Pennsylvania pension adds lending, fintech VC funds

The $61 billion Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System added two more funds to its alternative investment stable totaling $155 million. Trustees approved an allocation of up to $125 million to the Sixth Street Specialty Lending Europe II fund within its private credit portfolio. Consultant Aksia recommended the allocation. The Sixth Street fund is targeting €800 million ($971 million) in capital commitments as the firm seeks to invest in directly originated middle-market European credit with a thematic, migratory approach across sectors and countries. The strategy targets first lien, floating rate and call-protected with firm covenants and other lender protections. Geographic exposure includes the U.K., Western Europe and the Nordic regions. The fund raising for the second fund in the Sixth Street series gains steam as Sixth Street and TPG celebrate their first anniversary going their separate ways. The TSSP platform was rebranded last year as Sixth Street Partners LLC, which has $48.2 billion in assets under management. Up to $30 million, meanwhile, was set aside for the Valar Velocity Fund 2, upon the recommendation of consultant Hamilton Lane. Valar Ventures LLC said that its second fund is to invest in later rounds of its most promising financial technology companies that were incubated in their early stage strategy. PayPal founder Peter Thiel retains a 20% economic stake in Valar, as the firm spun out of Thiel Capital in 2013 by managing partners Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald. The firm’s core strategy is to invest in high-growth, early stage technology companies located in North America and Europe. Valar’s typical initial investment is generally sized between $5 million and $20 million into a company that has an enterprise valuation of between $20 million and $100 million, which, in general, will be in either the Series A and/or Series B stage of investment. In total, Valar is targeting up to $250 million in commitments at its closing after having closed out the third quarter of 2020 with $115 million.

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