Ariel Alternatives Closes Debut “Project Black” at $1.45B to Grow Minority-Owned Businesses
Ariel Alternatives, the private equity arm of Ariel Investments, has closed its Project Black fund, the firm’s first private equity initiative, with $1.45 billion in commitments from its limited partners and co-investors from the consumer retail, energy and infrastructure, financial services, healthcare, sovereign and private wealth and technology sectors.
Some of the fund’s investors include AmerisourceBergen Corporation. Amgen Ballmer Group, Lowe’s Companies, Inc., Synchrony Financial and Walmart.
The fund plans to invest in middle-market companies that are or may not currently be minority-owned, along with existing Black- or Latina-owned businesses with $100 million to $1 billion in annual revenue and help them become diverse suppliers for Fortune 500 companies.
Each investor has committed $100 million to $200 million over the fund’s nominal seven-year investment period. Furthermore, JPMorgan Chase & Co. intends to co-invest up to $200 million with the fund in future deals.
“We chose to partner with large institutions that are seeking to drive widespread corporate vendor diversity. Our goal is to help close the racial wealth gap by creating minority-owned businesses of scale through access to both capital and customers,” said Leslie A. Brun, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Ariel Alternatives.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to Ariel Alternatives.