Infrastructure was one of the strongest asset classes for capital formation in 2025. Dakota tracked $72.7 billion raised across 57 infrastructure funds, with a median fund size of $240 million, the highest median of any private markets asset class. Pension funds and endowments committed $55.7 billion to real assets in 2025, and the scale concentration at the top was significant: Dakota's March 2026 fundraising monitor tracked InfraVia European Fund VI closing at $9.2 billion, Brookfield Infrastructure Fund VI approaching a $20 billion first close, and EQT Infrastructure VII preparing to launch. The mid-market gap that concentration creates is exactly where the most credible new infrastructure managers are positioning. (Powered by Dakota)
This analysis is powered by Dakota Marketplace, which tracks data across thousands of active private market strategies by fund type, geography, vintage year, and fundraising status, giving fund managers and allocators a live view of where capital is moving and who is raising it.
The Private Infrastructure Universe Right Now
New fund launches in private infrastructure have grown every single year since 2019, the only major private markets asset class with an unbroken upward trajectory across the full six-year window.
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Vintage Year
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New Strategies Launched
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2019
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44
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2020
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54
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2021
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57
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2022
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67
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2023
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88
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2024
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114
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2025
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131
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Dakota tracked 131 new private infrastructure strategies with a 2025 vintage, nearly triple the 2019 count. The consistent year-over-year growth reflects both the expansion of energy transition as an institutional investment theme and the growing number of experienced infrastructure operators leaving large platforms to build independent mid-market vehicles.
Why Mid-Market Energy Transition Is Where New Infrastructure Managers Win
Large-cap infrastructure platforms are built for multi-billion-dollar transactions. Their team structures, underwriting processes, and LP expectations are calibrated for scale. That leaves a structural gap in the $50 million to $300 million per transaction range, particularly in energy transition assets across clean electricity, decarbonization, clean fuels, and sustainability solutions. The new managers launching in this space are not competing with Brookfield. They are filling a market segment that Brookfield is not designed to serve.
The following managers launched in 2024 or 2025, came from well-pedigreed larger firms, and have started to attract institutional backing. All are active in Dakota Marketplace.
Infrastructure Emerging Managers to Watch in 2026
Reinova Partners:
Reinova Partners was co-founded by Ralf Rank and John Stinebaugh, who each spent approximately two decades at Brookfield Asset Management in senior roles across its infrastructure and renewables businesses, together investing over $7 billion of equity capital across 60 transactions. The firm formally launched fundraising in Q4 2025 for its debut Reinova Energy Transition Fund I, targeting 800 million euros with a 1 billion euro hard cap, has already secured a named institutional anchor, and completed its first acquisition in May 2025, a 166 megawatt portfolio of six operating wind farms in Ireland through a joint venture with HitecVision. Arriving at the formal fundraise with a live wind portfolio, a named anchor, and combined decades of Brookfield infrastructure investing experience fundamentally changes the first LP conversation.
Dialstone Capital:
Dialstone Capital was launched by Simon Hayden, a former managing director at Blackstone, and is focused on UK energy transition infrastructure equity and credit strategies spanning investment grade and high yield opportunities. The Blackstone infrastructure pedigree combined with a specific focus on UK energy transition assets at a time when the pipeline of UK projects requiring private capital is expanding materially positions Dialstone as one of the most credentialed first-time entries in the UK infrastructure market of 2025 and 2026.
VisionEdgeOne:
VisionEdgeOne was founded by a team led by former AMP Capital infrastructure executives and reached a first close of approximately 100 million euros in April 2025 on its debut VisionEdgeOne Infrastructure Partnership, with capital from institutional investors across North America and the Middle East. The fund is targeting 1 billion euros in total commitments to invest across transport, energy, digital, and social infrastructure at various stages of development across Europe, and has already completed its first two acquisitions: Spanish micro-mobility provider Inurba Mobility in partnership with GCM Grosvenor, and Italian biomethane platform RE2Sources alongside Arjun Infrastructure Partners. Arriving at the broader institutional raise with a named co-investor in GCM Grosvenor and two live deals already completed removes the blank-page diligence conversation that stalls most debut infrastructure vehicles before first close.
NOVA Infrastructure:
NOVA Infrastructure was founded in 2017 by Chris Beall, who spent his career at Oaktree Capital Management and predecessor firm Highstar Capital, where he served as a Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager of Oaktree's infrastructure investing strategy and was one of four owners and partners at Highstar, overseeing a more than $6.3 billion portfolio of North American infrastructure investments. The New York-based firm targets middle-market infrastructure across energy transition, digital, transportation, and environmental sectors in North America, occupying the segment that the largest infrastructure platforms are not structured to serve efficiently. NOVA closed Fund II at $1.45 billion, exceeding its target by over 30% and more than doubling the capital raised in Fund I, with returning investors joined by new backers from North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Fund II has already deployed into two platform investments: DartPoints, an enterprise data center provider, and UGE International, a community solar and battery storage business. The Fund II oversubscription in a year when capital concentrated sharply at the top of the infrastructure market is the clearest possible signal that NOVA's mid-market positioning and operational approach have earned institutional confidence across fund cycles.
Jacmel Infrastructure:
Jacmel Infrastructure was launched in January 2025 by Nick Jean-Baptiste and Jorge Mora, both of whom built careers at Macquarie Group before founding Jacmel Partners. The firm has already closed on its first transaction and is building a pipeline of significant infrastructure deals, drawing on its acquisition of Arora Engineers, a platform that has supported more than $23 billion of infrastructure projects across the US. The Macquarie pedigree of the founding team combined with a live portfolio at launch gives Jacmel Infrastructure the operational credibility and institutional deal sourcing capability that most debut infrastructure managers spend years building from scratch.
What Every Firm on This List Has in Common
The debut managers on this list share two things: founders who spent decades at the most credible infrastructure platforms in the world, and a focus on mid-market strategies where capital supply is genuinely scarce relative to deal flow. Brookfield pedigree and a named anchor and live portfolio behind Reinova. Blackstone infrastructure pedigree behind Dialstone. GCM Grosvenor co-investment backing and live deployed portfolio behind VisionEdgeOne. Oaktree and Highstar pedigree and an oversubscribed Fund II behind NOVA Infrastructure. Macquarie pedigree and an active deal pipeline behind Jacmel Infrastructure. The managers who found traction fastest did so by solving the credibility problem before the fundraise opened, not during it.
Dakota Marketplace
Dakota Marketplace gives fund managers a live view of the allocators most likely to back emerging managers, including the named intermediaries, commitment sizes, responsible contacts, and current portfolio vintages for every program in the database. To see what Dakota members already have access to, Book a demo today.
