Welcome back. The best financiers I know are always looking for value in unusual places. Lately, I've found many of them applying that lens to baseball cards. The hobby is an easy fit for the private-equity mind. Beyond the nostalgia, these cards function as a type of alternative asset. They're portable, historical and remarkably resilient in value. Success in this hobby doesn't require a mass market. It requires the patience to find one perfect buyer at the right time.

To kick off today's news, my colleague Maria Armental shares news of Equality Asset Management collecting $575 million to back small software and technology-enabled services companies.

Meanwhile, a former Citigroup executive sued the bank Monday, alleging that one of its top executives sexually harassed her and that its human resources department was “weaponized” against her in the aftermath. 

And Federal Reserve officials this week are expected to pause cutting interest rates for the first time since September.

Now onto the news...

Growth investor Equality Asset Management collected $575 million in investor commitments for its sophomore fund to back small software and technology-enabled services companies mainly in the healthcare, insurance and financial sectors. Tom Roberts and Jeff Del Papa—one-time Summit Partners colleagues and managing partners of Equality—point to the closing of the vehicle as a milestone in the firm’s development since it began operating in 2018.

A former Citigroup  executive sued the bank Monday, alleging that one of its top executives sexually harassed her and that its human resources department was “weaponized” against her in the aftermath. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Julia Carreon, who worked in Citi’s wealth-management division until 2024, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court alleging that Andy Sieg, Citi’s head of wealth, publicly displayed sexually charged conduct toward her and failed to refute rumors that they were having an inappropriate relationship. A Citi spokesman said the lawsuit “has absolutely no merit and we will demonstrate that through the legal process.”

Federal Reserve officials this week are expected to pause cutting interest rates for the first time since September, holding steady after three consecutive reductions. The harder question is what it would take to start again, the Journal reported. The answer depends on which risk materializes first: a job market that breaks, or inflation that convincingly resumes falling toward 2%.

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Bain Capital in Boston is acquiring aircraft services provider APP Jet Center from Ridgewood Infrastructure. The fixed-base operator offers services including ​​hangar space and fueling at five airports in markets including Denver, Washington and San Francisco. The firm plans to use its investment in the business to establish a platform that it can expand with future acquisitions in the sector. Ridgewood announced its purchase of APP in January 2022.

Pollen Street Capital in London is acquiring fund administrative services provider Thesis Holdings, which operates as Tutman Fund Solutions. The U.K. company works with 79 fund managers to provide services for 342 funds, according to the company's website. The company has been backed by Ventiga Capital Partners, according to the London firm's website.

The life sciences strategy within JPMorgan Chase's asset-management arm is backing medical equipment company Turbett Surgical with a growth investment and recapitalization. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company makes mobile sterilization pods and consumable filters used in operating rooms.

Truelink Capital in Los Angeles has acquired construction products and tools distributor SouthernCarlson from Japanese conglomerate Kyocera, which purchased the business in 2019. Based in Omaha, Neb., SouthernCarlson supplies more than 50,000 customers across North America.

Houston-based Arroyo Investors and ONCEnergy, a newly established renewable energy company, have acquired Whirlwind Energy Center, a 60-megawatt wind farm located in Texas.

Dragonfly Capital led a $75 million growth investment in cryptocurrency payments network operator Mesh Connect, joined by several others including SBI Investment in a deal that values the San Francisco business at $1 billion.

The Private Credit Investors strategy of AllianceBernstein is backing artificial-intelligence technology company Kore.ai with a strategic growth investment, joining existing investors including Vistara Growth, Beedie Capital and Sweetwater Private Equity.

New investors including Kennet Partners and Federated Hermes Private Equity joined a $50 million growth investment in software developer Summize, participating alongside existing backers Maven Capital Partners and YFM Equity Partners. Summize uses artificial-intelligence technology in its contract-lifecycle-management programs.

Desjardins Capital and Fidelity Investments Canada ULC are among the asset managers that have provided $110 million in financing to Vention, a company that offers AI-powered software and hardware for automation and robotics. The backers also include NVentures, the venture-capital arm of NVIDIA. A portion of the investment will also fuel Vention's expansion across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Balyasny Asset Management and Janus Henderson Investors have joined a group of investors in backing TRex Bio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on medicines that adjust the immune system. The $50 million financing will be used to build out the company’s pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs.

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

Periscope Equity in Chicago has sold the Brightfin ServiceNow-native enterprise business to Proven Optics, which is backed by Silversmith Capital Partners. Periscope retained the Mobile Solutions business that had been bundled into Brightfin when the firm formed the business in 2021.

Specialist investor SK Capital Partners in New York is selling Noramco Group companies including Noramco, Extractas Biosciences and Purisys to strategic buyer Siegfried Holding and retained the group's Halo Pharmaceuticals as a standalone business. SK acquired Wilmington, Del.-based Noramco in 2016, according to the firm's website.

Ashland Capital Partners in Chicago has sold industrial tank and separation equipment maker KBK Industries. Ashland, which acquired the Houston business in 2006, said it generated a return of about 118 times its invested capital and an annual internal rate of return of over 45%. The firm said its KBK investment was supported by Main Street Capital.

Arcline Investment Management in Nashville, Tenn., is selling medical device manufacturer Resolution Medical to strategic buyer Resonetics, which is backed by Carlyle Group and GTCR. Arcline first backed the Fridley, Minn.-based company in 2021.

Neuberger Berman joined Kohlberg & Co. in selling utility consulting and engineering services provider Entrust Solutions Group to strategic buyer Leidos for about $2.4 billion in cash. New York-based Neuberger Berman acquired a minority stake from Kohlberg in 2023.

Century Park Capital Partners in Los Angeles has exited MCCi, a provider of enterprise content management and workflow automation to public-sector clients, through a sale to Incline Equity Partners and company managers. Century Park first backed the Tallahassee, Fla., business, which mainly serves government organizations with its enterprise content management and workflow automation applications, in 2018. 

European impact investor Ambienta SGR has wrapped up fundraising for its Ambienta Sustainable Credit Opportunities strategy with commitments that surpassed the firm's €500 million target, equivalent to about $591 million. Investors included insurer Generali's asset-management arm, the U.K. Environment Agency Pension Fund and the European Investment Fund. The firm, which manages over €4 billion, has already invested about €300 million from the fund in 13 deals.

HarbourVest Partners has accumulated $1.1 billion in investment capacity for its HarbourVest Partners Structured Solutions 2025 vehicle, with capital support from Ares Management and financing from Blackstone. The Boston-based firm aims to back private-equity and private-credit secondaries transactions through the vehicle.

Interval fund manager Cliffwater's Cascade Private Capital Fund has surpassed the $5 billion mark in net assets. The firm said the fund has delivered net annualized returns of about 21% since inception about four years ago.

Palistar Capital has elevated Ginu Thomas to chief operating officer and chief financial officer. He joined the firm as chief administrative officer in September.

King Street Capital Management in New York has added Christian Grobenski as a managing director with the firm's capital markets team, based in London. He was most recently with Strategic Value Partners.

The asset-management arm of JPMorgan Chase has added Pam Hess as an executive director and retirement strategist. She joins from the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association.

Bertram Capital, a middle-market private-equity firm, announced the promotions of Sean Houseworth, Aaron Kessler, Matt Jones and Paul Koeniger to the role of managing director.

StepStone Group has hired Jennifer Jones as a partner with its real estate team, based in San Francisco. She is a former portfolio manager with Swiss bank UBS.

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners in Los Angeles has made a bunch of promotions, including moving up Andrew Alexander and Greg Flaster to senior managing director and Brian Klaban and Luc Sandmann to managing director.

Infinity Capital Partners has appointed John Champagne as a partner and chief investment officer. He joined the firm in 2013.

Blueprint Equity, a technology-focused growth investment firm in La Jona, Calif., has hired Taylor Cavanah as its first operating partner, according to an emailed news release. Cavanah previously co-founded PetDesk and served as chief executive of the business, which develops apps that help pet-care providers expand.

The largest private equity-focused evergreen funds underperformed stock indexes last year, according to forthcoming research from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit activist group. The group compiled performance data on 15 large vehicles managed by some of the largest private-markets firms and determined their median return came to just over 11% for last year, while the S&P 500 index of large-capitalization stocks returned over 17%. Only the Cascade Private Capital Fund outperformed the MSCI ACWI index's return of over 22%, producing a 23% gain in the trailing 12-month period.

Investors are looking at private-credit funds “with caution” as they expect the gap between good and bad performers to increase, according to a survey that Coller Capital conducted with 108 private-capital-fund investors. Nearly two‑thirds, or 62%, of the respondents “expect the dispersion of returns among private-credit managers to widen over the next one to two years, underscoring the importance of manager selection,” Coller says.

Global merger and acquisition activity could sustain its momentum this year after deal value rose 40% in 2025 to $4.9 trillion, the second-highest total on record, Monica Gupta reports for the Journal, citing a Bain & Co. report. Bain says a survey of 300 M&A executives found that 80% expect to sustain or increase deal activity amid improving macro conditions and a growing backlog of private-equity and venture-capital assets ready for exit.

As the big private asset managers begin reporting year-end results, Morgan Stanley analysts will be looking for two things, Bill Alpert reports for Barron’s. Earnings at Blackstone, KKR & Co. and their peers increasingly rely on funds that generate steady fees, so analyst Michael Cyprys wants to hear about their fundraising. He will also listen for the outlook on capital markets, which have perked up lately and could help private-equity firms do more deals.

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

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