Blackstone Growth eyes $3 bln to $4 bln for debut fund

Jon Korngold has been talking to potential investors for months about the first pool. It’s not clear if the fund has settled on a hard cap yet.

Blackstone Group’s growth equity team is targeting $3 billion to $4 billion for its debut growth fund, sources told Buyouts.

The team, led by ex-General Atlantic executive Jon Korngold, has been talking to potential investors for months about the first pool. It’s not clear if the fund has settled on a hard cap yet.

A spokesman for Blackstone declined to comment.

The team will focus on investments in companies between early-stage venture and traditional buyouts, in sectors like financial services, healthcare, enterprise tech and consumer, as well as consumer technologies.

The growth team generally takes minority stakes but can do majority stakes and smaller deals.

Korngold has assembled a team of about 20 executives, he said during a keynote interview at PartnerConnect West in September. Executives have joined from Carlyle Group, TCV, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Vista Equity, TPG Growth and GA, Buyouts previously reported.

Women make up 40 percent of the team, as Buyouts reported. “The luxury of starting with a blank sheet of paper is that you get to create the exact culture of the firm that you want to work in,” Korngold said during the keynote interview.

One new member of the team is Ram Jagannath, who formerly worked at Carlyle Group, where he worked on healthcare investments. Jagannath left Carlyle and was set to work at Navab Capital Partners, launched by ex-KKR senior executive Alex Navab, who died unexpectedly earlier this year, leading to a break-up of his fledgling firm.

Luisa Beltran contributed to this story.

Action Item: Check out Blackstone’s Form ADV here.