On Thursday, $157 billion-in-assets Blue Owl Capital and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate announced a joint venture to provide growth capital to mid-sized private market managers. The JV will acquire minority stakes in managers with less than $10 billion in assets under management.
Blue Owl and Lunate, a global alternatives manager with $105 billion in assets, plan to target firms with a sector specialization, differentiated approach, and strong leadership and culture.
Blue Owl is a market leader in GP investing but has not targeted mid-sized managers. Michael Rees of Blue Owl said in a statement that Lunate brings “valuable investment experience as both an LP and minority GP stake investor. We think the combined effort will be truly differentiated for mid-sized GPs and be complementary to our existing strategy focused on larger managers.”
Lunate invests primarily with a multi-asset class approach, including private equity, venture capital, private credit, real assets, and public equities and public credit.
“Our joint venture with Blue Owl speaks to Lunate’s aim of identifying and investing in a mid-sized GP stakes strategy that will enable our clients to participate in the broader dynamics of private markets investing,” Khalifa Al Suwaidi, managing partner at Lunate, said in a statement.
Separately, in September 2023 Blue Owl formed a strategic partnership with Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi-based global sovereign investor. The partnership was established with a $1 billion commitment from Mubadala to Blue Owl’s Credit platform and will initially focus on its technology lending strategy, which provides financing solutions for a broad range of tech and software companies.
