According to a person with knowledge of the strategy, Wildcat Capital Management is beginning to amass a fund of approximately $500 million through contributions from a few extremely affluent individuals and family offices. The person, who asked to remain anonymous since the information is confidential, stated that Wildcat will use the same approach for the fund as it has for managing the Bonderman family’s fortune, which is anticipated to provide a significant chunk of the funds.
Bonderman, 80, is co-founder and chairman of private equity giant TPG Inc., which debuted as a public company in January. In order to manage his personal money, which the Bloomberg Billionaires Index pegs at $4.8 billion right now, as well as the fortunes of a select group of friends and family members, he founded Wildcat in 2011. The company in New York manages $4.6 billion in assets.
Private investment companies that serve the world’s ultra-wealthy have opened up to outside capital more and more recently. While Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli’s family office is raising more than $1 billion for its private equity and hedge fund division, the family office of Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen recently spun out its investment-management group into a standalone business aimed at the ultra-wealthy. After being established in 2009 by members of Michael Dell’s family office, MSD Partners expanded to be a multimillion dollar company before deciding to merge with Byron Trott’s BDT Capital in October.
Len Potter, who previously oversaw private equity investments for George Soros, is in charge of running Wildcat. The company, which takes its name after Bonderman’s hometown close to Aspen, Colorado, has made investments in everything from hedge funds to internet companies.
David Bonderman’s Family Office Is Opening Up to World’s Rich – Bloomberg
