Warburg Pincus Files Paperwork For Massive $13.75 Billion Global Growth Fund

Following nearly a year of speculation, global private equity firm Warburg Pincus has filed paperwork with the SEC indicating its intent to raise as much as $13.75 billion for a new investment fund. Through equity and debt investments, Warburg Pincus’s portfolio includes leading technology companies like CrowdStrike, Mobike, OfferUp, and others. The firm also participated in Ant Financial’s Series C round which, at $14 billion, represents the largest VC deal in history.

Follow Crunchbase News on Twitter

This would be among the largest funds that Warburg Pincus raised to date.

According to the paperwork, the $13.75 billion figure “include[s] amounts of limited partner interests to be sold by the Issuer’s parallel funds.”

To that end, Warburg Pincus filed paperwork for a number of those parallel funds this Friday afternoon.

A selection of those filings include:

Presumably, the private equity firm will file its paperwork for other parallel funds over the coming days and weeks.

Warburg Pincus retained the services of J.P. Morgan Securities, as well as other advisory firms in China, South Korea, and Chile, to assist in raising capital for the new fund.

Rumors that Warburg Pincus planned to raise a huge pool of capital began swirling back in January 2018. Private Equity International, a trade publication for the PE industry, first published reports from sources indicating that the firm planned to raise $13.5 billion, a figure which didn’t include commitments from the firm’s general partners.

The report indicated that Warburg Pincus would change the name of the new fund, in part for superstitious reasons. The firm’s last fundraise, for Fund XII, netted $13.4 billion in 2015. A source told Private Equity International that the name change would intentionally not involve using the number 13, which is associated with bad luck in some cultures.

According to the source back in January, the firm intended to launch fundraising in May and expected to close out the fund “at the end of the year.”

Today’s filing said no capital has been closed yet for the fund, although capital commitments are typically called in after the fund is closed. Given the timing, it’s possible Warburg Pincus has closed out its fundraising efforts and simply filed paperwork prior to initiating those capital calls.

Crunchbase News reached out to Warburg Pincus seeking comment. A representative from the firm declined to offer further information.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

Update: This article has been updated with a chart of prior funds. Additionally, a sentence about the status of the fund was expanded and moved toward the end of the article.

Correction: In the original version of this article, Crunchbase News reported that Warburg Pincus had invested in Uber, based on investor data in Crunchbase. Crunchbase News learned from a person familiar with the firm’s investments that this is incorrect. Crunchbase News also learned that Mobike is no longer in the firm’s portfolio, although Warburg Pincus did previously invest in the company.