Glade Brook Capital Partners held the final close of its latest growth equity fund with $430 million in commitments.
The fund, Glade Brook Strategic Growth III is focused on investments at the Series B and C stages and will seek to partner with 12 to 15 portfolio companies over the 2022-2024 investment period. The focus is on leading companies across software, e-commerce, fintech, web3, internet, digital health and digital media sectors.
“After a busy year of successful monetizations in our previous funds, we positioned SG III as strategic dry powder to deploy when markets and valuations corrected in the next downturn,” said Paul Hudson, founder and CIO of Greenwich, Conn.-based Glade Brook. “We believe that downturn has commenced, and it puts us in a prime position to play offense. We are excited about the opportunities ahead to invest in high quality secular growth companies at attractive valuations through the cycle.”
According to the $1.5 billion firm, more than 90% of the latest funds commitments are from existing investors across the global, including sovereign wealth, endowment, insurance, family office, RIA and technology founder communities.
“Amid a challenging macroeconomic and capital markets backdrop, we have a unique opportunity to put committed capital to work and invest during a compelling valuation window in the next generation of innovative companies,” Hudson added. “At the same time, we will continue to execute on the investment process that has been so successful in our previous funds, which is centered on deep research, a disciplined approach to valuation, concentrated portfolio construction, value-driving catalysts and deep collaboration with founders and board members.”
Glade Brook Strategic Growth I is now fully deployed following its launch in 2017. It has generated a gross IRR of 41% (35% net), with a gross multiple of 2.8x (net 2.1x), and gross distributions to limited partners of 1.5x (net 1.2x) as of March 31, 2022. Glade Brook Strategic Growth II, which began investing in 2019, is 90% deployed and has delivered a gross IRR of 70% (58% net) with a gross multiple of 1.9x (net 1.6x) as of the end of Q1.
