Fund Friday: Top fundraising news in private equity

Warburg Pincus has raised $3bn for its latest financial services fund, bucking a broader slowdown in private equity fundraising and reinforcing its long-standing focus on the sector.

The vehicle, known as WP Financial Sector III, exceeded its initial $2.5bn target and is the firm’s largest fund dedicated exclusively to financial services. It will be overseen by Warburg’s global co-heads of financial services, Dan Zilberman and Vishal Mahadevia.

Goldman Sachs is raising a Japan-focused real estate fund targeting about $500m, as private equity and alternative investors increase exposure to one of the most active property markets globally.

The fund will pursue a value-add strategy, focusing on data centres, logistics, residential, and hospitality assets. Goldman is aiming for a first close by the end of March, according to people familiar with the matter cited in a Bloomberg report.

HSG is preparing a continuation vehicle that would value ByteDance at up to $370bn, highlighting the growing use of secondary structures to extend exposure to high-performing private assets, Reuters reports.

The venture capital firm, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China, plans to transfer part of its ByteDance holding into a new continuation fund. The valuation range of $350bn to $370bn exceeds levels implied by recent employee share buybacks, but remains below a $480bn valuation seen in a November secondary transaction.