General Atlantic announced Wednesday that its sixth growth equity fund, GA 2021, closed with $7.8 billion in commitments, up from the $5 billion the firm was originally seeking earlier this year.
Backers in the new fund included new and existing capital partners, including family offices, endowments, foundations and institutional investors.
GA, which was started in 1980, now has $23.8 billion in committed capital and had over $78 billion in assets under management as of June 30. The firm will continue to invest across five sectors: consumer, financial services, healthcare, life sciences and technology. It has invested $49 billion in more than 430 global growth companies.
The firm created a unique capital structure that enables the firm to scale its capital base on an ongoing basis that includes closed-end-funds, five-year managed accounts, evergreen accounts and a GP commitment, representing the largest single investor in GA’s core investing program, according to the firm.
So far this year, GA has made 65 investments, up from 42 in 2020, according to Crunchbase data. It made seven investments in October; one of the latest was in insurance policy provider Acko, based in India, which raised $225 million in October. Overall, the firm had 130 exits of portfolio companies.
GA also saw 21 IPOs and direct listings of portfolio companies in 2021 thus far, which includes companies like payment software company EngageSmart, which announced its IPO in August, and employee screening company HireRight, which announced in October. That is compared to a prior record of six in both 2020 and 2019, according to a General Atlantic spokesperson.
“Our global growth equity strategy positions us to capitalize on the profound acceleration of digital innovation and global entrepreneurship as we seek to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns to our capital partners,” Bill Ford, chairman and CEO of General Atlantic, said in a written statement. “Our ability to partner with management teams, help build rapidly growing, technology-enabled companies on a global scale, and generate strong and consistent investment performance distinguishes General Atlantic from both entrepreneurs and investors.”
