Energy Private Equity Firm of the Year

  1. Blackstone
  2. Actis
  3. ECP

Blackstone was hugely active in energy in 2022, and takes home this award for the second year running. The global giant completed or signed six energy deals and projects over the qualifying period, including an agreement with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Invenergy for an approximately $3 billion equity investment in North America’s Invenergy Renewables Holdings.

Sports-Focused Private Equity Firm of the Year

  1. Arctos Sports Partners
  2. CVC Capital Partners
  3. Ares Management Corporation

Arctos has the distinction of being the first-ever winner in this newly introduced category. The specialist firm committed $1.3 billion across 15 investments in 10 global sports platforms over the period, and became the only firm invested in all major North American sports leagues that allow institutional capital, including the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer.

GP-Stakes Firm of the Year

  1. Blackstone
  2. Wafra
  3. Petershill Partners

Blackstone is the debut winner of this new category. The global giant closed its sophomore GP stakes fund on $5.6 billion in November 2021, representing a more than 70 percent increase from its 2014-vintage predecessor. It also closed three GP-stake deals in the period.

Healthcare Private Equity Firm of the Year

  1. KKR
  2. Patient Square Capital
  3. Carlyle Group

This is the first time since 2018 that KKR has been named Healthcare Private Equity Firm of the year. The firm made commitments of approximately $3.8 billion across the healthcare sector over the qualifying period, with some of its notable investments including European fertility clinic group GeneraLife and a growth equity investment in oncology medicine company Treeline Biosciences. KKR closed its second healthcare growth fund on more than $4 billion in January 2022 – nearly triple the size of its predecessor, which closed on $1.45 billion in 2017.

Technology Private Equity Firm of the Year

  1. TPG
  2. KKR
  3. General Atlantic

Though this is a first-time win as technology firm of the year, TPG has invested more than $37 billion in the technology sector since its inception up to mid-2022, the firm said, and has leveraged its expertise to launch two major tech products: TPG Tech Adjacencies, a minority investment fund for companies seeking growth equity, and TPG Digital Media, a flexible source of capital for digital media opportunities – both of which were launched in 2018. In 2022, the firm made investments across more than 30 companies within the tech sector.

Consumer Private Equity Firm of the Year

  1. L Catterton
  2. KKR
  3. Blackstone

Over the course of the reporting period, L Catterton invested around $3.5 billion in 21 new investments, with major transactions taking place in the consumer sector in particular. In March 2022, L Catterton Europe IV closed on an investment in gourmet mochi ice cream brand Little Moons, and in July, Growth V closed on Planted, a Swiss meat alternatives firm. This is the second year in a row that L Catterton has been named consumer firm of the year, and the fourth time since 2017.

Growth Equity Firm of the Year

  1. KKR
  2. TA Associates
  3. Warburg Pincus

In January 2022, KKR closed its second healthcare growth fund on more than $4 billion, nearly triple the size of its predecessor. The firm also nearly doubled the size of its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund team since the 2020 closing of its second tech growth fund, reaching 36 professionals, and has deployed over $655 million since November 2021.

Long-Term Private Equity Firm of the Year

  1. KKR
  2. Blackstone
  3. EQT

2022 marks the second year in a row that KKR has won this award. As of September 2022, the firm manages more than $25 billion of capital commitments in its Core Investments long-term PE strategy. Over the course of last year, the strategy has made commitments to four new long-term investments, including global beverage contract manufacturer Refresco in a transaction reportedly valued at $7.9 billion, and data centre REIT CyrusOne in a reported $15 billion deal.

Frontier Markets Private Equity Firm of the Year

  1. LeapFrog Investments
  2. Actis
  3. ECM Partners

LeapFrog Investments once again holds the trophy for this category, following its first win in 2019. Its highlights in the past year include the launch of its climate strategy. According to the firm, its portfolio companies created 200,000 jobs last year, paid $443 million in salaries to support local economies and invested $6.6 million in training. The firm added that its healthcare portfolio companies have supplied 23 million pharmaceutical products and 900,000 medical services.

Impact Investment Firm of the Year

  1. TPG
  2. KKR
  3. Bain Capital Double Impact

TPG bagged more than a third of the votes in this category following a busy 12 months. TPG Rise amassed $7.3 billion on the final close of Rise Climate, its climate investing strategy. By the end of September 2022, TPG had also raised $1.6 billion for impact investing fund Rise III. Additionally, the firm secured the partial sales of edtech company DreamBox and education company Renaissance, as well as the full exit of digital learning platform EverFi for $750 million.