Blue Owl Capital Closes Debut Strategic Equity Secondaries Fund With Over $3 Billion in Commitments

Blue Owl Capital Inc. (NYSE: OWL) announced Feb. 11 the final close of Blue Owl Strategic Equity (BOSE), its inaugural  minority equity and secondaries investment strategy, with total commitments exceeding $3 billion. Capital came from both institutional and private wealth channels, as well as related accounts, marking the firm’s formal entry into a segment of private markets that has seen record activity over the past 18 months.

BOSE Strategy Focus

The strategy targets long-term capital solutions for private equity sponsors seeking to extend their ownership in high-performing portfolio companies. Its primary investment vehicles are single-asset continuation funds and  directminority equity transactions, instruments through which general partners transfer select assets from older funds into new purpose-built vehicles, offering existing limited partners either liquidity or the option to roll forward alongside new capital.

BOSE sits within Blue Owl’s Credit platform, which also includes direct lending, alternative credit, investment grade credit, liquid credit, and healthcare opportunities strategies. The platform ended 2025 with $157.8 billion in assets under management, having originated approximately $188 billion in direct lending since inception.

A Market Reaching Record Volume

The BOSE close coincides with a period of pronounced growth in GP-led secondaries. According to Jefferies’ H1 2025 Global Secondary Market Review, GP-led transaction volume surpassed $47 billion in the first half of 2025 alone, a 68% year-over-year increase. Continuation vehicles accounted for 87% of that volume. Evercore data shows that GP-led deals have grown from 19% of overall secondaries transaction volume in 2014 to nearly half of total volume in H1 2025.

What began largely as a liquidity tool for distressed or aging assets has become a mechanism through which sponsors actively retain their highest-conviction holdings or what are sometimes referred to as “Trophy Assets”.

Leadership Commentary

Blue Owl Co-CEOs Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz described the BOSE result as a response to structural demand across the private equity market.

“We’re very pleased with the strong reception to our strategy, which reflects the growing need for private capital solutions across the market,” they said in a joint statement. “Sponsors are looking for long-term, aligned capital to support high-conviction assets, and BOSE is designed to meet that demand at scale. Our expansion into this strategy further demonstrates the breadth and reach of the Blue Owl platform.”

Chris Crampton, Senior Managing Director and Head of Strategic Equity, pointed to the pipeline ahead.

“We also continue to be highly encouraged by the level of interest BOSE is receiving from private equity managers and their management teams as they look for long-term capital solutions,” he said. “We remain highly energized by the growth and momentum in the market and look forward to continuing to deploy capital into high-quality opportunities on behalf of our clients.”

Hugh Boyle, Managing Director and Strategic Equity Product Specialist, addressed how the close reflects the firm’s broader distribution capabilities.

“It highlights the coordinated efforts of our investment and distribution teams to deliver differentiated, access-driven opportunities to clients across both institutional and private wealth channels and serves as a meaningful validation of our role within the secondary market,” he said.

Platform Context

BOSE’s close contributes to Blue Owl’s existing activity in the GP-Solutions market. The Blue Owl GP Strategic Capital platform currently manages $69.1 billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2025, and holds an 87% market share for GP minority stakes transactions sized at $600 million or above and has completed more than 100 equity and debt transactions since inception.

Blue Owl’s GP Strategic Capital platform topped the 2025 HEC Paris-Dow Jones Large Buyout Performance Ranking, the first time a GP staking firm had led the annual study.

BOSE adds continuation vehicle investment capabilities alongside the existing GP relationships infrastructure, allowing the firm to offer sponsors a broader menu of long-term capital solutions across the GP-Solutions market.

Overall, Blue Owl raised a record $56 billion in new capital commitments across all channels in 2025, ending the year with $307.4 billion in assets under management, a 22% year-over-year increase. The firm’s equity fundraising for the year totaled $42 billion, more than 50% above 2024 levels.

BOSE’s debut close, structured to draw from both institutional allocators and private wealth distribution, extends Blue Owl’s presence across one of the faster-growing corners of private markets at a moment when sponsor demand for continuation capital shows few signs of slowing.

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