundraising survey points to growing optimism heading into 2027 despite the current slowdown

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LP-GP Trust and Due Diligence

• 96 percent of institutional allocators now run AI screens on a GP before ever speaking with them, weighing CEO and firm reputation in media coverage above stated returns
• More GPs are commissioning independent fundraising due diligence, drawing on portfolio company executives, board members and existing LPs to validate a track record before going to market
• A diligence framework built by Organica separates audited financials, management's own case, and an independently built view, so investment committees can see why the numbers should or should not be trusted
• CVC's CEO points to trust and performance as the foundation of the GP-LP relationship, alongside AI adoption across the firm
• The independent sponsor model generated a median 23.8 percent IRR, 5.3 percentage points above comparable buyout funds, driven by proprietary deal flow and stronger fee alignment

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AI's Growing Role in Fundraising

• Francisco Partners' 21 billion dollar raise moved from first marketing to first close in about three months, a pace tied to AI-assisted LP targeting, due diligence questionnaire response, and track record analysis
• Clearlake's new data and AI partnership with Databricks signals a shift from treating AI as a licensed tool to building it as core operating infrastructure
• A video breakdown from EisnerAmper outlines three distinct models for where AI capability should sit in a PE portfolio: at the fund level, inside each portfolio company, or split between the two

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Secondaries, Structured Capital and Alternative Vehicles

• Clipway closed its debut secondary fund at 6.4 billion dollars, a record for a first time secondaries vehicle
• Nasdaq Private Market's fund secondaries business is being acquired by NPM, combining direct share and multi asset fund stake trading onto one platform
• Proskauer advised on more than 4 billion dollars of preferred equity fund financings across five deals in the first half of the year, as GPs look to structured liquidity outside traditional exits
• AlpInvest closed its Atom II single asset continuation vehicle, backed by more than 7 billion dollars of capital across its broader continuation fund platform
• The GP stakes market has grown into a business worth more than 100 billion dollars, with Blue Owl Capital leading the space
• Secondaries dry powder is falling even as deal volumes hit record highs, signaling capital is being put to work faster than it is replenished

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Family Offices and Direct Investing

• Most family offices that attempt direct investing underestimate the deal sourcing infrastructure and institutional talent required, and succeed more often by co-investing alongside proven GPs first
• Indian family offices are increasingly diversifying surplus capital from operating businesses into private equity, a shift that requires different judgment than running the underlying business
• A new dataset maps 400 family offices across the DACH region, the Nordics and the UK

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Institutional Allocators and Pension Capital

• The fifteen largest pension funds allocated a combined 273 billion dollars to top buyout managers
• A Pension Bridge panel found confidence returning among LPs even as they grow more selective about which managers they back
• A list of six leading fund of funds and multi manager platforms highlights the continued role of intermediated capital in reaching smaller managers

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Thanks to Edwin Mik, Aleksey Chernobelskiy, Vishnu Amble, Philipp Kraft, Pravin Sivananthan, James Neil, Elliott T. Friedman, Jimmy Frischling, David Weisburd, Alec Miller, Chris Scibelli, Charlotte Hogg, Niclas Schlopsna, Lee McCabe, Sid Pai, John Stewart, John Koeppel, Will Hausberg, Lydie B Hudson, Daniel Carr, Howard Searing, Alex Wolf, John Caselli, Amanda Telhu-Sharma, Matt Kerfoot, Alexander Rayden, Markus Egloff, Russ Roenick, Erik Boender, David Lasday, Calvin Creutz, Marco Masotti, Mustafa Siddiqui, George Khalife, Mir Irfan Ali, Philip De Vusser, Ignacio P., Nicola Ebmeyer, Lachezar Zanev and Amy Richardson, and everyone else who contributed insights to this edition. Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn: