Welcome back. Most people I know are happy to live in a digital wonderland, but I've always preferred physical media. I like flipping the pages of a book as opposed to scrolling on a Kindle. And I am the only person I know who still has a CD player. But while I find value in things of the past, the capital markets are racing toward an increasingly complex, and digital, future.

Today, our own Maria Armental  writes about education investor Achieve Partners raking in $450 million to tackle artificial intelligence-related labor displacement in the technology and healthcare sectors.

Meanwhile, Luis Garcia shares news of Lime Rock New Energy raising $640 million for its latest fund.

Now on to the news...

Education investor Achieve Partners has raised a $450 million fund to tackle artificial intelligence-related labor displacement in the technology and healthcare sectors, betting on on-the-job training to help close skill and experience gaps, Maria Armental reports. Pianko founded New York-based Achieve with Ryan Craig, a Warburg Pincus veteran with whom he worked at affiliated education investor University Ventures. Achieve’s two other managing directors are onetime UV colleagues Aanand Radia and Troy Williams.

Lime Rock New Energy has raised $640 million for its latest fund focused on investing in providers of services and products that support the shift from fossil fuels to a lower carbon economy, as it secured the backing of new European and Asian investors interested in such strategies, Luis Garcia writes. The Westport, Conn.-based private-equity investor wrapped up Lime Rock New Energy Fund II above an initial $500 million goal, said Mark McCall, a managing director at Lime Rock New Energy. By comparison, the firm brought in $320 million for a predecessor vehicle that closed in 2021, excluding co-investment pools, according to McCall.

Private-equity firms that include Permira, New Mountain Capital and TA Associates are among those investors potentially vying for Casey Wasserman’s talent and marketing agency, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. A possible deal could involve all or part of the agency, which could be valued at around $3 billion, some of the people said.

Avem Partners, a lower midmarket firm focused on aerospace and defense deals, has acquired Precision Aircraft Machining Co., or Pamco, with support from structured capital investor True West Capital Partners and other investors. Based in Sun Valley, Calif., Pamco manufactures fluid conveyance fittings for the aerospace, defense and space industries.

Banneker Partners in San Francisco is backing three-dimensional simulation provider ResFrac as a platform investment to support the company's growth, according to an emailed news release. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company provides oil and gas drillers with detailed models of subsurface conditions that are used to facilitate extraction using hydraulic fracturing techniques. Lightning Partners advised ResFrac on the deal.

Accel-KKR is backing newly formed healthcare supply purchasing management services provider Staritas, which was spun off by healthcare quality and safety nonprofit organization ECRI. The company's services are used by most major U.S. hospitals and healthcare systems to cope with supply disruptions and reduce costs.

Searchlight Capital Partners has backed residential heat pump supplier Paul Tech with a €40 million, or $47.2 million, strategic investment that includes structured capital. The Mannheim, Germany-based company offers artificial intelligence-driven systems designed to optimize energy use.

Hydrogen-focused asset manager Hy24 has increased its stake in Spanish biomethane developer Enagás Renovable to 80% from 30%, investing through its Clean Hydrogen Infrastructure Fund, according to an emailed news release. The firm, a joint venture of Ardian and FiveT Hydrogen, first backed the company in 2022.

Janus Henderson Investors led a $125 million growth investment in clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Ray Therapeutics, which is backed by 4BIO Capital. Other participants in the deal included Adage Capital Management and Marshall Wace. The Berkeley, Calif.-based company is developing therapies to restore the sight of people with various conditions by reprogramming retina cells.

StepStone Group led an $80 million growth investment in market research provider AcuityMD joined by others including Atreides Management and Iconiq Capital. The Boston-based company, valued at about $955 million, supplies clients with custom insights derived from public and private data.

Trive Capital in Dallas has invested in highly engineered components manufacturer Polar Technology. The Oxfordshire, England-based company supplies customers in the aerospace, defense, automotive and medical industries.

Centana Growth Partners led a $40 million investment round backing technology-driven mental health services systems provider Tava Health, joined by others including existing backers such as Catalyst Investors. The Salt Lake City-based company serves care providers, employers and over 200 health plans.

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

Specialist investor SK Capital is selling fireproofing technology company Isolatek International to midmarket industrials investor Catchment Capital. New York-based SK acquired the Stanhope, N.J., maker of passive fireproofing materials for data-center, advanced manufacturing, institutional and commercial use in August 2023, according to the firm's website.

After a decade of ownership, Ardian is selling its stake in Trigo, which provides inspection, quality engineering, and industrial performance management services to the transportation sector. French investment firm Montyon Capital is buying the company, which now has a presence in nearly 30 countries.

HarbourVest Partners in Boston has raised about $2.4 billion for its latest fund of funds HarbourVest Fund XIII, which it can use to back fund commitments as well as secondary deals or direct co-investments. The firm's predecessor in the series closed in 2022 with more than $3 billion in capital commitments.

United Arab Emirates-backed climate investment fund Altérra is backing KKR & Co.'s Global Climate Transition Strategy through its Acceleration Fund. The KKR strategy backs climate-focused businesses that offer ways to improve energy efficiency, security and decarbonize the economy. Altérra, which began with a $30 billion commitment from the UAE, has three main funds including one focused on co-investing and another focused on underserved markets along with the acceleration pool.

Baird Capital, the investment arm of Robert W. Baird & Co., closed on $450 million for its third fund to invest in lower midmarket companies in the U.S. and the U.K., Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London.

Sound Point Capital Management and Skypoint Capital Advisors have formed a credit investment-focused interval vehicle, Sound Point Alternative Income Fund, tailored to individual investors. The firms plan to make quarterly repurchase offers of at least 5% of the fund's outstanding shares at net asset value.

European buyout firm EQT AB has closed on $15.6 billion for its Asia-focused BPEA Private Equity Fund IX amid a slowdown in fundraising for vehicles targeting the region. Stockholm-based EQT reached its hard cap for the fund with commitments from public pension managers in Rhode Island, California, New York and Canada among others, according to the WSJ Pro Private Equity LP Commitments database.

Investor cash is expected to pour into semiliquid vehicles such as interval funds, reaching over $3 trillion by 2030, a survey of asset managers and institutions by Carne Group shows, according to an emailed news release. That would follow a period of explosive growth, with the amount held in such pools nearly tripling from 2020 through 2024, when it stood at about $349 billion, the third-party management firm said, citing figures from Deloitte. The January survey went to hundreds of senior executives at fund managers, investors and wealth advisers.

Buyout firm EQT AB has set up an artificial-intelligence-infrastructure strategy seeded by portfolio company EdgeConneX with the intent of building on the Stockholm firm's over $100 billion in digital and energy infrastructure assets. The strategy is led by firm partners Jan Vesely and Christoph Balzer and aims to meet the AI and digital infrastructure needs of portfolio company clients.

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

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