Francisco Partners has raised nearly $17 billion in capital commitments across two oversubscribed funds.
The assets were split between the $45 billion firm’s flagship fund Francisco Partners VII ($13.5 billion) and the Francisco Partners Agility III ($3.3 billion). Officials added that when combined with previously raised private equity and opportunistic credit funds, Francisco Partners now has roughly $23 billion in dry powder as the firm is ready to capitalize on new opportunities as the technology sector broadly is in a valuation reset.
Investors in the two Francisco Partners funds Include Washington State Investment Board; State Board of Administration of Florida; New York State Common Retirement Fund; Oregon Public Employees Retirement System; Indiana Public Retirement System; and Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System.
“Francisco Partners is a firm which focuses on constantly challenging ourselves to be better — better partners for our LP’s by providing transparency and superior returns, better at supporting our portfolio companies and better at understanding trends and opportunities as investors in the technology sector,” said Dipanjan “DJ” Deb, co-founder & CEO of Francisco Partners in a statement.
Deb stressed that the firm is now challenged to deploy the capital and to improve on performance within a challenging tech environment.
The firm over its more than two decades in experience has invested in or bought more than 400 technology companies. Recent acquisitions include Merative, which is formerly IBM’s healthcare data and analytics business, as well as Boomi, a cloud integration platform was bought from Dell.
“Technology continues to dislocate industries, improve productivity, and will continue to be a growing part of the economy,” said Deb in a statement. “With that said, excitement and growth often leads to euphoria and excess. The recent slowdown and correction in valuations are a normal part of the technology cycle and we believe it creates interesting opportunities for us to partner with companies navigating their course.”