Santa Monica-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group announced June 26 the close of its newest fund, a $1.4 billion opportunity fund, which the firm will use to make noncontrol investments.
The fund, called Clearlake Opportunities Partners II fund, was the seventh raised since Clearlake Capital was founded in 2006.
The fundraise comes a year after Clearlake brought in more than $3.6 billion for flagship fund Clearlake Capital Partners V, which it has used to make control-oriented investments.
The firm has raised five Clearlake Capital Partners funds and two Clearlake Opportunities Partners funds. Clearlake’s total assets under management are more than $10 billion after the latest raise.
Clearlake said it will look to use the new capital to invest in middle-market companies with an enterprise value of $200 million to $2.5 billion across multiple industries, including in software and technology, and the industrial and energy sectors.
More than 40 different institutional investors committed capital to the new fund, including public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices and sovereign wealth funds, the firm said in a statement.
José Feliciano, Clearlake’s co-founder and managing partner, was not available for comment.
The Clearlake Opportunities Partners II fund has already been put toward new investments, including an April deal for Louisville, Ky.-based Appriss Holdings Inc. The company licenses software on a subscription basis to public safety, risk and compliance, health information and insurance industries.
The Appriss investment made Clearlake an equal partner in the company alongside the Appriss management team and New York-based private equity firm Insight Partners, which invested in Appriss in 2014.
The latest fund comes on the heels of three successive investments in May. The first was the combination of Clearlake’s Wheel Pros business in Colorado with Rancho Dominguez-based MHT Luxury Wheels Inc., which formed what the companies claim is the largest automotive aftermarket wheel platform in the world.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Funds from Clearlake Capital Partners IV and V funds were used to make the acquisition.
The deal brought together several leading brands, including Fuel, KMC, American Racing and Rotiform, under one roof. The company operates under the Wheel Pros name, offers 22 brands. Combined, the companies produced approximately 3 million wheels in 2018.
In the second deal, the group brought in Cove Hill Partners to become a minority investor in Lehi, Utah-based NetDocuments, a cloud-based software services platform that manages documents for law firms and corporate compliance departments. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. More than 2,500 law firms and corporate legal departments use NetDocuments, which Clearlake Capital initially purchased in 2017.
In the third deal, Clearlake Capital agreed to purchase software management firm Dude Solutions Inc. from Warburg Pincus, a New York-based private equity firm. Dude Solutions provides cloud-based software that manages work orders, inventory, capital planning, facility scheduling and other tasks for businesses.
