Fundraising of the Year – Mid Cap (Fund size - below $2 billion)                            

C-Bridge Healthcare Fund V (CBC Group) 

CBC Group, a China healthcare investor that now operates under a pan-regional mandate, closed its fifth flagship fund in March 2022 with commitments of USD 1.67bn. The firm exceeded both the USD 1.2bn target and the USD 1.5bn hard cap. It is also substantially larger than Fund IV, which closed on USD 852m in 2018. LPs include sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments, foundations, large family offices, and fund-of-funds. CBC focuses on platform-building and buyouts across pharmaceuticals and biotech, medical technology, and healthcare services. In addition, USD 300m of Fund V will go to ABio-X, a start-up incubation platform.

Crescendo Private Equity Fund III (Crescendo Equity Partners)

Crescendo Equity Partners, a middle-market Korean GP that specialises in industrial technology, closed its third fund at USD 910m in February 2022, beating the USD 700m target. The re-up rate from the previous fund – of KRW 450bn (USD 319m) – was 100%, with the likes of National Pension Service and Korean Teachers’ Credit Union among returning. The firm also set out to raise capital from international LPs and achieved this objective within three months of launch. Crescendo was established in 2012 as a project fund investor and received seed funding from Peter Thiel. The first blind pool fund closed in 2015.

Eastern Bell Capital Fund II (Eastern Bell Capital)

China-based Eastern Bell Capital closed its second US dollar-denominated fund on USD 800m in January 2022 after going USD 100m above the hard cap. The process began in August 2020 and a USD 350m first close came within four months. Progress was then hampered by regulatory uncertainty in China’s technology sector, which caused some LPs to scale back commitments. Nevertheless, the re-up rate was 95%. Eastern Bell, which raised USD 365m for Fund I, started out as a logistics specialist and then expanded into consumer and supply chain deals. Industrial digitalisation is expected to feature prominently in Fund II.

J-Star No.5 Series Fund (J-Star)

J-Star closed its fifth Japan middle-market fund at the hard cap of JPY 75bn (USD 574m) in April 2022 after about six months in the market. The target was JPY 65m. LPs include public and corporate pension plans, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, asset managers, funds-of-funds, banks, consultants, and family offices, with a higher proportion coming from outside Japan. In Fund IV, which closed on JPY 48.5bn in 2019, about 60% of the capital came from international investors. J-Star continues to focus on small and mid-cap buyouts, with succession-driven M&A historically accounting for the bulk of deal flow.

Potentia Capital Fund II (Potentia Capital)

Potentia Capital achieved a first and final close on its second fund – which focuses on B2B technology opportunities in Australia and New Zealand – in June 2022 at AUD 635m (USD 438m), having increased the hard cap. The process launched four months earlier with a target of AUD 500m. Each of the 10 largest LPs in Fund I – which had an AUD 382m corpus, two-thirds of it sourced from domestic investors – re-upped in the successor vehicle. These include Aware Super and MLC in Australia, New Zealand insurer ACC, and US-based Franklin Park. HarbourVest Partners and Cbus were among the new investors.