Welcome back. Lately, I’ve picked up a habit that feels almost rebellious in 2026: writing handwritten letters. I went out and bought the stationery, the fountain pen, the wax seal kit. There is a specific kind of friction to writing in ink. You can’t copy-paste your thoughts, and you certainly can’t hit backspace if the tone isn't right. It forces a level of intentionality and patience that has mostly vanished from our day-to-day lives.

It struck me this week that private credit was originally sold to borrowers on this exact premise. For years, the pitch was that private credit was the handwritten note, bespoke and often bilateral. But as the asset class has ballooned past the $2 trillion mark, it seems more and more like the email option.

Anyway, today my colleague Luis Garcia writes that Vision Ridge has collected around $2.4 billion for a sustainability-focused fund. 

I report on a new interval fund set up by Janus Henderson affiliates Privacore Capital and Victory Park Capital. Janus aims to distribute the new vehicle.

Finally, my colleague Maria Armental wraps up earnings season for major U.S.-listed private-markets firms with a look at what lies ahead for the industry.

We have those stories and many more for you below, so please read on...

Vision Ridge Partners has raised about $2.4 billion to invest in businesses such as battery-system developers, electric vehicle-fleet operators and sustainable food producers around the world, as the private-equity firm expects to capitalize on decreasing costs of clean-energy technologies, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia writes. The total raised for Vision Ridge’s Sustainable Asset Fund IV and related parallel vehicles far exceeded the $1.25 billion the Boulder, Colo.-based firm collected for a predecessor pool that wrapped up in 2021. Vision Ridge manages a total of about $5.6 billion in assets.

Janus Henderson affiliates Privacore Capital and Victory Park Capital have set up an interval fund focused on asset-backed credit investments, Isaac Taylor reports. The firms have collected $250 million in seed capital so far for the vehicle, Privacore VPC Asset Backed Credit Fund, or AltsABF, with commitments from institutional investors including insurance holding company CNO Financial Group and asset manager Corbin Capital Partners.

Leaders of publicly traded private-equity firms brushed off software market concerns and stressed their bulging deal pipelines and swollen piles of cash ready to invest during recent earnings reviews, underlining their confidence in prospects for the year ahead, Maria Armental reports for WSJ Pro. The bullish comments contrasted with a selloff that wiped out billions of dollars in market value as jittery investors reacted to potential artificial-intelligence disruption risks to software businesses. The sector has been a mainstay of private-equity and credit investments for years and shares of listed private-markets firms also slid last week.

Stone Point Capital is seeking new terms on a tentative acquisition of wealth manager Amber River in London, after entering exclusive buyout talks last month, Justin Cash reports for sister publication Financial News in London, citing people familiar with the matter. The firm, which oversees about £15 billion, or around $20.54 billion, is backed by Penta Capital. Would-be buyers including Stone Point had to offer a minimum of £700 million to stay in the bidding, Financial News reported earlier.

The midmarket strategy of KPS Capital Partners is acquiring precast concrete supplier Wells Cos. The Albany, Minn.-based business has about 2,700 employees and 13 manufacturing sites across the U.S. and provides design and engineering services as well.

Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology Fund led a $200 million growth investment in Oxide Computer, joined by several existing backers. The Emeryville, Calif., company makes rack-mounted processors and software used to create on-site cloud services.

Growth investor Institutional Venture Partners led a $130 million investment in advocacy provider Solace Health, joined by others including existing backers such as Torch Capital and Inspired Capital. The transaction values the patient-centric business focused on Medicare coverage recipients at more than $1 billion.

Existing backer Accel led a $120 million growth investment in cybersecurity analytics provider Vega Security, joined by others including Charles River Ventures. The New York company's programs are used by banks, healthcare organizations and large corporations to detect threats to data and networks.

Growth-focused TCV, formerly Technology Crossover Ventures, led an investment of 90 million Australian dollars, or about $63 million, in Sydney-based startup Neara, which makes digital models of electric power networks, Rhiannon Hoyle reports for The Wall Street Journal. Other investors in the deal included EQT AB, Partners Group and Square Peg Capital. The transaction valued the business at over A$1.1 billion.

Bertram Capital is investing in Mexico's Querétaro Fútbol Club, a professional soccer team in Querétaro, investing through the firm's Ignite fund. The organization fields both men's and women's teams in the country's top leagues.

Lone Star Funds has acquired processing equipment maker Hillenbrand at an enterprise value of about $3.8 billion, taking the New York-listed company private. The firm paid $32 in cash to shareholders of the Batesville, Ind., company under the deal announced in October.

Dallas-based lower midmarket firm Trinity Hunt Partners is forming a workforce services company called Allvia with an investment in Melita Group, a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of human resources, benefits administration and payroll services. Fred Pettijohn, a member of Trinity Hunt’s Exec+ program, will serve as the company’s chief executive.

Second Avenue Capital Partners is providing $65 million to support Valore Holdings's acquisition of automotive industry supplier Mirai Casting Group, as well as a $6.5 million term loan tied to machinery. The deal represents Second Avenue's entry into the wholesale and industrial sectors as a credit provider.

Blue Delta Capital Partners in Tysons, Va., is backing cybersecurity contractor Tharros, which works with federal agencies.

Kingswood Capital Management is acquiring a unit of paper goods manufacturer Coveris, backed by Sun Capital Partners. The firm is rebranding the business as Paragon Print and Packaging.

Family office investment firm Nickolas Asset Management has acquired a resin processing and materials facility from Florida-based resins company Material Difference Technologies.

Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.

Lumina Capital Management-backed financial technology company AGI, which operates as Agibank in Brazil, has scaled back its initial public offering plans in the U.S., cutting the number of shares it plans to sell by 54% to 20 million and chopping the expected price range to $12 to $13 a share from $15 to $18, regulatory filings show. Lumina backed the lender in late 2024 and held a roughly 21% stake in the company's equity, the filings show. Agibank reduced the offering because of poor trading in shares of peer company PicPay, market watcher Renaissance Capital said.

BioImpact Capital- and affiliate MPM Capital-backed biotechnology company Orna Therapeutics has agreed to be acquired by Eli Lilly for up to $2.4 billion in cash, Colin Kellaher reports for the Journal. The Watertown, Mass., company is developing therapeutics using engineered circular RNA paired with novel lipid nanoparticles. MPM and BioImpact helped set up the company in 2021.

Secondary firm Coller Capital has backed a more than $1.3 billion continuation vehicle to recapitalize a 2018-vintage year U.S. direct lending fund raised by Ares Management, according to an emailed news release. The new continuation fund’s portfolio consists of first-lien, floating-rate loans to  private equity-backed U.S. middle-market companies.

Toronto-based Northleaf Capital Partners has rounded up at least $101 million so far for Northleaf Growth Fund II, according to a regulatory filing. The filing did not specify a fund target, but Northleaf raised $212 million for its first direct growth fund back in 2024, above the fund’s $200 million target.

Canada's state-owned agricultural lender has received billions in pledges from private-equity firms and one major Canadian bank, giving it up to 5 billion Canadian dollars, or $3.7 billion, to invest in agricultural innovation, Paul Vieira reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Farm Credit Canada said commitments came from Maverix Private Equity, Northleaf Capital Partners and U.S.-based Seminal Capital Holdings, among others.

Partners Capital Investment Group in Boston has raised more than $1 billion for its latest co-investment fund, Merlin IV, making the vehicle the firm’s largest yet for the strategy, according to an emailed statement. Partners initially established the strategy in 2019 and it focuses on co-investments in lower-midmarket and midmarket buyouts. The firm typically invests $25 million to more than $100 million per deal.

Blackstone Chief Executive Steve Schwarzman plans to ramp up his philanthropic efforts with a planned expansion of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation, the Journal reports. The substantial majority of Schwarzman’s wealth, which largely is bound up in his Blackstone stake, is slated to transfer to the foundation upon his death, according to a person familiar with the effort. Wealth-data firm Altrata pegs Schwarzman's estimated net worth at $43.2 billion in early February.

Apollo Global Management has hired banking executive Diego De Giorgi as a partner and head of EMEA, succeeding Rob Seminara, who is preparing for a new role with the firm. De Giorgi previously served as Standard Chartered Bank’s chief financial officer, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News.

London-listed ICG has hired Sujey Subramanian as head of the firm’s Asia Pacific Corporate investment strategy starting May 1. Subramanian, who will be based in Singapore, joins ICG from PAG, where he served as deputy chief investment officer and head of Southeast Asia for the firm’s flagship private-equity strategy.

Warburg Pincus in New York has hired Microsoft executive Ralph Haupter as an external senior adviser to help it identify and evaluate new investment opportunities. At Microsoft, Haupter is executive vice president and chief revenue officer for small medium enterprises and channel.

The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, or Mass PRIM, received some $2.5 billion in distributions from its private-equity portfolio last year, Michael McGirr, the pension manager’s director of private equity, said during an investment committee meeting Tuesday, WSJ Pro's Laura Kreutzer reports. The year was a near record for private-equity distributions, second only to 2021 levels, McGirr said. Mass PRIM’s private-equity portfolio grew to $19.5 billion of assets and the portfolio returned 1.5% for the previous quarter and 8.5% for the year.

Liberty Mutual Group’s asset-management arm is backing a partnership with Ara Partners that includes a commitment from Liberty Mutual Investments to Ara’s energy and infrastructure strategies. The partnership includes an anchor commitment to Ara Energy Fund I.

Golub Capital, which manages more than $90 billion including through collateralized loan obligations, is expanding its broadly syndicated loan CLO operations in Europe, naming Tyler Wallace as managing director, European broadly syndicated loans. Wallace was previously in a similar role with Fair Oaks Capital in London.

Neuberger Berman in New York is scooping up McKinsey & Co.'s wealth manager MIO Partners, which controls assets of about $26 billion on behalf of the consulting firm's partners as well as current and former employees. About $20 billion of the total is invested in alternative strategies. Neuberger manages about $563 billion.

David Solomon, the chief executive of investment bank Goldman Sachs, expects a rebound in deal activity this year, saying it would be meaningfully higher than it has been over the last five years, AnnaMaria Andriotis reports for the Journal. He said private-equity firms, which drive a significant amount of dealmaking volume, are bound to drive more mergers and acquisitions this year in large part because they have to return capital to their investors.

Multistrategy asset manager GCM Grosvenor in Chicago reported a 1% gain in fee-related earnings to $49.8 million during last year's fourth quarter while adjusted net income jumped 17% to $61.7 million, or 31 cents a share. The firm managed about $90.9 billion at year-end, up 14% from the end of 2024. Grosvenor added $3.5 billion in fresh capital during the just-ended quarter and $10.7 billion for all of last year.

Buyout firms backed 20 U.S. initial public offerings last year, up from 11 in 2024, according to Carlyle Group, citing Dealogic data. Higher IPO activity is making it easier for private-equity firms to exit investments, but Matt Savino, Carlyle's global head of capital markets, said successful stock offerings are far from guaranteed, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Savino advises seeding the market through outreach to the biggest buyers of IPO stocks, mainly large money managers.

Send us your tips, suggestions and feedback. Write to:

Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.