OceanSound Partners: Fund II Closed At $1.49 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry • Oct 3, 2024

OceanSound Partners – a growth-oriented private equity firm that invests in technology and technology-enabled services companies serving government and highly regulated enterprise end markets – announced the final close of its second fund, OceanSound Partners Fund II, LP with $1.49 billion in total capital commitments.

When combined with affiliated co-investment vehicles and a single-asset continuation fund closed in April 2024, OceanSound has raised in excess of $2.15 billion of cumulative committed capital in connection with the fund.

OceanSound received support from a diverse group of existing and new, well-regarded limited partners, including leading pension plans, endowments and foundations, family offices, institutional consultants, asset management firms and insurance companies. And the fund was oversubscribed and nearly all of the inaugural fund investors returned as investors in the Fund.

This fund closed at its revised hard cap and substantially above its original hard cap of $1.3 billion, its target of $1 billion and OceanSound’s $780 million inaugural fund which closed in February 2022. And OceanSound’s inaugural fund (with a target of $550 million, was also oversubscribed). This fund – plus approximately $45 million of recycled capital – is now substantially invested in platform companies with some remaining capital for follow-on growth investments.

Based out of New York, OceanSound focuses on investments in middle-market companies where its expertise in government and highly regulated enterprise end markets can drive strong growth and outperformance. And the team takes an engineering-like approach to value creation based on a structured build, improve and grow process grounded in sound strategic initiatives and operational best practices to achieve accelerated revenue growth and margin enhancement. The firm typically invests $75 to $300 million through controlling-ownership positions in companies with enterprise values of $150 to $750 million.

OceanSound currently manages over $3.7 billion in Regulatory Assets Under Management and has invested in nine platform investments which, in turn, have completed 38 add-on acquisitions. OceanSound’s portfolio companies collectively generate over $3.7 billion in revenue and employ over 12,000 individuals.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal counsel for OceanSound.

KEY QUOTE:

“The successful closing of our second fund can be attributed to OceanSound’s differentiated, all-weather investment strategy together with proven execution which has included capital returned to investors from our inaugural fund. Since starting the firm shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, we have raised two funds, closed a continuation fund, returned the majority of our inaugural fund’s capital to our investors, and closed nearly 50 transactions in challenging markets, especially for newer firms. We could not be more pleased with all we have accomplished and are confident in our execution as we build a scalable private equity business. We are extremely grateful for the support of our investors, who include some of the most respected institutional private equity investors. Their support underscores our ability to identify attractive platform company investments which we can transform into more strategically valuable businesses due to our proprietary perspectives and standardized ownership processes.”

  • Joe Benavides, Managing Partner of OceanSound