Edgewater Capital races toward $300m target on fifth fund

In quieter corners of private equity, the long fundraising decline is not as apparent.

One such firm is Edgewater Capital, based out of Cleveland. The firm, which focuses on lower mid-market specialty materials and chemicals and life sciences, is targeting $300 million for its fifth fund, sources told Buyouts.

Edgewater, led by managing partners Chris Childres and Ryan Meany, has collected at least $230 million for the pool, which hit the market earlier this year, according to sources. Fund V has a $350 million hard cap. No one from Edgewater returned a comment request Tuesday.

The firm has a tight group of limited partners and is not having the kind of challenges experienced by larger shops, one of the sources said. Edgwater is working with FirstPoint Equity as placement agent on the process – the first time it’s used an agent for fundraising, one of the sources said.

“They’ve been under the radar for a while … it’s a sprint to the final close,” one of the sources said.

Edgewater closed the prior fund on its $185 million cap in 2019. The firm, formed in 1998, closed Fund III on $83 million in 2015 and collected $30 million for Fund II in 2007. The management company is owned by Meany, Childres and partners Robert Girton, Peter Ostergard and Brian Leonard, according to the firm’s Form ADV.

Edgewater earlier this year acquired NeoGraf Solutions, which designs and makes specialty natural graphite products for various end markets. Edgewater bought the company from Aterian Investment Partners, according to a statement at the time.

Fundraising has continued to slip overall, with a handful of funds finding their way to final closes, and everyone else struggling to hit their numbers.

Globally, PE fundraising totaled $315.5 billion in the six months to the end of June, according to PEI data. Around 508 funds held final closes from January to June, down 48 percent from the same period last year, PEI reported.