Warren Wraps Up a Banner Fundraise

Warren Equity has closed Warren Equity Partners Fund V LP and Warren Equity Partners Fund V-A LP, with a combined $2.8 billion in total capital commitments. The new raise exceeded the firm’s initial $2.3 billion target and was oversubscribed.

The fund drew commitments from more than 60 global institutions, including pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers, endowments, foundations, and family offices.

Warren Equity Partners (WEP) invests in middle market businesses that maintain, operate, and upgrade facilities and infrastructure assets. The firm’s portfolio companies provide services such as outsourced water tank maintenance for municipal utilities, waste collection and disposal, and maintenance work supporting power grids and transportation networks — recurring, non-discretionary services tied to the upkeep of essential public systems.

WEP supports its portfolio companies through a dedicated Operations Group that works alongside management teams to accelerate organic growth, improve operating performance, and execute add-on acquisitions in fragmented markets. The firm also uses a proprietary in-house artificial intelligence platform that supports thematic research and deal sourcing across its target sectors, which it credits, in part, with helping it maintain its investment pace amid changing fundraising environments.

That pace has not slowed. Last month, Fund V completed its first platform investment with the acquisition of USG Water Solutions, a provider of outsourced water tank maintenance and asset management services to municipal water utilities.

Founded in 2015, WEP has completed more than 215 transactions to date and now manages $9.6 billion in assets. The firm is led by managing partner and co-founder Steven Wacaster, partner and co-founder Scott Bruckmann, and partner, chief compliance officer and co-founder Henrik Dahlback. WEP is headquartered near Jacksonville in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.

Fund V caps a steady climb in fund size. WEP raised its first fund in the years following its founding, though the fund’s size was not widely disclosed. The firm’s second fund closed in March 2018 at its $310 million hard cap, and Fund III followed in May 2021 at its $673 million hard cap, exceeding an initial target of $550 million. Fund IV closed oversubscribed at its hard cap in April 2023 with more than $1.4 billion in commitments against an initial target of $1.2 billion, bringing WEP’s aggregate raised capital to over $3.3 billion and its completed transaction count to 99, including 26 platform investments.

Mr. Wacaster tied the close to consistency rather than reinvention. “We are grateful to our existing investors, who have supported us across multiple funds, as well as the new investors who partnered with us for Fund V,” he said. “We believe the successful close of Fund V reflects the strength of the strategy we have executed for more than a decade. Across changing market cycles and fundraising environments, we have remained focused on a defined set of infrastructure solutions markets and have continued to invest in our thematic research, sourcing capabilities, and operating resources, which are increasingly supported by our proprietary, in-house AI platform. We believe that sustained commitment to this strategy continues to differentiate our firm, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead as we deploy Fund V.”

The platform has widened over time. WEP expanded in 2024 with the close of ELIDO Fund II LP, a small-cap vehicle targeting lower-middle-market companies within the firm’s core sectors, which drew more than $590 million in commitments.

Mr. Bruckmann pointed to a sourcing process that begins years ahead of any deal. “Since inception, we have focused on identifying and partnering with market-leading companies and management teams across our core sectors,” he said. “Our investment process begins years before we make an investment, and we are continually developing themes within infrastructure solutions to source differentiated opportunities across both North America and Europe. We will continue to exercise discipline with our distinct sector focus and leverage our operating resources to create long-term value as we deploy Fund V.”

WEP is raising into a buoyant market for infrastructure capital. Private capital’s role in infrastructure has expanded sharply in the United States and globally, with 2025 producing record fundraising and deployment for the asset class, according to McKinsey & Company, which found that global infrastructure fundraising reached nearly $200 billion that year, surpassing the previous high of $180 billion set in 2022. Limited partners have continued to identify infrastructure as the asset class they are most keen to increase allocations to, and general partners have responded with larger, more complex deals, including several funds with $5 billion or more in committed capital.

The opportunity WEP is targeting sits within that expansion. McKinsey estimates that a cumulative $106 trillion in investment is needed to meet global infrastructure requirements through 2040, spanning both traditional assets and newer categories such as data centers and fiber networks. In the water and wastewater segment specifically — the segment of WEP’s first Fund V deal — aging municipal systems and tightening compliance requirements have continued to support demand for outsourced maintenance providers.

Harris Williams advised WEP on the Fund V fundraise.