Bain may come back with second impact fund this year

  • Bain raised $390 mln for debut impact fund in 2017
  • Has made eight platform investments so far
  • Deval Patrick joined in 2015

Bain Capital may launch its second Double Impact Fund later this year, sources told Buyouts.

No target has been set and it’s still early days, so nothing is set in stone, sources said. The firm closed its debut impact fund on $390 million in 2017. Bain declined comment.

Bain’s Double Impact Fund is co-led by Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts, who gave a keynote address at Buyouts Insider’s PartnerConnect East conference in Boston on March 26. Patrick joined Bain in 2015. Todd Cook is co-managing partner of Double Impact.

Patrick said Fund I has made eight platform investments so far, along with several add-ons. Investments range from a fast-casual vegan restaurant chain to an in-home care provider for older adults to dentistry and a fitness center.

“What we’re seeing, and there are a number of studies that confirm this, confidence in capitalism is in decline … and that ought to concern us,” Patrick said. “There are a host of reasons for that, some well earned and some not.”

“I’m a capitalist, I’m not a market fundamentalist. I don’t think that markets solve every problem,” he said. “We have to have an economy that’s expanding and we have to have an economy that’s expanding out and not just up.”

Double Impact is one of only a handful of private equity impact investing funds. TPG’s Rise Fund, which raised $2 billion for its debut effort, is fundraising for its sophomore pool, targeting $3 billion.

The CEO of Rise Fund, Bill McGlashan, left the firm (TPG said it fired him) after he was accused of taking part in a college admissions cheating scandal. TPG said its co-CEO, Jim Coulter, would take over leadership of Rise Fund.

Update: This story was updated to provide more clarity around potential timing of Fund II.

Action Item: Check out Bain’s Form ADV here: https://bit.ly/2CBj6qk