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Valor Equity Partners Files for First Dedicated National Security Fund
Quick Take: Valor's second recent themed vehicle, following Valor Atreides AI I, filed while its flagship Valor Equity Partners VII, targeting at least $2.5B, remains in market.
Valor Equity Partners has filed a Form D for Valor National Security Fund I, its first dedicated national security fund. The growth investor did not disclose a fundraising target. The fund follows Valor Atreides AI I, the AI-focused vehicle Valor launched with Gavin Baker's Atreides Management in January 2025.
By the numbers:
- $2.5B+: target for Valor's flagship, Valor Equity Partners VII, which remains in market with part of it earmarked for SpaceX
- $758.7M: raised by Valor Atreides AI I as of its amended Form D in February
- ~$8.5B: SpaceX holdings Valor distributed to limited partners in kind, roughly 8.5% of its SpaceX holdings
- ~3.4%: Valor's remaining SpaceX stake, worth nearly $92B
- 8: days between the SpaceX distribution and the national security fund's Form D filing
Valor's Fund Lineup
|
Fund
|
Focus
|
Size
|
Status
|
|
Valor Equity Partners VII
|
Flagship
|
Targeting at least $2.5B
|
In market
|
|
Valor Atreides AI I
|
AI, with Atreides Management
|
$758.7M raised as of February amended Form D
|
Launched January 2025
|
|
Valor National Security Fund I
|
National security
|
Target not disclosed
|
Form D filed
|
Source: Dakota Marketplace
Valor's Defense Track Record
The new fund extends a defense investing history that dates back to 2022:
|
Company
|
Round
|
Size
|
Valuation
|
Date
|
Valor's Role
|
|
Anduril
|
Series E
|
$1.48B
|
$8.48B
|
2022
|
Lead
|
|
CHAOS Industries
|
Funding round
|
$510M
|
$4.5B
|
November 2025
|
Lead
|
|
Hadrian
|
Series D
|
$1.37B
|
$7.87B
|
August 2026
|
Co-lead
|
Source: Dakota Marketplace
The Anduril round valued the defense manufacturer at nearly double its prior mark. When Valor led the CHAOS round, board member Antonio Gracias, one of SpaceX's largest individual shareholders, joined CHAOS's board. Retired Gen. Christopher Cavoli, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, joined Valor as a partner in 2025 and has argued publicly that pensions and family offices should back defense technology. He is not named on the new fund's Form D.
The So What
Valor now has a dedicated fund for a sector it has invested in since leading Anduril's Series E in 2022, most recently leading CHAOS Industries' $510M round and co-leading Hadrian's $1.37B Series D. The Form D came eight days after Valor distributed roughly $8.5B of SpaceX holdings to limited partners in kind rather than selling for cash, and while its flagship Fund VII remains in market. For allocators, the new fund offers defense technology exposure through a dedicated vehicle alongside Valor's flagship.
Worth watching: whether an amended Form D discloses capital raised for the national security fund, as Valor Atreides AI I's did in February.
Goldman Sachs Evergreen European Private Credit Strategy Tops $10B
Goldman Sachs Alternatives said its evergreen European private credit strategy, GSEC, has surpassed $10B in total assets as of August. The open-ended, semi-liquid strategy launched in October 2023. It invests in cash-pay, floating-rate, directly originated loans to European borrowers and holds them to maturity.
From Launch to $10B
|
Milestone
|
Date
|
|
Strategy launched
|
October 2023
|
|
Passed $6B
|
July 2025
|
|
Topped $8B
|
March 4, 2026
|
|
Surpassed $10B
|
August 2026
|
Source: Dakota Marketplace
Around the time GSEC topped $8B, Goldman Sachs launched the G-European Credit ELTIF to offer the strategy to more European investors under ELTIF 2.0 rules. The portfolio has exposure to more than 400 companies, including private credit loans to more than 100 companies.
Who's Invested: institutions, third-party wealth distributors, family offices, private wealth clients, and Goldman Sachs employees.
Why It Matters
GSEC sits within Goldman Sachs' $230B private credit business, and Goldman Sachs Alternatives manages more than $706B in total assets. The strategy has passed $6B, $8B, and $10B since July 2025, raising capital from institutional and wealth channel investors in one open-ended vehicle, with a dedicated ELTIF structure added to reach more European investors.
This Week's Notable LP and GP Moves
Three senior moves stood out this week: the head of Blackstone's private equity business, one of three executives on its board, is departing after 28 years; UNC Management Company's senior director of private investments is joining Miras Management as global head of private equity; and New Mexico's $74B sovereign wealth fund created a new role covering climate and the energy transition.
|
Name
|
From
|
To
|
New Role
|
|
Joe Baratta
|
Blackstone
|
Departing by year-end
|
Global Head of Private Equity (role not being filled)
|
|
Matthew Lesesky
|
UNC Management Company
|
Miras Management
|
Global Head of Private Equity
|
|
Bruce Brown
|
New Mexico SIC (Head of Strategic Climate Initiatives)
|
New Mexico SIC
|
Systemic Risk Manager, Energy and Climate Transition
|
Source: Dakota Marketplace
Blackstone PE Chief Joe Baratta to Depart After 28 Years
Joe Baratta, global head of private equity at Blackstone and one of only three executives on the firm's board alongside CEO Steve Schwarzman and President Jon Gray, is leaving the firm by year-end after 28 years, Bloomberg reported. His role, which oversees a private equity unit managing roughly $450B, will not be filled. In a memo, Schwarzman and Gray said the strength of Blackstone's individual PE vertical leaders made a replacement unnecessary. Baratta's responsibilities will be spread among existing fund heads, including Martin Brand, Jas Khaira, Viral Patel, and Chris James.
The exit caps a year of turnover at the top of Blackstone's dealmaking ranks. Real estate head Nadeem Meghji resigned earlier this month after less than a year in the role, and Blackstone named David Levine and Giovanni Cutaia co-heads to succeed him. Blackstone's four most recent flagship buyout funds posted net IRRs of 12% or less through June, and its latest flagship fund raised $21B, short of a $30B target.
Miras Management Names Matthew Lesesky Global Head of Private Equity
Matthew Lesesky has joined Miras Management as global head of private equity, moving from UNC Management Company, where he was senior director of the private investments team. He joined UNC Management Company in 2012.
Before UNC, Lesesky was director of private investments at Hatteras Funds, where he was responsible for private equity fund investments and direct private equity programs. Earlier, he was an associate at PCG Capital Partners, a La Jolla, CA-based private equity firm focused on growth equity investments, where he worked on sourcing, evaluating, executing, and monitoring transactions. He also worked as an investment banking associate in the mergers and acquisitions group of Citigroup Global Markets in New York, as an associate at early-stage venture capital fund Fusion Ventures, and as an analyst at Andersen Consulting. He holds a BS with distinction in applied science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
New Mexico SIC Names Bruce Brown Systemic Risk Manager, Energy and Climate Transition
The New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC) has named Bruce Brown systemic risk manager, energy and climate transition, a newly created position. The role reports directly to CIO Kristin Varela and covers the impact of climate and the energy transition on the state's $74B sovereign wealth fund. Brown has spent 13 years at the council. He most recently served as head of strategic climate initiatives from October 2025, directing investments meant to encourage the development of climate tech and related industries in New Mexico, and before that was private equity portfolio manager and deputy general counsel.
Before joining the council, Brown ran a New York law practice and spent 12 years as an assistant attorney general at the New York State Attorney General's Office, including in its Investor Protection Bureau from 2004 to 2009, where he handled securities fraud, insurer malfeasance, and insider trading matters. The appointment comes six months after Varela was named CIO in March. She arrived from the Hawaii Employees' Retirement System, where she was CIO overseeing roughly $26B, and earlier spent eight years at the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico, including a period as interim CIO.
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