Private investment firm GI Partners has closed its PE fund, GI Partners Fund VI, with US$3.9 billion in total commitments.

The oversubscribed fund includes a broad group of global investors and surpassed its target of $3.25 billion, as well as exceeded its prior Fund V raise of $2.8 billion in 2017.

GI Partners was the original founder of the world’s second-largest data centre company by market cap ($43.66 billion at the time of writing) Digital Realty (NASDAQ: DLR).

The latest GI Partners private equity fund continues the firm’s focus on control-oriented investments in North American companies with “solid downside protection and substantial growth potential across four key sectors:  Healthcare, IT Infrastructure, Services, and Software,” the company said.

The group, consisting of over 35 investment professionals, is led by managing directors Hoon Cho and Travis Pearson, who were promoted to co-heads of private equity in 2020.

Rick Magnuson, executive managing director and founder of GI Partners, said: “As we celebrate our firm’s 20th anniversary, we move forward with a deep team of dedicated professionals who are integral to our continued success.

“We remain committed to delivering value for our investors by utilising our disciplined and differentiated strategy that we have refined since our founding.”

Commenting on the fund close, Messrs. Cho and Pearson, added: “Our firm’s 20-year focus on investing in downside-protected growth companies has proven as effective in the past 15 months as it has in prior economic crises.

“Throughout the recent challenging environment, our team worked closely with our portfolio companies to ensure they not only withstood the impact of COVID-19 but continued to grow.

“The private equity group has remained active, adding five new platform investments and exiting three companies while focusing on developing a strong portfolio that builds on our team’s proven track record of value creation.”

GI Partners Fund VI’s investor base represents 15 countries and includes sovereign wealth funds, pensions, financial institutions, investment management firms, and family offices.

Philip Yau, managing director at GI Partners, said: “Our limited partners have demonstrated conviction in our resilient strategy, team and leadership, and operating principles. We are grateful for their support and thank them for the opportunity to be stewards of their capital.”

GI Partners Fund VI was activated in November of 2020 with the acquisition of Valet Living, the largest nationally recognized, full-service amenities provider to the multifamily housing industry, and was followed in April of this year by the acquisition of Aras, a product lifecycle management software provider for companies in the automotive, aerospace and defense, high tech, industrial, and other end markets.

In the past six months, GI Partners completed the sale of portfolio companies MRI Software, Consilio, and Logibec.

Park Hill Group served as placement agent and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel for the raise.

Founded in 2001, GI Partners is based in San Francisco, California, and has raised over $28 billion in capital from leading institutional investors around the world to invest in private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure strategies.

The company was the sole investor in Digital Realty from February 2001 to March 2007, having taken the company public with 21 data centre facilities in November 2004.

GI Partners sold its DLR shares over time and fully exited the investment in March 2007.

Today, of its many digital infrastructure ventures, GI Partners acts as the lead investor in DR Fortress, a Honolulu, Hawaii, based colocation, internet exchange and cloud solutions company.