Clearlake Capital Raises $14.8B for its Eighth Flagship PE Fund

Private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group has raised $14.8 billion in the closing round for its eighth flagship fund, Clearlake Capital Partners VIII, including co-investment commitments and separately managed accounts.  

Clearlake Capital plans to allocate the capital to continue investing in various secular trends across the industry and to invest in artificial intelligence, software, digital transformation, and operational efficiency, the firm said. 

Since the closure of the fund, it has started deploying capital across investments to support Clearlake’s AI-focused initiatives, which include Clearlake AI Labs and the firm’s external AI partners. 

“Periods of disruption often create the most attractive opportunities for value creation,” Behdad Eghbali, co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake Capital, said. “We believe our combination of sector specialization, operational expertise, differentiated use of AI, and flexible capital solutions positions us to help businesses accelerate transformation and achieve their next stage of growth.” 

Through investments from Concert Golf Partners, Brightly, Janus International Group, and Team Technologies, Clearlake Capital has garnered $22 billion in investments over the past five years. 

The capital raise comes after Clearlake Capital closed its acquisition of Pathway Capital Management, a private market solutions provider, boosting its total assets under management to $185 billion, the firm said. 

Following the acquisition, Pathway will continue to operate under its existing brand, and the team will continue to be led by James Chambliss, Richard Mazer, and Alex Casbolt. 

Santa Monica, CA-based Clearlake Capital, founded in 2006, offers a broad mix of investment solutions across private equity, credit, infrastructure, secondaries, and co-investments and has 14 offices worldwide.