Everything You Need to Know About Private Credit in 2024
Breaking Down the Numbers: Fund Sizes, Strategies, and Geographies.
👋 Hey, Nick here. A special welcome to the new subscribers at Eden Capital, Prosek and CVC Credit. It’s great to have you. Reach out and say hi. This is the 94th edition of my weekly newsletter. Each week I write about private credit insights and fundraising announcements. You can read my previous articles here and subscribe here.
📊 2024 Fundraising Recap
With 2024 nearly behind us, here are my top fundraising insights from the year.
As regular readers will know, every week I highlight between two and five private credit funds that have announced raises in the week. This post is a summary of these announcements. This data is not a complete list, but I believe it’s directionally accurate. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a Preqin account. If you work at Preqin, I’d love to compare notes.
Key 2024 stats 📈
Number of fundraising announcements covered: 264
Amount raised: $367 Billion
Number of Fund Managers covered: 175
Number of Countries where funds were based: 25
Fundraising by Geography 🌎
🇺🇸 US private credit funds continue to raise the most capital, with 117 funds raising $257 billion in 2024.
The total amount raised in the US was four times greater than in any other country. The next closest country was the UK, where 44 funds raised $71 billion.
🇬🇧 Surprising Stat: UK-based funds raised 101% more in 2024 than in 2023. This was the largest YoY increase in any European or North American country.
On top of having the most funds, the US funds have typically been the largest. On average, US private credit funds were 50% larger than any other country.
Fundraising by Strategy
Mid-market funds were the largest winners, with 100 funds raising $239 billion.
Mid-market fund sizes ranged from $90 million to a colossal $22 billion (Great work Ares & Blackstone).
🐳 Surprising Stat: Ares’ and Blackstone’s two funds significantly skewed the average fund size to $3.2 billion. A median fund size of $1.4 billion is a more representative typical fund size.
Distressed and “Opportunity” funds continue to be notable recipients of capital in 2024. Blackstone’s Capital Opportunities V and Bain’s Global Special Situations Fund II were clear outliers in this category raising $10 billion & $9 billion, respectively.
What fund sizes raised the most money?
The majority of capital went to funds with over $1 billion of AUM, with 81 funds raising $335 billion. These funds had an average fund size of $4.1 billion.
The remaining funds accounted for less than 10% of the total capital raised. These funds had an average fund size of $385 million (10x less than funds with over $1 billion of AUM).
🐳 Surprising Stat: The average fund size for managers with more than $50 billion of AUM was $4.9 billion. This was nearly 40% larger than 2023 ($3.5 billion). The average fund sizes for the smaller managers remained unchanged at $1 billion.
Top Funds of 2024
The 10 largest funds raised $149 billion and accounted for over 40% of the total fundraising in 2024.
For comparison, the 10 largest funds in 2023 raised $101 billion….
❤️ Thank you
A massive thank-you to everyone who reads this newsletter, especially those I’ve had the privilege to talk with this year. Accessing your insights and wisdom is the reason I write this newsletter.
I’d be extremely grateful if you like, share, and subscribe to The Credit Crunch.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year and here’s to an incredible 2025!
This newsletter is for education or entertainment purposes only. It should not be taken as investment advice.