Leading software platform Dasseti and Alternatives Watch Research (AW Research) found that there has been no slowdown in capital deployed in alternative investments globally, with $746 billion in assets raised for the 12 months ending March 31, 2023.
The report, which tracked more than $2 billion a day raised by some of the world’s largest private markets firms, is based on daily reporting done by Alternatives Watch and public announcements of fund closures. The 2023 Manager Compendium report eyes trends across six asset classes — private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, private credit, real estate and infrastructure.
“We were excited to partner with AW Research on this important report, as our software adds most value to allocators investing in private markets, where data is scarce and perceived risks are higher,” said Wissem Souissi, CEO and founder of Dasseti. “With more allocations flowing into private equity, there is demand from both LPs looking for visibility into GPs and also from GPs collecting data from portfolio companies. Our software is ideally placed to assist both groups,” he added.
Indeed, private equity led the way in fundraising totaling 61% of the overall private market assets raised for the year ending March 31. Credit strategies, including direct lending, distressed and CLO strategies, were also popular, with $159.8 billion raised during the year — roughly 21% of the overall activity.
“Institutional investors spent the better part of the last year flocking to private equity as a cure for the traditional equity market blues,” said Susan Barreto, editor of AW Research. “The key thing readers will see in our latest findings is that the private asset bull market has expanded to include credit strategies. Infrastructure and real estate funds also remain popular as rising inflation and interest rates have only fueled mandates for illiquid alpha opportunities.”
The numbers are positive news for alternative managers, after news reports that allocations were expected to plateau or decline in the volatile 2022 and early 2023 inflationary environment. Private equity also fared particularly well, which made up 61% of all funds raised.
The largest firms have also spread their wings across asset classes. Those that raised the largest funds in our survey of the alternative landscape were: Advent International, Blackstone, Thoma Bravo, KKR, I Squared Capital, Clearlake Capital Group, Francisco Partners, Blue Owl Capital and Churchill Asset Management. Largest funds raised for the year were: Advent International GPE X ($25 billion); Blackstone – Strategic Partners IX ($25 billion); Thoma Bravo XV ($24.3 billion); KKR North America XIII ($19 billion); and KKR Global Infrastructure Investors IV ($17 billion).
The full report detailing the largest funds raised in each asset class can be downloaded here exclusively by Alternatives Watch annual subscribers.
