Is Advent newly "discovered" or newly successful?

Back in my day, Advent was seen as basically a successful PE firm but somewhat (despite its Boston ties) indistinguishable from the other "international" firms that had a US presence like CVC, Cinven, etc. But its latest fund is blockbuster and it's now being talked about as an MF alongside BX, KKR, etc. in a way that I don't remember being the case ~5 years ago.

Is there a broader story here about why the firm has become so popular? Truly not a leading question in either direction, I'm just curious

34 Comments
 

they're raising 20+ Billion funds, that's larger than KKR's most recent NA PE fund - how come they're not?

 

nothing is bx/kkr level except bx/kkr.

however, advent is fine with a strong retail team. above the likes of cvc. never heard of good recent cinven deals.

H&F is far better than bx or kkr I’m surprised you who has actual industry experience is saying this. From what perspective are they better? If you can last, there’s a higher earnings potential, bc better returns at HF.

 

To reply to both yourself and @midmarketmclovin having reflected on it for a day I think it’s actually extreme risk aversion. You can be a principal or even newly minted MD at Bx and never have done a deal I.E. actually laid on any risk. Not so much with the leaner shops like H&F, Apollo, TB etc. Also I guess little pressure to generate alpha when your corporate PE strategy has only returned 17% since inception and you’re not even that involved with PortCos. Anyway just my two cents!

 

It's a sidecar investment vehicle that allows the tech team to invest downmarket (i.e. they can invest in anything from a $25mm Series A to a $1B+ buyout out of the main fund). As has been pointed out, since the earliest investments were all made in 21/22 you probably have some names in there that they overpaid for but IMO the narrative that it's a sinking ship is just WSO hysteria, not to mention in absolute terms those investments make up a small percentage of the overall capital the tech team deploys. Would still call it a no brainer given the caliber of people on the team (lots of ex-TPG folks who were incredibly successful in tech from 2010-20) and the trajectory of the fund

 

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