Good day Pro PE readers! As the fundraising engines slow, many firms, particularly newer ones, face a steeper climb to attract capital for their funds. However, as Maria Armental reports this morning, asset manager GCM Grosvenor is armed with some $10 billion in dry powder that it can draw on to support fundraising managers, particularly those run by diverse founders. Meanwhile, Luis Garcia looks at an investment by Antin Infrastructure aimed at supporting the development of community solar projects and Rod James reports on a move by the Alaska Permanent Fund to lower its target exposure to private equity.

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Fund-of-funds pioneer GCM Grosvenor’s top executives say they will direct a significant amount of the firm’s $10 billion in undeployed cash to emerging and diverse managers, where they see a significant potential for big returns, WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Maria Armental reports. Support from the Chicago-based firm can prove a lifeline for some managers as they try to get off the ground, including by helping cover start-up costs. Also, backing from Grosvenor when even large, established firms struggle to raise money and investors shy from adding risk can bolster new managers’ fundraising prospects.

Antin Infrastructure Partners has pledged to invest more than $100 million to clean-energy project developer PearlX Infrastructure as the private-equity firm seeks to expand access to solar power across lower-income communities, Luis Garcia writes for WSJ Pro. Antin earlier this year acquired a majority stake in PearlX, which recently completed its first project in California after building others in Texas. The roughly 750 kilowatts rooftop-solar installation at a 232-unit residential complex in Victorville, Calif., provides power to tenants at lower rates than those they paid to the local utility, said Michael Huerta, PearlX’s co-founder and chief executive. The project also features batteries that can help keep homes powered during increasingly frequent blackouts, he said.

Alaska Permanent Fund plans to allocate a smaller proportion of its investment portfolio to private equity, an asset class in which it has invested heavily in recent years, Rod James writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. At its quarterly board of trustees meeting held on May 17 and 18, the board of the $77 billion sovereign-wealth fund approved a target allocation to private equity of 15% for fiscal year 2025, down from an initial 19% target outlined in a five-year asset-allocation plan approved in May 2020.

Sovereign wealth manager Mubadala Investment has formally agreed to acquire Fortress Investment Group from SoftBank Group, with Fortress managers acquiring a 30% interest in their firm as part of the transaction, according to a news release. The deal confirms a Wall Street Journal report that SoftBank was selling the asset manager, although terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed. The Journal report put the sale price at more than $2 billion, citing people familiar with the matter. Fortress manages about $46 billion and was acquired in 2017 by SoftBank’s Vision fund. For Mubadala, the deal offers a way to expand its private credit operations.

Advent International, Centerbridge Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have received European Central Bank approval for the acquisition of a roughly 90% stake in property lender Aareal Bank, giving it a market value of about €2 billion, equivalent to about $2.16 billion. The firms are offering €33 per share to take the Wiesbaden, Germany-based bank private and expect the transaction to close early next month, according to a news release.

Mizuho Financial Group in Japan has agreed to buy New York investment bank Greenhill in a deal worth $550 million including debt, Jack Pitcher reported for Dow Jones Newswires. Mizuho agreed to pay $15 per share for Greenhill, whose stock closed Friday at $6.78 in New York. The deal calls for Greenhill to become Mizuho’s mergers and acquisitions and restructuring advisory business under Scott Bok, the bank’s current chairman and chief executive. Greenhill shares climbed to as much as $14.85 each before closing at $14.66 Monday.

Amulet Capital Partners in Greenwich, Conn. said it has purchased research-focused Alliance Clinical Network from founder and Chief Executive Anthony Abey, who retained a significant stake. The Dallas-based business operates six locations serving patients, pharmaceutical sponsors and contract research organizations and last year conducted more than 75 trials for more than 40 sponsoring organizations.

Philadelphia buyout firm Inverness Graham said it has launched a new environmental sustainability focused investment strategy it is called Green Light and has already backed two investments through the strategy. The Green Light strategy will focus on technology-enabled lower midmarket businesses that benefit from accelerating demand for decarbonization and environmentally sustainable strategies across industries, according to a press release. So far, the firm has backed liquid plant nutrition company Custom Agronomics and Concord Servicing, a home improvement and energy efficiency loan servicing company, the release stated.

Credit specialist  i80 Group has provided a $75 million credit facility to consumer credit startup Kiwi, which focuses on recently arrived immigrants from Latin America. San Juan, Puerto Rico-based Kiwi works with consumers with little or no credit history to establish a record as a borrower in the U.S., where the company said the Latino market has expanded in recent years to number more than 60 million. The startup also said that Advent-Morro Equity Partners, Altio Capital and Independent Capital led a $4.5 million equity investment in the business.

BVP Forge, a software-focused growth investor affiliated with Bessemer Venture Partners, has backed a strategic investment in Medisolv, a provider of healthcare data management and reporting software, according to a press release. BVP Forge raised $780 million for its inaugural fund last year to back majority or significant minority investments in growing software and technology-enabled services companies.

General Atlantic in New York has committed an additional $100 million to mobile payments software company PhonePe, according to a news release from the company. To date, the firm and its co-investors have pumped around $550 million into the business, which makes the PhonePe payments app and other systems.

Australian investor Potentia Capital Management said it is dropping its effort to acquire Tyro Payments for about 875 million Australian dollars, or about $582 million, after having had a chance to go over the Sydney-based company’s finances, according to a regulatory filing. A Potentia-led group made its latest offer of A$1.60 per share in December, when rival bidder Westpac Banking withdrew, according to the filing.

Israel-based investment firm Pitango led a €100 million growth commitment to German healthcare company Patient21, joined by Pico Venture Partners, Bertelsmann Investments and Piton Capital among others, Pico said on its website. The Berlin-based company operates clinics in Germany.

An investment entity controlled by Brazil's Moreira Salles family, MS Alpa Participações, has offered to buy about 32 million shares in footwear maker Alpargatas for 10.50 reais each, equivalent to $2.11 each, or more than the per-share value of the preferred equity involved, Jeffrey T. Lewis reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The purchase indicated in the offer would be worth about $67.5 million. Alpargatas shares surged 17% Monday on news of the offer.

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A blank check company led by Kingstown Capital Management executives has filed to raise $200 million through an initial public offering of shares with the goal of combining with a business in a disruptive growth sector, according to a regulatory filing. Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. II is led by Michael Blitzer, Kingstown founder and co-chief executive, as chairman and CEO, and Peter Ondishin, Kingstown’s chief financial officer, as CFO, the filing shows. New York-based Kingstown manages around $69 million, according to its most recent annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed in March.

A blank check company led by executives of asset managers based in China aims to raise $60 million through an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock market, a regulatory filing shows. The special purpose acquisition company plans to focus on Asia in its search for a private business to combine with and bring public, according to data provider Boardroom Alpha. Bowen’s leaders include Na Gai as chairwoman and Jing Lu as chief financial officer. Gai is executive president of Shenzhen Guoxing Capital and Lu is Chief Operating Officer of China Bridge Capital International , based in Beijing.

Growth investor FFL Partners said it has exited its investment in staffing company ProService, which the San Francisco-based firm first backed about six years ago. The Hawaiian business said last week that Menlo Park, Calif.-based Silver Lake had become its private-equity backer. The company specializes in providing staff to healthcare and technology-enabled businesses.

Craft Ventures has rounded up at least $584 million so far for Craft Ventures Growth II LP, according to a regulatory filing. The fund is focused on investments in later-stage growth companies, according to a presentation made by StepStone Group, which backed the fund through Stepstone Atlantic Fund. Craft has also raised at least $711 million for its latest early stage fund, Craft Ventures IV LP, a separate filing indicates. 

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe said it has added Andrew Hausman as an operating partner in its technology group. He was most recently president of business information provider Dun & Bradstreet’s finance and risk division, according to a news release.

European banking and investment firm Rothschild said it is forming a private-markets group and named Jessica Sellam to run the new unit. She was previously the leader of the firm’s private markets and business development teams for France, Belgium and Monaco, according to a news release. The new operation is housed within Rothschild’s wealth and asset management division.

Mercury Capital Advisors has appointed a new leadership committee following the announcement that co-founder and Managing Partner Enrique Cuan is leaving the firm. The global placement agent and advisory firm has named Jennifer Frame as head of North American distribution to lead a team of five distribution professionals focused on North American fundraising. It has also promoted Sara Modalal Al-Qahtani to partner to lead fundraising in the Middle East, according to a press release. Devrup Banerjee, who leads the firm’s secondary advisory unit and Matthew Haimes who leads origination and distribution efforts in Europe, will also be part of the committee, the release stated. Finally, Cynthia Ho and Andrew Osofsky will co-head North American origination and project management for Mercury while Arpit Khandelwal will head international project management, the release stated.

Startup leaders are taking a pay cut to help their companies weather a prolonged slump in venture-capital investing, including fewer funding deals, falling valuations and unfavorable conditions for public-market debuts, Angus Loten reports for WSJ Pro Venture Capital. So far this year, the average annual salary for CEOs at U.S. startups has fallen to $142,000, down from an average of $150,000 in 2022, and the lowest since 2020, according to Kruze Consulting, an accounting firm for venture-backed companies. The salary figures are based on an analysis of financial data from more than 400 of the firm’s private venture-backed startup clients, Kruze said.

Activist investor TCS Capital Management has built a stake in Yelp and is calling on the service-recommendation site to explore strategic alternatives including a sale, the Journal’s Lauren Thomas reports, citing people familiar with the matter. TCS Capital owns more than 4% of the outstanding shares of Yelp’s common stock, making it one of the company’s five biggest shareholders, the people said. TCS Capital has been an investor in Yelp for most of the past five years, but the stake hasn’t been revealed publicly before.

Fidelity Investments in Boston said it is expanding its alternative assets investment options by adding a new interval vehicle, Fidelity Multi-Strategy Credit Fund starting this week for financial advisers. Investors in the fund won’t be able to withdraw from it on a daily basis but will instead have limited liquidity options on a quarterly basis, with the firm planning to offer repurchase of 5% to 25% of fund shares every three months, according to a news release.

Private-equity placement firm Asante Capital Group said it is expanding on the West Coast with the opening of a Los Angeles office, led by Brandon Lay, a managing director.

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Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Rod James; Laura Kreutzer; Chitra Vemuri.

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