Long Arc, founded by ex-Goldman Sachs executive, unveils $500m debut fund

Prior to rolling out a first-time fund, Long Arc appears to have been a deal-by-deal investor, acquiring stakes in Renaissance Alliance, Robertson Stephens and Tinubu Square.

Long Arc Capital, led by former Goldman Sachs managing director Gaurav Bhandari, is going to market with its inaugural growth offering.

Long Arc Capital Fund I is targeting $500 million, according to Form D fundraising documents filed this week by the New York private equity firm. The filing showed no commitments yet secured. FocusPoint Private Capital Group is the placement agent.

Bhandari launched Long Arc after a nearly 26-year career at Goldman Sachs. Starting out at the firm as a quantitative strategist, he rose to become head of the private investment portfolio of Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, now GS Growth, a tech-focused growth equity arm.

Bhandari played a key role in several Goldman Sachs investments. They include ad-tech provider iCrossing, acquired by Hearst in 2010, specialty insurer James River, which went public in 2014, and film and television studio MRC. Bhandari sat on the boards of all three.

Bhandari left Goldman Sachs and founded Long Arc in early 2016, his LinkedIn profile showed. In subsequent months, he recruited five additional partners.

They include more Goldman Sachs alumni: Tobin Whamond, previously a managing director, and Kipp Nelson, a Goldman Sachs partner before taking on other jobs, including founding partner of Flashlight Films. Ranu Dayal, formerly a Boston Consulting Group senior partner, also joined, as did Vincent Fleury and Sang Gupta, both top executives with Credit Agricole.

Long Arc, which also has a London office, was set up with a transatlantic strategy for providing capital to high-growth companies. It targets North American and European opportunities in business services, financial services and technology, media and telecom, partnering with management teams to build businesses into category leaders, according to the firm’s website.

Prior to rolling out a first-time fund, Long Arc appears to have been a deal-by-deal investor. Over the past three years, the firm made three control-stake investments.

The first deal was in Europe. In 2017, Long Arc and Bpifrance invested €53 million ($60 million) in Tinubu Square, an insurance software provider. The investors in February deployed a further €15 million to Tinubu, which then boosted its US presence by acquiring eSurety.

In 2018, Long Arc invested $30 million in Renaissance Alliance, a New England insurance distribution platform. It also invested an undisclosed amount in the launch of US wealth manager Robertson Stephens. Both businesses have since done several add-on deals.

Long Arc did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication of this story.

Action item: Reach Long Arc Capital at its New York headquarters here: 212-430-2250.