Happy Friday! Here in Boston the dog days of summer were in full swing earlier this week, but I am hoping that yesterday’s rain will bring some relief as we head toward the weekend. In the private-equity world, summer has traditionally been a time when dealmaking and fundraising slow down, but this week there seems to have been plenty of activity to keep folks busy.

In this morning’s newsletter, we have news of two new funds, including one private-credit fund scoop involving PGIM from Isaac Taylor and another co-investment fund story penned by Rod James. Finally, as quarterly earnings season kicks into gear, Chris Cumming looks at the balance-sheet boost KKR has gotten from its push into asset-based lending.

Dive in for more details on these stories and so many more! Have a great weekend!

Life insurer Prudential Financial’s PGIM investment-management arm has raised $4.2 billion for its latest middle-market direct-lending fund, underscoring a trend of investor capital flowing to this core segment of the private-credit market, WSJ Pro's Isaac Taylor reports. The PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities II fund is the second to support the asset manager's midmarket direct-lending strategy. The new vehicle exceeded the $2.4 billion raised for a predecessor fund, which was closed by February 2022, by about 75%.

Dextra Partners, formed in 2022 by former executives from middle-market investment manager GoldPoint Partners, raised $825 million for its first commingled fund as an independent firm, WSJ Pro’s Rod James reports. The New York-based firm closed Dextra Co-investment Fund VII ahead of its $650 million target.

Buyout firm KKR sees an opening to make more asset-backed loans to individuals, as the New York firm continues to diversify away from its original business of leveraged buyouts, Chris Cumming writes for WSJ Pro. Firm executives on Thursday touted the growth potential of the asset-based lending business, one of several credit sectors where it has been expanding in recent years as mergers and acquisitions remain slow across the globe.

Healthcare-focused OrbiMed is providing as much as $200 million in financing for Nasdaq-listed Myriad Genetics, a diagnostic testing and precision medicine company in Salt Lake City. OrbiMed is providing the two-year credit facility, including $125 million in funded capital, through its OrbiMed Royalty & Credit Opportunities IV, according to a regulatory filing. The credit line matures in July 2030.

Insight Partners led a $150 million growth investment in software maker Anaconda, joined by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala. The Austin, Texas-based company specializes in building and managing artificial intelligence-based enterprise applications.

Private-equity firm Snowhawk and investment manager Nuveen are backing development and operating company Prime Data Centers with an equity investment, joining existing backers including Ares Management and Macquarie Group. The new investment comes as the data-center developer accelerates its plans across the U.S. and Europe. Brian McMullen, a former Stonepeak Partners executive, founded New York-based Snowhawk, which spun out of Stonepeak in 2023.

Credit-focused Kennedy Lewis Investment Management is investing in Nasdaq-listed asset manager Great Elm Group, acquiring 4.9% of the company's stock and committing as much as $150 million in lending to Monomoy Properties REIT, an industrial property holding vehicle recently placed under Great Elm Real Estate Ventures, as well as related entities. 

Financial services-focused J.C. Flowers & Co. is acquiring a majority stake in Italian insurance broker Caleas, the New York firm's fifth deal since May in a roll-up strategy, including add-ons, in the country's insurance sector. Management of the multiline broker in Milan will retain a minority interest.

General Atlantic in New York led a $63 million growth investment in Brazilian financial infrastructure software provider QI Tech. General Atlantic previously led a $200 million growth round in 2023, which fueled QI Tech's acquisition of brokerage Singulare. Across Capital joined the latest investment. In addition to software, QI Tech provides banking services and manages assets of $25 billion and acts as a financial custodian overseeing $17 billion.

Anthos Capital and Menlo Ventures co-led a $60 million growth investment in entertainment brand Good Job Games, joined by Bessemer Venture Partners. The Istanbul-based company develops socially driven games such as Match Villains.

Existing investors OrbiMed and Marshall Wace led a $58 million private investment in public equity to further support medical stent supplier InspireMD, joined by other investors. Both firms had roughly 10% stakes in the Tel Aviv company's shares as of April 15, according to a regulatory filing. Both firms also participated in a 2023 PIPE deal offered by the Nasdaq-listed company.

Legal & General and Allegis Capital were among the co-leaders of a $55 million growth investment in medical diagnostic company Ultromics, joined by many other investors. The U.K. company is expanding in the U.S. with its artificial intelligence-driven cardiovascular diagnostics systems.

Consumer-focused firm L Catterton has bought Kisshokichi, a Kobe beef restaurant chain with some 50 restaurants across Japan.

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

Private-equity firm Five Point Infrastructure's portfolio company, Northwind Midstream, is being acquired by Marathon Petroleum-backed strategic buyer MPLX in a $2.38 billion deal, Connor Hart reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Set up in 2022, Northwind provides sour-gas gathering, treating and processing services in New Mexico.

Amberjack Capital Partners is selling portfolio company Entegra to private equity-backed NDT Global after about 10 years of ownership. Entegra offers in-line inspection services for oil-and-gas pipelines. NDT Global is backed by Novacap and Canadian pension manager La Caisse.

European buyout firm EQT AB has sold 17 million shares of Zurich-listed skincare company Galderma Group for about 2.1 billion Swiss francs, equivalent to about $2.57 billion. The sale from an affiliate of the firm's EQT VIII funds provided about 555 million francs in gross proceeds to the firm. EQT first backed the company, which went public last year, in 2019.

Boston-based family-owned investment firm Landon Capital Partners and a private investment firm it backed called Green Farms Capital have sold iMemories to family history and genomics company Ancestry. Since Landon invested in iMemories in 2022, the company has doubled its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. IMemories offers services that allow customers to digitize analog-format home movies and photos.

Venture-backed design software maker Figma saw its shares soar in their trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday after pricing at $33 a share late Wednesday, above the expected $30 to $32 range, WSJ Pro's Yuliya Chernova reports. Index Ventures, with a pre-IPO stake of 16.8%, held the largest stake among venture backers. The deal could strengthen a rebound in the U.S. IPO market that began in May, according to research from market watcher Renaissance Capital.

Hellman & Friedman- and Permira-backed software developer Genesys has received $1.5 billion through new investments from strategic backers Salesforce and ServiceNow, which each invested an equal amount. The fresh capital was used to repurchase shares from both private-equity firms, which remain the company's majority owners.

Dawson Partners has raised at least $6.6 billion so far for Dawson Portfolio Finance 6 and related parallel funds, according to regulatory filings. One investor that disclosed a commitment to the newest fund is the Minnesota State Board of Investment, which pledged $100 million, according to pension documents. Toronto-based Dawson closed its previous portfolio finance fund in 2023 with more than $5 billion. Dawson, which was previously known as Whitehorse Liquidity Partners, offers structured capital to general partners and limited partners, including through net asset value financing, preferred equity investments and secondary transactions.

Therapeutics investor Frazier Life Sciences closed on more than $1.3 billion for its Frazier Life Sciences XII fund to invest in startups and growth stage biopharmaceutical companies. Investors in the fund included the New Mexico State Investment Council, which committed up to $50 million, according to the WSJ Pro Private Equity LP Commitments database. The multistrategy firm based in Palo Alto, Calif., collected more than $987 million for a predecessor vehicle that wrapped up in 2022.

Brighton Park Capital in Greenwich, Conn., has tapped Tom Hussey to lead its newly opened London office as a partner. Hussey joined the growth investment firm after a dozen years with General Atlantic, where he co-chaired the New York firm's European investments committee.

Sports, media and entertainment-focused firm Bluestone Equity Partners appointed Mark Cho as partner, chief operating officer and general counsel. Cho previously held senior executive roles at firms such as B Capital Group and Willow Tree Credit Partners.

Permira in London has added John Turner as an executive in residence to focus on technology company sales and marketing strategies. The veteran technology executive has led sales and marketing organizations at several companies over some three decades in the industry.

Founder Ray Dalio sold his last remaining stake in Bridgewater Associates and stepped off its board, capping a tumultuous transition at the $92.1 billion hedge-fund firm he founded, Juliet Chung reported for The Wall Street Journal. Bridgewater bought the remaining shares held by the charismatic billionaire, the firm told clients in a letter last week. People familiar with the matter said Bridgewater subsequently issued new shares to the sovereign-wealth fund of Brunei in a multibillion-dollar deal that gave the Southeast Asian fund a nearly 20% stake in the Connecticut firm.

Relentless market uncertainty and narrowing opportunities to take startups public are leading venture capitalists to take a step back from biotechnology, WSJ Pro’s Brian Gormley writes. U.S. and European biotechs raised $11.2 billion in venture capital in the first half, according to Silicon Valley Bank. That is off last year’s pace, when these startups collected $28.6 billion for the full year.

Credit-focused Blue Owl Capital raised $12.1 billion during this year’s second quarter, more than double the $5.4 billion collected in the year-earlier period and a quarterly record for the New York firm. This year's total comprised $5.8 billion for credit funds and another $5.8 billion for real-assets strategies, according to a presentation of the firm's results. Strategies dedicated to wealthy individuals represented roughly 36%, or $4.4 billion, of the latest quarter's total fundraising, while pools backed by institutional investors accounted for the remaining 64%.

Investment exits for U.S. private-equity firms rebounded this year, with the value of announced deals reaching $318.97 billion in the first half, nearing the roughly $373 billion value of exits announced by the American industry in all of last year, according to a KPMG report.

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