European mid-market private equity house Waterland has completed a €4bn ($4.7bn) fundraise for its latest flagship vehicle, reflecting continued strong appetite for the strategy among institutional investors, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The firm’s latest vehicle, Waterland Private Equity Fund X, attracted commitments from a broad mix of limited partners, including pension schemes, sovereign wealth funds, asset managers and family offices, according to information seen by Bloomberg News. In parallel, Waterland also closed €600m for its Waterland Partnership Fund II, which is used to take minority positions in selected portfolio companies.
Both vehicles were oversubscribed and reached their hard cap targets in under four months from launch.
Cedric Van Cauwenberghe, group managing partner at Waterland, highlighted a strong fundraising environment supported by recent distribution activity. Speaking to Bloomberg News, he said 2025 had been a “record year” for returning capital to investors, adding that allocators value consistency in performance outcomes. He also noted that Waterland has ranked among the top 15 global private equity managers in the HEC–Dow Jones performance league table for the past 15 years.
He did not disclose the fund’s distributed-to-paid-in capital (DPI) metrics, which measure realised returns relative to invested capital.
Van Cauwenberghe said the firm typically completes around 10 exits annually. Recent transactions include the sale of cloud services business Skaylink GmbH to Vodafone Group for €175m in December, as well as the divestment of a majority stake in debt collection company Coeo to doValue in July.
Waterland also reported that its predecessor vehicle, Fund IX, generated a net internal rate of return above 25%.
Long-standing investors in the firm’s funds include the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and the Texas County & District Retirement System.
