The Teachers Retirement System of Texas continued to build up its real estate, private equity and infrastructure investment exposure across six funds. The roughly $184 billion pension fund has a roughly $99 billion exposure to private markets overall and put $6.2 billion to work in alternative assets last year. 

The pension fund contributed $100 million to Pennybacker Capital’s latest flagship fund Pennybacker VI, an opportunistic real estate fund. The fund also invested $50 million in the Pennybacker Income and Growth Fund in January 2022. Other investors in the latest Pennybacker fund include the Texas Municipal Employees’ Retirement System.   

An additional $100 million was allocated to infrastructure with I Squared Capital Advisors for its ISQ Co-Investment Fund (TX). Last year, Texas Teachers allocated $100 million to another I Squared infrastructure offering – ISQ Growth Markets Infrastructure Fund (UST) LP. 

Two new managers were chosen for the private equity portfolio – General Catalyst Group Management and Valeas Capital Partners Management. The General Catalyst XI fund received $25 million to invest in seed, early-stage and late-stage companies, while Valeas’ Sherman Opportunity received $50 million.  

The largest private equity commitment of $175 million went to TA Associates’ TA XV-A, which was launched in 2022. The TA flagship strategy is a combination of buyout and growth equity investments. 

Pictured: TRS headquarters in Austin, TX