Former Newbury Partners founder Richard Lichter has launched Causeway Equity Partners and alongside it a seasoned primaries fund to capitalize on the challenging private equity fundraising environment.
In a news release announcing the moves, Causeway said the new fund will be secondary-like, in the sense that it will have the benefits of asset allocation rather than a blind pool, while providing better cash-on-cash return. The seasoned primaries fund will have a two-year investment period “to further eliminate a J-curve,” the firm said. Causeway did not disclose a target for the new fund but said that, like traditional secondaries, it will seek opportunities in funds that are 25% to over 50% committed at final closing.
Lichter has extensive experience in the secondaries space, raising over $6B across five secondary funds at Newbury before selling to Bridge Investment Group in 2023. He was also a co-founder of Lexington Partners. Joining him as a founding partner at Causeway is Alex Maloney, who was a managing director at Veriton Fund Management and before that a principal at Squam Rock LLC, where he helped form and capitalize boutique investment funds.