Total Fundraising $7.01 billion

across 56 funds

Total Fundraising $11.12 billion

across 101 funds

Total Fundraising $18.02 billion

across 162 funds

Total Fundraising $22.56 billion

across 222 funds

Total Fundraising $37.84 billion

across 266 funds

Total Fundraising $33.97 billion

across 252 funds

Total Fundraising $71.40 billion

across 381 funds

Total Fundraising $134.24 billion

across 630 funds

Total Fundraising $119.44 billion

across 549 funds

Total Fundraising $102.60 billion

across 469 funds

Total Fundraising $203.36 billion

across 847 funds

Total Fundraising $87.09 billion

across 350 funds

1992

25AUG Landmark Partners (then Landmark Ventures) agrees to buy a 21-fund portfolio from Harvard Management and sets out to raise $100 million to fund the deal and others.

OCT About 30 institutional investors form the Institutional Limited Partners Association.

DEC Advent International backs its first U.S. buyout for $16 million.

Years in Private Equity A Timeline

FEB Louisiana SERS allocates 5% target for alternatives (roughly $150 million at the time).

MAR GS Capital Partners seeks $750 million for GS Capital Partners LP but will charge fees only on invested capital amid difficult fundraising conditions.

Pacific Corporate Group draws GP ire with a 10-page, 80-question questionnaire for Calpers. One GP dubs it “the questionnaire from hell.”

MAY J.P. Morgan & Co. seeks $500 million to $1

billion for Corsair Partnership LP to take minority stakes in

financial institutions. Corsair is named after the yacht of bank

founder J.P. Morgan Sr.

1991

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

1994

19951996

1997 19992001

1998

2000

2002

JAN Madison Dearborn Partners completes spinoff from First Chicago Venture Capital.

FEB Bain Capital hits the market seeking $250 million for its third fund.

MAR Florida SBA crafts partnership with newly formed Liberty Partners to invest directly in companies.

AUG American Express agrees to sell its entire

$200 million private-equity portfolio to Stathis Andris in

a deal that launches fund-of-funds manager Venture

Investment Associates.

More LPs ask for key-man provisions to protect them from unexpected GP departures.

MAY Pantheon Ventures seeks up to $50 million for first Asia-focused fund of funds.

MAY North Bridge Venture Partners raises $52 million for North Bridge Ventures I LP.

JUNE Portfolio Advisors launches with help from Landmark Partners.

The limited liability company structure catches on for fund formation. A few states remain holdouts, including Calif., N.Y. and Mass., although the three states eventually also allow such structures.

Private-equity political donations in Conn. and N.Y. state attract criticism.

MAR Accel Partners build its own homepage on the internet.

Co-investment funds to invest alongside core funds start to emerge.

SEPT Peter Dolan leaves Cambridge Associates to join Harvard Private Capital Group (now Harvard Management).

SEPT Advent International closes debut Latin American fund.

MAR Accel Partners and Institutional Venture Partners raise carry on their funds to 25%.

JUNE Brent Nicklas leaves Landmark Partners to form LPNY Advisors (later Lexington Partners).

MAY Goldman Sachs closes first fund of funds with $900 million.

Glut of $1 billion funds in Europe concerns investors.

OCT AT&T pension fund shifts staff, private-equity assets to J.P. Morgan.

JAN Bain Capital becomes first buyout firm to charge a 30% carry.

More buyout firms start mapping strategies for tech deals.

OCT Calpers chooses newcomer Grove Street Advisors for venture fund-of-funds mandate.

DEC Forstmann Little agrees to invest $1

billion in stock of telecom company

McLeodUSA.

A string of new firms form, including Audax Group, New Mountain Capital and Silver Lake.

DEC Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (now Credit Suisse) join the throngs of banks ramping up their PE investments in wake of looser regulations.

Publicly traded VC firms CMGI and Internet Capital Group emerge.

FEB Accel Partners and KKR team up to form Accel-KKR Internet Co. to back deals that help companies expand onto the internet.

NOV Crosspoint Venture Partners pulls plan for $1 billion VC fund; John Mumford declares venture capital model “broken.”

SEPT Wicks Group buys publisher of Private Equity Analyst, merges it with VentureSource owner.

FEB Calpers buys 10% stake in Thomas Weisel Partners.

OCT Triumph Capital Group founder faces

criminal charges in kickback scheme

tied to former Conn. State Treasurer

Paul Silvester.

AUG Canada Pension Plan Investment Board makes its first private-equity commitments.

DEC Washington state pension commits $1.5 billion to KKR’s Millennium Fund.

SEPT David Retik, co-founder of Alta Communications, and

Chris Mello, an associate, both die aboard American Airlines Flight 11 in terrorist attack on

the World Trade Center.

DEC VC writedowns finally start to hit investor portfolios.

APR Yale University endowment reveals

plan to lower private-equity target allocation.

Accel Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Redpoint Ventures join wave of VC firms scaling back the size of bubble-era funds.

OCT San Jose Mercury News sues Calpers to force the release of private-equity returns data.

FEB State of Connecticut pension funds sue Forstmann Little to recover losses from two of the firm’s failed telecom deals.

J.C. Flowers & Co. raises $900 million for its first fund.

1993

FEB Peter Brockway and Michael Moran leave Trivest to form Brockway Moran & Partners.

NOV Thomas Weisel forms Thomas Weisel Partners after leaving Montgomery Securities.

JULY Calstrs launches co-investment program.

OCT IPO boom drives 31% growth in GP pay.

JAN Sixty-three first-time funds are raised in the U.S., thanks partly to a push by the Small Business Administration.

AUG Scott Sperling leaves Harvard Management affiliate Aeneas Group to join Thomas H. Lee Partners.

MAR GP Investimentos raises $800 million for what at the time was the largest Latin American fund.

DEC Draper Fisher Jurvetson raises $1.33 billion for two new funds.

FEB Calpers invests $175 million for stake in Carlyle Group.

DEC Golder Thoma Cressey & Rauner decides to split into two firms.

Total Fundraising $281.04 billion

across 836 funds

Total Fundraising $172.88 billion

across 470 funds

Total Fundraising $199.59 billion

across 556 funds

Total Fundraising $349.84 billion

across 585 funds

Total Fundraising $116.62 billion

across 434 funds

Total Fundraising $314.56 billion

across 549 funds

Total Fundraising $114.40 billion

across 457 funds

Total Fundraising $59.75 billion

across 275 funds Total Fundraising $189.90 billion

across 504 funds

Total Fundraising $373.40 billion

across 627 funds

Total Fundraising $123.92 billion

across 407 funds

Total Fundraising $147.91 billion

across 501 funds

Total Fundraising $244.09 billion

across 686 funds

Total Fundraising $292.63 billion

across 772 funds

2005

2009

2011

2013

2007 2015

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

JAN European team from Hicks Muse Tate & Furst spins off to form Lion Capital.

APR Accel Partners makes early-stage investment in Facebook.

AUG SBIC funds must hunt for new LPs after government halts program.

AUG Illinois Teachers bans commitments to firms that use placement agents to pitch to the pension system.

FEB Private Equity Council forms (later changes name to American Investment Council).

Blackstone Group, Fortress

Investment Group go public

on the NYSE.

OCT KKR, TPG and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners close deal to buy Energy Future Holdings for $45 billion.

PE firms buy up cheap debt in portfolio companies.

MAR N.Y. State AG Andrew Cuomo issues

a 123-count indictment against ex-members of

N.Y. State Comptroller’s Office over kickbacks. Scandal later leads to

settlements with Carlyle, Quadrangle and other

PE firms.

APR European Commission proposes what will later become Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.

SEPT ILPA issues guidelines on best practices for fund terms and conditions.

JAN ILPA issues revised best practices on terms.

SEPT Solyndra files for chapter

11, casting a chill over clean-tech deals, but

oil and gas deals stay hot.

Carlyle, KKR and others design offerings for high-net-worth, 401(k) investors.

JULY SEC lifts ban on general solicitation under Reg D rules.

OCT Dell Inc. sells to Silver Lake and Michael Dell for $24.9 billion.

Former CIA head David

Petraeus joins KKR, and former

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy

Geithner joins Warburg Pincus.

SEPT KKR’s Samson Resources Corp. files for chapter 11, as low oil prices exacerbate distress in the energy sector.

OCT SEC approves rules allowing individual investors to back startups through crowdfunding.

MAR A judge rules against Ellen Pao in her high-profile sexual discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

2003

NOV Private Equity Industry Guidelines Group releases draft valuation guidelines in early push toward standardization.

APR Team of professionals from Hamilton Lane spins off to form Franklin Park Associates.

Access to elite VC firms stays tight as top groups raise smaller funds.

MAR After cuts in fund sizes and fees, news of private-equity job cuts begin to emerge.

2004

2006 20102012 20

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2016

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2008

Dow Jones & Co. acquires Private Equity Analyst.

FEB LBO firms rush to take on high-yield debt.

JULY Jury rules in favor of Connecticut pension funds in lawsuit against Forstmann Little but fails to award the pension the full damages sought.

JULY Metalmark spins off from Morgan Stanley.

AUG A team of senior executives leaves Credit Suisse to form what becomes Diamond Castle.

JUNE Sequoia Capital says it will no longer take money from funds of funds.

AUG Blackstone Group raises $21.7 billion for largest buyout fund ever raised.

SEPT FASB issues FAS 157, requiring PE firms to use mark-to-market accounting.

Growing deal sizes may make LBO exits more challenging.

Both Partners Group and KKR go public in Europe.

JAN Sovereign-wealth funds emerge as go-to LPs.

MAR Blackstone closes deal to acquire GSO Capital.

LPs battle the denominator effect after market collapse.

JULY Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act signed into law; PE firms brace for SEC registration.

SEPT BC Partners offers early-bird discount to LPs, prompting other firms to follow.

Bank of America sells $1.9 billion portfolio to AXA Private Equity, and Citigroup sells $1 billion portfolio to Lexington Partners, as secondary sales from banks rise.

Oak Hill Advisors, Oaktree Capital, Avenue Capital and others market funds to invest in European distressed debt.

Behrman Capital, Willis Stein & Partners recap old funds, highlight fresh source of secondary deals.

SEPT PE contributes record amount to political campaigns.

Secondary fundraising volume hits record $27.6 billion.

APR Energy Future Holdings (formerly TXU) files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

MAY SEC official Andrew Bowden says more than 50% of examinations of private-equity firms find “violations of law or material weaknesses in controls.”

JUNE Uber, maker of a ride-sharing app, raises $1.2 billion.

AUG Carlyle settles allegations it colluded with rivals to keep prices down on corporate buyouts, the last of seven firms remaining in the 2007 case to reach a settlement agreement.

JUNE In a historic vote, the U.K. decides to exit the European Union.

Dyal Capital Partners buys stakes in the management companies of several private-equity firms, including Silver Lake and H.I.G. Capital.

OCT Dept. of Justice launches inquiry into club deals. SEPT Lehman Brothers

declares bankruptcy.

PE-backed IPO volume hits $31.29 billion, according to PwC.

Sponsor-backed dividend recaps volume tops $63 billion, according to S&P Capital IQ.

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AUG Grand jury indicts former placement agent Alfred Villalobos for his part in an alleged pay-to-play scheme at Calpers.