Aaron Weitzman

Through Nov 1, U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine shops have raised over $129.6 billion in investor commitments. While fundraising has remained strong throughout 2013, the overall figure continues to lag behind the $139.4 billion recorded this time last year.

U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine shops raised $871.3 million in commitments from institutional investors between October 7 and October 18, bringing the total raised for both buyout and mezzanine funds since the start of the year to more than $125.1 billion.

U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine firms have secured about $123.1 billion in their fundraising efforts through the first nine months of the year. Additionally, disclosed deal volume is around $102.2 billion year-to-date.

U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine shops have secured about $114.9 billion in capital commitments through the first nine months of 2013. Fundraising continues to lag slightly behind last year, when the year-to-date tally was $129.5 billion.

U.S.-based buyout and mezzanine firms raised approximately $79.1 billion in capital commitments from institutional investors year-to-date. Overall fundraising remains a tad depressed compared with this time last year when buyout funds managed to collect $85 billion in commitments.

VCs have long used recruiters to find talent for their portfolio companies. Now some of them are using headhunters to find GPs for their venture firms—though they like to keep it hush-hush. Here’s how it’s done.