The third quarter of 2025 saw a surge in evergreen fund activity, underscoring investors’ growing appetite for perpetual private market access and yield-oriented vehicles. From private credit to venture growth and hybrid multi-asset solutions, managers are increasingly turning to evergreen structures as a scalable way to meet long-term investor demand without the constraints of traditional drawdown funds.
This wave of Q3 launches reflects an important evolution: the convergence of institutional-grade strategies with retail and private wealth distribution. Firms such as StepStone, Hamilton Lane, and Golub Capital continue to set the pace in expanding the evergreen market’s credibility, while entrants like Powerlaw Corp. and Pearl Diver Credit Co. demonstrate how listed structures and interval funds are being retooled to deliver private exposure with improved access and liquidity. Collectively, these ten vehicles represent the broadening institutionalization of the evergreen model, offering a window into how alternative asset managers are building permanent capital solutions for a new era of investors.
1. StepStone Private Venture and Growth Fund – StepStone Group
Overview: StepStone Group, a leading global private markets investment firm with more than $675 billion in assets under advisement and management, operates across private equity, real assets, private credit, and infrastructure. Headquartered in New York with offices worldwide, StepStone is recognized for its deep expertise in primary, secondary, and co-investment strategies. The firm serves institutional investors, sovereign funds, and private clients seeking diversified exposure to global private markets. Its disciplined, data-driven investment process and proprietary analytical platform position it among the most sophisticated allocators in the alternative asset space.
Focus: The StepStone Private Venture and Growth Fund is an evergreen closed-end investment vehicle designed to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing across venture capital and growth equity opportunities. The fund concentrates on the “innovation economy,” targeting dynamic sectors such as information technology, consumer internet, branded consumer goods, infrastructure, and blockchain technologies. It invests across the private market lifecycle, from seed and early-stage venture to expansion and growth equity, and may allocate a portion to secondary investments and select buyouts. StepStone’s approach emphasizes access to top-tier venture and growth equity managers, direct investments alongside experienced management teams, and companies generating at least $10 million in annual revenue, balancing growth potential with risk control. The SEC registration statement for the fund was filed on August 19, 2025.
2. Golub Capital Private Credit Fund – Golub Capital
Overview: Golub Capital is a leading private credit manager and direct lender founded in 1994, managing over $80 billion in capital with a team of more than 1,000 professionals. The firm is recognized for its long-term partnerships with private equity sponsors and institutional investors, providing flexible, scaled financing solutions to middle-market companies. Golub has built a reputation as a market leader in unitranche and senior credit facilities, combining origination, underwriting, and servicing under one platform to maintain tight credit control and deliver consistent performance across market cycles.
Focus: The Golub Capital Private Credit Fund is a continuously offered, evergreen business development company (BDC) that seeks to generate current income and capital appreciation through direct origination of private loans. The fund invests primarily in senior secured and unitranche loans to U.S. middle-market companies across business services, software, healthcare, consumer, and industrial sectors. Structured for long-term investors, the fund has a $5 billion maximum offering and provides limited liquidity through periodic share repurchases while maintaining diversified exposure and steady income generation. The fund’s registration statement was filed with the SEC on September 24, 2025.
3. Ironwood Multi-Strategy Fund LLC – Ironwood Capital Management
Overview: Founded in 1996, Ironwood Capital Management is a 100% employee-owned alternative investment manager with $7.9 billion in assets under management as of October 2025. Based in San Francisco, the firm focuses exclusively on constructing multi-manager hedge fund portfolios that emphasize consistency and downside protection. Ironwood applies a rigorous, research-driven approach combining top-down macro perspectives with bottom-up fundamental analysis to identify and allocate to high-quality managers. Its investment philosophy centers on capital preservation, prudent diversification, and low volatility returns through disciplined portfolio construction and active risk management.
Focus: The Ironwood Multi-Strategy Fund LLC is an evergreen fund-of-hedge-funds structure (Feeder + Master) registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The fund aims for long-term capital appreciation with limited return variability by investing across a diversified portfolio of underlying hedge fund managers and strategies. It employs a multi-manager approach emphasizing due diligence, manager selection, and portfolio optimization to generate stable, repeatable returns. The fund maintains limited liquidity through periodic repurchases and is designed for accredited investors seeking exposure to low-volatility alternative strategies. The fund’s SEC registration filing was submitted on August 27, 2025, with a maximum registered offering of $1.24 billion.
4. Hamilton Lane Private Assets Fund – Hamilton Lane Advisors LLC
Overview: Hamilton Lane Advisors is a leading global private markets investment firm founded in 1991 and headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. With approximately $986 billion in assets under management and supervision as of mid-2025, the firm is recognized for its data-driven approach and deep expertise across private equity, credit, and real assets. Hamilton Lane serves more than 2,400 clients worldwide, offering institutional and private wealth solutions designed to expand access to the private markets. Its platform combines proprietary analytics and a long track record in primary, secondary, and direct investments to construct diversified portfolios aimed at long-term capital growth.
Focus: The Hamilton Lane Private Assets Fund is a continuously offered, evergreen private markets vehicle registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The fund seeks to generate capital appreciation through diversified investments in private assets globally, allocating across direct equity and debt investments, primary fund commitments, secondary purchases of private funds, and listed private equity. It may also establish programmatic relationships with leading asset managers outside of their commingled structures. Designed for long-term investors, the fund offers Class R, Class I, and Class D shares with varying fee structures, including a 3.5% sales load on Class R. The fund provides limited liquidity through periodic repurchase offers, emphasizing illiquidity tolerance and patient capital. The SEC filing for the fund was submitted on July 29, 2025.
5. Powerlaw Corp. – Akkadian CEF Manager LLC
Overview: Powerlaw Corp. (formerly PowerLaw10, LLC) is a Maryland-based investment company externally managed by Akkadian CEF Manager LLC. The firm operates as a newly formed, non-diversified, closed-end management investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. It represents Akkadian’s entry into listed evergreen structures designed to provide public investors exposure to private market assets, specifically late-stage technology companies. The fund converted from a Delaware LLC to a Maryland corporation in September 2025, aligning its structure with listed investment company standards.
Focus: Powerlaw Corp. seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in a concentrated portfolio of approximately 12 to 15 late-stage technology companies, primarily through equity and equity-linked securities. The fund may also utilize forward contracts, swaps, and synthetic equity agreements to gain exposure to private companies and may invest in private funds or special purpose vehicles (SPVs) holding similar assets. Its approach is structure-agnostic, emphasizing flexibility and selective participation in high-growth technology businesses approaching liquidity events or strategic exits. The SEC filing for Powerlaw Corp. was dated September 17, 2025, and the fund intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker PWRL.
6. Gabelli Preferred & Income Trust
Overview: Gabelli Funds, a division of GAMCO Investors, Inc., is a globally recognized investment management firm headquartered in Rye, New York. Founded by Mario J. Gabelli, the firm has been a leader in fundamental, research-driven value investing for nearly five decades. Its philosophy centers on identifying companies trading below their intrinsic worth using Gabelli’s proprietary Private Market Value with a Catalyst™ approach. The firm manages a wide range of strategies across open- and closed-end funds, separate accounts, ETFs, and UCITS vehicles, serving institutional investors, private wealth clients, and investment professionals. The Gabelli platform emphasizes bottom-up research, strong client relationships, and long-term absolute returns, supported by a team of more than 30 sector-focused equity analysts and a deep research culture.
Focus: The Gabelli Preferred & Income Trust is a newly formed closed-end investment fund focused on generating income and total return through investments in preferred securities and other income-producing instruments. The fund is designed to leverage Gabelli’s disciplined, research-based investment process to identify undervalued opportunities in the preferred and fixed-income markets. With an anticipated initial fund size of $100 million, the trust will seek to balance income generation and capital preservation while employing a diversified approach across issuers and sectors. It may also issue preferred shares to enhance income potential. The fund’s management fee is estimated at 1.00% annually of average net assets, and the structure aligns with Gabelli’s broader expertise in income and convertible strategies. The SEC filing for the Gabelli Preferred & Income Trust was dated August 15, 2025.
7. Oxford Square Capital Corp. – Oxford Square Capital Corp.
Overview: Oxford Square Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: OXSQ) is a publicly traded, closed-end management investment company that has elected to be regulated as a business development company (BDC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The firm manages a diversified portfolio focused on generating attractive risk-adjusted total returns through disciplined credit and structured finance investing. With roots in the leveraged loan and CLO (collateralized loan obligation) markets, Oxford Square provides investors exposure to income-generating credit strategies with long-term capital appreciation potential.
Focus: The Oxford Square Capital Corp. fund invests primarily in corporate debt securities and CLO tranches, with additional exposure to senior secured loans, debt instruments, and equity interests in CLOs. The fund’s investment strategy targets consistent income generation through a mix of direct lending and structured finance, emphasizing senior debt exposure within middle-market and broadly syndicated loans. Operating as a perpetual-life BDC, OXSQ offers continuous access to credit market opportunities through its public listing. The most recent SEC filing for a $300 million securities offering was dated September 25, 2025.
8. Alger Next Gen Growth Fund – Fred Alger Management, LLC
Overview: Fred Alger Management, LLC, founded in 1964, is a New York–based growth equity manager recognized for its fundamental, bottom-up research and long-term focus on innovative companies. Alger’s investment philosophy centers on identifying firms experiencing “Positive Dynamic Change,” businesses undergoing transformational growth or structural improvement in management, products, or market dynamics. The firm manages a broad platform of mutual funds, institutional accounts, and alternative investment strategies that emphasize capital appreciation through disciplined research and active portfolio management.
Focus: The Alger Next Gen Growth Fund is a newly formed, continuously offered interval fund structured to provide investors with long-term exposure to private and late-stage growth companies aligned with innovation-driven secular trends. The fund invests primarily in private companies that exhibit high growth potential and benefit from technological disruption, strong management, and scalable business models. Designed for accredited and long-term investors, the fund offers periodic share repurchases but does not trade on a public exchange, resulting in limited liquidity. The fund seeks to capitalize on Alger’s extensive experience in growth investing by targeting companies across technology, healthcare, and consumer innovation sectors. The SEC filing for the fund was September 24, 2025.
9. Banner Ridge DSCO Private Markets Fund
Overview: Banner Ridge Partners LP is a New York–based registered investment advisor specializing in private equity secondaries, co-investments, and special situations. The firm identifies high-quality private equity managers in niche and fragmented markets, providing liquidity solutions to limited partners and access to differentiated opportunities across the private markets spectrum. With a leadership team possessing deep secondary market expertise, Banner Ridge focuses on value-oriented investments and complex transactions that offer potential for enhanced returns through disciplined underwriting and strategic sourcing.
Focus: The Banner Ridge DSCO Private Markets Fund is a newly organized, continuously offered closed-end investment vehicle registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by targeting private investments in both the United States and Europe, primarily across secondary transactions, co-investments, and special situations. Investment exposure spans private equity, real estate, distressed debt, and other non-traditional private market assets. The fund may also acquire interests in structured products such as CLOs and loans, or provide financing to distressed or undervalued companies. Designed to replicate the strategy of its predecessor fund (Banner Ridge DSCO Fund II, LP), the DSCO Private Markets Fund aims to maintain a diversified portfolio of approximately 30 active investments with targets ranging from $5 million to $50 million. The fund’s SEC preliminary prospectus filing date was July 3, 2025.
10. Pearl Diver Credit Co., Inc. (PDCC/PDPA)
Overview: Pearl Diver Credit Company Inc. (NYSE: PDCC) is a publicly traded closed-end investment company regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The company is externally managed by Pearl Diver Capital LLP, a specialist credit investment firm with approximately $3.0 billion in committed assets under management as of mid-2025. Pearl Diver’s expertise lies in the structuring, valuation, and management of collateralized loan obligation (CLO) investments. The firm’s approach combines disciplined credit underwriting with deep experience across leveraged finance markets to deliver consistent, risk-adjusted returns through multiple market cycles.
Focus: The Pearl Diver Credit Company Inc. is an evergreen credit-focused investment vehicle that seeks to maximize total return with a secondary objective of generating high current income. The fund invests primarily in equity and junior debt tranches of CLOs, as well as CLO warehouses, senior secured loans, and related structured credit instruments. It may also allocate capital to senior and mezzanine credit exposures consistent with its total return mandate. The strategy emphasizes diversification across U.S. issuers and industries, aiming to capture both income generation and capital appreciation opportunities. The company’s preliminary prospectus was filed with the SEC on July 18, 2025, with an offering size of $200 million.
Key Insights for GPs and LPs
For General Partners (GPs):
- Evergreen as a Distribution Engine: Managers are increasingly using evergreen funds to tap into private wealth channels and broaden their LP base, aligning with the shift toward retail-accessible private markets.
- Strategic Diversification: Many funds, including those from StepStone, Hamilton Lane, and Banner Ridge, are adopting multi-strategy approaches to smooth returns and maintain deployment flexibility amid volatile markets.
- Product Innovation and Positioning: The Q3 filings highlight how managers are leveraging evergreen structures to complement flagship drawdown vehicles, offering continuity in capital formation while extending duration.
- Operational Complexity: Running perpetual vehicles requires robust valuation, liquidity management, and investor servicing capabilities, areas where established institutional platforms maintain a clear competitive edge.
For Limited Partners (LPs):
- Continuous Access to Private Markets: Evergreen structures provide LPs with ongoing entry points, reducing the vintage risk associated with traditional fund cycles.
- Liquidity with Constraints: While several vehicles offer periodic repurchases, investors should recognize the limited nature of such liquidity and the need for long-term capital commitment.
- Income and Yield Orientation: Private credit and structured credit offerings, including those from Golub and Pearl Diver, reflect the ongoing demand for steady income streams amid uncertain rate environments.
- Alignment and Transparency: The evergreen format encourages better alignment through recurring valuations and continuous fundraising, though fee structures and redemption mechanics require close attention.
Conclusion
The Q3 2025 evergreen cohort reinforces that permanent capital structures are no longer niche, they are becoming integral to private markets’ future architecture. Managers are blending institutional rigor with retail accessibility, designing vehicles that offer both durability and diversification.
For GPs, this quarter’s activity represents a playbook for scalability and investor reach. For LPs, it offers expanded entry points into previously gated strategies, though with the reminder that long-term commitment remains essential. As evergreen structures continue to mature, their influence on capital formation, fund design, and market accessibility will define the next phase of alternative investing.
