Welcome back. Two scoops to start. I start off with European investment firm EQT’s bet on AI transforming the hotel industry as the lead investor in a $300 million round that valued hospitality-management software company Mews at $2.5 billion.

Next, our Isaac Taylor breaks news that Eldridge Industries’ asset-management and insurance holding unit and Carlyle's secondaries arm Carlyle AlpInvest have set up a new diversified credit fund. The strategy's roughly $1.5 billion in investment capacity includes senior debt financing provided by French bank BNP Paribas.

Finally, the Journal's Matt Wirz writes about how private credit investors are cashing out of interval funds in droves in what’s seen as a litmus test for the industry. 

We have these stories and more, so please read on…

European investment firm EQT is leading a $300 million investment in hospitality-management software provider Mews in a bet on the power of artificial intelligence to transform the hotel industry, WSJ Pro's Maria Armental reports. The investment values Amsterdam-based Mews at $2.5 billion. Mews’ technology helps deliver operational and efficiency gains for its customers as virtual assistants and artificial intelligence-powered chatbots handle tasks, such as reservations, answering guests’ questions, and managing staffing and housekeeping schedules. The ability to offer guests personalized services, be it a room set-up or a custom itinerary, is one of the company’s most visible AI-powered offerings, and Mews’s technology and the insights it draws allow hotel staff to “have a much richer, deeper conversation” with guests, company founder Richard Valtr said. 

The asset-management and insurance holding unit of Eldridge Industries joined with Carlyle Group’s secondaries arm, Carlyle AlpInvest, to set up their inaugural diversified credit fund, capitalized with about $1.5 billion, WSJ Pro's Isaac Taylor reports. Under the new partnership, Carlyle AlpInvest and its co-investors made an equity commitment to credit vehicles managed by Eldridge Capital Management. Contributors to the new fund also include institutional investors, while French bank BNP Paribas is supplying senior debt financing. The Carlyle unit led the secondary transaction, which purchased direct lending investments as well as equipment financing commitments from Eldridge Capital. Carlyle AlpInvest also worked with Eldridge Capital on structuring and establishing the fund. 

For the first time since the start of the private-credit boom, large numbers of individual investors are trying to get their money out, Matt Wirz writes for The Wall Street Journal. Several of the biggest funds eligible to wealthy individuals received requests from about 5% of shareholders to cash out at the end of last year, well above the normal volume, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. One, managed by Blue Owl Capital, got redemptions for about 15% of its shares, primarily from Asian clients, a person familiar with the matter said. The rising redemptions come at an awkward time for private-credit fund managers—and for the Trump administration—as they push for new rules that would “democratize” private markets by encouraging their inclusion in 401(k) retirement plans.

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Spring Lane Capital led a $115 million growth investment in geothermal power developer Zanskar joined by existing backers including Lowercarbon Capital and many others to support the Salt Lake City-based company's efforts to find and develop overlooked geothermal fields such as one in Nevada, concealed beneath an arid expanse of high desert, Benoît Morenne reports for the Journal. Zanskar plans to build several geothermal power plants before 2030.

Valor Equity Partners-backed aerial drone maker Zipline reached a $7.6 billion valuation with a new growth investment round of more than $600 million. In addition to Valor, others that participated in the latest round included Tiger Global Management, Baillie Gifford and Fidelity Management & Research. Zipline aims to expand its drone delivery operations into at least four states, starting with the Houston and Phoenix markets.

Thrive Capital and DST Global led a $250 million growth investment in medical artificial-intelligence technology company OpenEvidence in a transaction that valued the business at $12 billion. The Miami company offers a way for doctors to get answers to clinical questions online.

StepStone Group's real estate arm joined Blue Moon Capital Partners in a $250 million continuation vehicle for senior housing developments held by Blue Moon. The group of five separate assets is also expected to expand through acquisitions.

WestCap Management in San Francisco led a $150 million growth investment in Preply that values the online language learning marketplace at $1.2 billion. The Brookline, Mass.-based company connects over 100,000 tutors to people striving to learn more than 90 languages worldwide.

Tiger Global Management joined Premji Invest and Xora Innovation in leading a $200 million growth investment in networking infrastructure company Upscale AI. Others that participated in the round included StepStone Group and Qualcomm Ventures. The Santa Clara, Calif., company provides systems optimized to handle artificial-intelligence applications.

Healthier Capital led a $110 million growth investment in primary and specialty care services provider Zarminali Pediatrics, joined by existing investor General Catalyst and new backer K2 HealthVentures. The Chicago company has 28 clinics in eight states.

Growth equity investor Carbon Direct Capital and strategic backer Ormat Technologies led a more than $97 million investment in Sage Geosystems, a developer of geothermal energy storage and power-generating systems. The company's first commercial generator will be set up at an existing Ormat plant.

One Peak in London led a $75 million growth investment in financial software developer Datarails, joined by Vertex Growth, Vintage Investment Partners and others. Datarails aims to eliminate the need for finance professionals to choose between Excel and external AI tools.

Raine Group’s growth equity strategy has backed a $50 million equity investment in Duetti as part of a $200 million financing package that includes $125 million private securitization and a $25 million increase in the company’s credit facility. Duetti, a technology and financial services provider for independent musicians, plans to use the capital to accelerate its music catalog acquisitions and expand its products and services.

Centana Growth Partners has led a $40 million growth investment in Benepass, a provider of global benefits capital-management technology and services. Other investors that backed the deal include Portland, Maine-based firm FoW Partners and existing venture backers Portage Ventures and Threshold Ventures.

TowerBrook Capital Partners in London is acquiring a majority stake in insurance claims services provider MSA Mizar, joining existing investors including Columna Capital. Columna has backed the company since 2022. MSA Mizar manages more than 850,000 property and casualty claims annually with about 850 people and operations in six European countries.

True Wind Capital, a San Francisco-based firm founded in 2015 by KKR technology group veterans Adam Clammer and Jamie Greene, has made a growth investment in Ultimate Knowledge Institute, a provider of technology and services that help organizations enhance their cybersecurity readiness.

Defense- and government services-focused firm Godspeed Capital Management is backing Engineering Resource Group, a mechanical, electrical and plumbing, or MEP, engineering, consulting and design firm based in Flowood, Miss. 

Resurgens Technology Partners is investing in OrgChart, a provider of workforce planning technology and services. Lock 8 Partners, which has backed the company since 2021, will retain a minority stake.

Investor RLH Equity Partners, which backs tech-enabled services companies, is investing in Valent Partners, a Dallas-based company that offers technology strategy and transformation services to enterprises in industries that include financial services, insurance, consumer products and services, industrials, energy and professional services. 

Main Post Partners has acquired HomeWell Care Services alongside the company’s management. HomeWell is a national franchised provider of in-home care services.

Water Street Healthcare Partners has acquired a majority stake in medical device logistics company GlobalMed Logistix, which has been an operations unit of CrossLink LifeSciences in Norcross, Ga.

Growth Street Partners is backing security services provider CyberNut with a minority investment. The Miami company specializes in cybersecurity as well as human-risk-management systems for primary and secondary schools.

Midmarket-focused H.I.G. Capital's special situations financing provider H.I.G. Bayside Capital Europe is supporting Chiltern Capital-backed packaging company Amerplast Group with a five-year credit facility to refinance its existing debt.

Private investment firm AEA Investors' middle-market financing arm led a debt investment backing the recapitalization of NTC Group's Tenax Aerospace in Ridgeland, Miss. The deal was the firm's third involving financing for an NTC portfolio company.

Eurazeo in Paris is backing distributed energy company PCG Power, co-leading a growth investment alongside Aramco Ventures and joined by other investors. The deal involves hundreds of millions of yuan for the China-based developer of solar-power generating sites.

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

Hellman & Friedman- and GIC-backed wealth manager Allfunds has agreed to be acquired by Deutsche Borse Group for about €5.3 billion, or roughly $6.19 billion, plus certain future dividends, Elias Schisgall reports for the Journal. The deal requires the support of at least 75% of Allfunds shareholders. About 36% of Allfunds shares were held by a vehicle set up by Hellman & Friedman and Singapore's GIC in 2017 to invest in Allfunds. The investment firms support the deal.

Bain Capital in Boston has sold the China business of data-center portfolio company WinTriX DC Group to a consortium led by Shenzhen Dongyangguang Industry in a deal that valued the assets at about $4 billion. The buyout firm first backed the operation in 2018.

Prysm Capital-backed software maker Clear Street Group has filed for an initial public offering without saying how many shares it plans to sell or at what price range. The New York company provides infrastructure applications that connect investors with capital markets. Prysm first invested in Clear Street in 2022, according to the Princeton, N.J., firm's website.

Private-equity firm Epiris is selling a minority stake in U.K. funeral services provider Pure Cremation to Centerbridge Partners, including debt and equity in the business. Epiris acquired Pure in 2023.

Nordic private-equity firm Norvestor aims to raise up to €1.8 billion, or about $2.1 billion, for its next midmarket fund, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News, citing people familiar with the matter. The Oslo-based firm wrapped up its previous flagship fund in 2023 at its hard cap of €1.5 billion, exceeding its €1.25 billion target.

Carlyle Group's secondaries arm, Carlyle AlpInvest, has led a recapitalization of Lovell Minnick Partners-backed SRS Acquiom through a single-asset continuation vehicle. Lovell Minnick acquired a majority stake in the company in 2018. SRS Acquiom offers technology and services that help manage mergers and acquisitions as well as bilateral and syndicated loan facilities.

Longtime Blackstone executive David Blitzer has resigned from his remaining roles there, effective at the end of last year, the firm has confirmed, thanking him "for his many significant contributions to the firm over decades." Blitzer chaired Blackstone's $34 billion Tactical Opportunities strategy, which he helped set up after joining the New York firm in 1991. He gave up day-to-day leadership of Tac Opps near the end of 2024. He was also a member of Blackstone's management committee. Prior to Tac Opps, Blitzer helped establish and lead Blackstone’s European private-equity business. Outside the firm, he joined Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris in 2017 to start Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which he helps run as co-managing partner. Blitzer is also a direct investor in major league sports teams and related businesses, including through his family office, Bolt Ventures. Blitzer couldn't be reached for comment.

Partners Group in Switzerland has set up a special opportunities strategy and hired Joshua Hartz as a partner from Bain Capital to run the team. Hartz will split his time between the firm's Swiss headquarters and Sydney. The strategy has a global mandate to provide structured liquidity alongside the firm's private-equity, infrastructure, private-credit, real-estate and royalties operations.

Shore Capital Partners has formed Maintera Facility Services to provide commercial property services and acquired Commercial Asset Preservation to add to the business. The creation of Maintera follows Shore’s December 2024 investment in TCG Services.

Private-equity investments in wealth advisers rose about 26% from 2024 to $27.57 billion last year, the highest level since at least 2020, according to research provider S&P Global Market Intelligence. By comparison in 2023, the value of such deals fell to about $12.66 billion, S&P said.

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