Kirk Falconer

Carlyle last year laid out an ambitious cross-platform plan to raise at least $130bn in fresh capital by 2024. Fund VIII is a centerpiece of the initiative.

Nearly $475bn of fresh capital was secured by 854 buyout, growth equity, venture capital and other PE vehicles in 2021, up 19% from $399bn raised a year earlier, according to Buyouts’ data.

Blackstone's assets managed are expected to hit the $1trn mark in the year ahead, chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman said.

The fund was unveiled last year by the private-market affiliate of Xponance and Investcorp’s Strategic Capital Group to support diversity, equity and inclusion in the alternative asset industry.

Primed by a vigorous deal environment, tech PE fundraising rose to dizzying heights in 2021, with 474 North American vehicles collecting an all-time high of $227bn, according to Buyouts data.

The amount raised provides Fund IV with just under half of its $4.5bn target, reported last year by Buyouts.

Drivers of 2021's robust fundraising – an accelerated pace, bigger tickets, LPs pressing allocation limits and hot strategies like growth equity, tech and the energy transition – will likely also feature in 2022's market.

Ares’ Special Opportunities was launched in 2017 by Scott Graves, a partner and co-head of the private equity group, who joined the same year following a career at Oaktree Capital Management.

Baratta's shares his New Year's resolution, books he's reading and high and low career moments, as well as his fantasy management role in the NFL.

We asked the managing director a few personal questions regarding what he does with his spare time when he's not working the private equity salt mines.