Clearlake Capital Group, an investment firm focusing on the technology, industrials, and consumer sectors, has completed fundraising for its sixth private equity fund, Clearlake Capital Partners VI (Fund VI), with more than USD7 billion in commitments. This brings Clearlake’s total assets under management to approximately USD18 billion and comes on the heels of a record two years, as 18 of the firm’s portfolio companies achieved notable liquidity events resulting in over USD3 billion of realisations.
With an initial target of USD5 billion, Fund VI was oversubscribed with total commitments of more than USD7 billion, including commitments from the General Partner and affiliates, reaching its hard cap.
“At Clearlake, we are grateful to have garnered such strong support among our highly respected, global base of investors, and we are humbled to be able to continue our mission and strategy as the world grapples with this public health crisis and its effects,” says José E Feliciano, co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake.
“We believe this support reflects our market-leading investment performance, disciplined and operationally-oriented investment approach across economic cycles, and ongoing commitment to our investors. Clearlake has many differentiators. We only invest in three core sectors – technology, industrials, and consumer – where our team has built exceptional expertise, and we have a flexible mandate, with the ability to invest in buyouts, corporate carveouts, and special situations. In this dynamic market, we believe our experience, focus, and flexibility will allow us to partner with more exceptional management teams as we build lasting value for our platforms and Limited Partners.”
More than 200 different institutional investors are Limited Partners in Fund VI, representing over 30 countries. In addition to support from longstanding investors, Fund VI garnered a number of prominent new investors, with approximately half of these new investors based in the US and the remainder from regions including Asia, Middle East, Europe, and North and South America.
Clearlake’s Limited Partner relationships include public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, and family offices.
“The safety, health, and well-being of our employees at both Clearlake and our portfolio companies, business partners, and related communities remains our top priority, and our hearts go out to those impacted by this terrible virus,” adds Feliciano and co-founder and managing partner, Behdad Eghbali.
“We’re truly inspired by the selfless healthcare workers around the world who are on the front lines, tirelessly caring for people in need. As part of our continuing commitment to the community, in conjunction with the closing of Fund VI, we are establishing the Clearlake Foundation which will benefit from a fixed portion of Clearlake’s fees from this fund.”
In 2019, Clearlake completed fundraising for Clearlake Opportunities Partners II, which makes non-control investments in middle market companies across Clearlake’s target sectors of technology, industrials, and consumer, with USD1.4 billion in commitments. In 2017, Clearlake raised more than USD3.6 billion for Clearlake Capital Partners V LP.
