DOWNLOAD: Crowded fundraising backdrop sees 40% decline in funds closed

Fundraising in the first half of 2022 fell, yet both the number of funds seeking to raise capital and the volume of capital they are targeting have hit a record.

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Capital raised by private equity funds declined to $337 billion across 622 funds in the first six months of 2022, according to Private Equity International’s first-half 2022 fundraising data. This compares with $459 billion across 1,033 funds in H1 2021, representing a 27 percent decrease by capital raised and a 40 percent drop in the number of funds that held final closes from the same period in 2021.

By strategy, the share of capital raised and number of funds for buyouts stood at 52 percent and 20 percent, in line with the prior year. Venture capital made up 22 percent of capital raised, yet accounted for nearly half of funds closed during the first half.

The 10 largest funds raised $133 billion between them, with the top four mega-funds gathering at least $15 billion each. The biggest among these were Advent International’s $25 billion haul for GPE X, Insight Partners’ $20 billion Fund XII and KKR’s $19 billion North America Fund XIII.

Geographically, fundraising was concentrated in North America. Funds focused on this market gathered 44 percent of capital raised for the first half of the year, while funds targeting multiple regions represented 38 percent.

While there appear to be changing dynamics in fundraising, with a tougher macro environment and investors battling the impact of the denominator effect on their portfolios, the number of vehicles on the fundraising trail and the amount of capital being targeted have hit a record. There are 4,055 funds in the market targeting $1.23 trillion between them as of end-July, compared with $703 billion across 3,060 funds at the same point last year.

That said, GPs are bracing for what appears to be a more challenging landscape for traditional private equity funds. Carlyle Group CFO Curt Buser noted on a call accompanying the firm’s Q2 results last week that today’s fundraising backdrop is “fundamentally going to result in some of those raises taking longer in general, and maybe not raising the same amounts as they would have otherwise in a different environment”. Blackstone president Jon Gray had also said in the firm’s latest earnings results call that it was “getting harder… particularly tough in North American private equity with institutions”.

Download the full H1 2022 fundraising data here and PDF here.