Goldman Alums Launch $1.6B Pvt Credit Vehicle Backed by Dell FO, Liberty Mutual

A pair of former Goldman Sachs partners have launched 5C Investment Partners (5C), an alternative investment firm focused on private credit, with $1.6B of available capital for their senior direct lending platform.

The capital represents equity commitments, target leverage, and co-investments, and Tom Connolly and Michael Koester, 5C founders and co-managing partners, named Liberty Mutual Investments and the Dell Family Office as anchor partners backing the initiative. In a press release, the firm said it has a team of over 20 professionals and will seek to provide financing opportunities primarily to sponsor-backed, upper-middle market companies.

Connolly and Koester are former Goldman partners, and according to Bloomberg helped the bank develop its direct lending business, raising a $10B credit fund in the wake of Bear Stearns’ collapse. Connolly’s roles at Goldman included co-head of private credit, and he left the firm last year, while Koester served as president of alternatives at Goldman’s asset management unit before leaving in April.

“Direct lending is playing a very important role during a market dislocation that is persistent,” Koester told Bloomberg. “There are credit-worthy companies that need financing.”

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