Kline Hill reaches $180 mln hard cap on debut fund

A debut fund has reached the end of its fundraising.

Kline Hill Partners, a secondary fund targeting the small end of the market, hit its $180 million hard cap, according to a person with knowledge of the firm.

Whether Fund I has had an official final closing is unclear, but fundraising has finished, the person said.

Kline Hill Fund I held a first close in March, the person said. The fund is about 25 percent deployed, and depending on the state of the market in 2017, the firm could be ready to launch Fund II late in 2017.

Former Willowridge Partners Managing Partner Michael Bego formed Kline Hill in 2015. Bego brought on former Partners Group executive Jared Barlow as a partner. Other employees at Kline Hill include Danielle Buccola, manager of finance and operations; and associate Tom Melly.

The firm raised money from foundations and endowments and family offices.

The Greenwich, Connecticut, firm buys LP stakes in private equity funds, typically in the single-million-dollar range. Kline Hill targets buyout and venture funds but also looks at energy, real estate and other private market funds.

Many firms bypass the small side of secondaries because “it’s an area where there’s an awful lot of work to put out a small amount of money,” Bego told Buyouts in a prior interview. “That deters a lot of people. It’s fairly labor intensive.”

Barlow previously told Buyouts that while prices have been high in the broader secondary market, they seem more reasonable in the lower end of the market. “The smaller end of the market is somewhat insulated from the pay-up pricing of the mid-cap and larger-cap transactions that are going to have more capital chasing them,” Barlow said. “It’s kind of a small-is-beautiful story.”

Action Item: Check out Kline Hill’s Form ADV: http://bit.ly/2hQuymo

Photo of Mike Bego courtesy of Kline Hill Partners