EIB's €15B Tech Fund Push; Commonfund's Yates Flags Illiquidity as Top Return Driver

The European Investment Bank Group and governments across all 27 EU member states launched the second phase of the European Tech Champions Initiative, a fund-of-funds platform targeting up to €15B ($17.1B) to mobilize as much as €80B ($91.2B) for European technology scaleups. Managed by the European Investment Fund, the vehicle will back both mega-funds of €1B or more and, for the first time, mid-sized growth funds above €300M, with the EIB Group committing up to €1.25B. Private investors including Danske Bank, AltamarCAM, Banco Santander, BBVA, and Azimut Holding have also joined.

Elsewhere, Warren Equity Partners closed its fifth flagship fund at approximately $2.8B, exceeding its $2.25B target and hitting its hard cap in under 12 months with commitments from more than 60 institutions; and Tel Aviv-based FIMI Opportunity Funds closed its eighth private equity fund at $1.75B, the largest in the firm's history, with investor demand reportedly exceeding $2.5B.

On the allocator side, the Fresno County Employees' Retirement Association approved a one-year extension of its consulting relationship with NEPC through March 2028 and named RVK as a new search consultant for its private credit and private equity programs, which will review portfolio construction ahead of a forthcoming RFP. Separately, in a recent Dakota Live! podcast, Commonfund OCIO CEO Tim Yates said the degree of illiquidity in an endowment's portfolio, rather than manager selection, has been the biggest driver of return dispersion among top-performing endowments over the past two decades.

In people news, Zurich Insurance named Francesco Martorana head of portfolio management and strategy implementation within its group investment management unit; he joins from Generali, where he most recently served as group CIO; and AEA Investors named Adam Biren partner and head of capital formation for the Americas, joining from Apollo Global Management, where he led investor coverage for the US South and Southeast.

Read on for all the day’s fundraising news headlines.

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Dakota tracked $296.5bn in private capital transactions in June, up sharply from May on the back of MGX's ~$50bn AI infrastructure raise and SpaceX's $60.0bn acquisition of Anysphere. Clearlake, Blackstone, Crescent, and Ares all closed flagship funds well above target.

Get the full breakdown in this month's Private Markets Review.

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Professional sports franchises have crossed from passion-driven assets into a documented institutional allocation. Across the NFL, NBA, MLB, and English Premier League, franchise values now exceed $500B across 112 teams, driven by limited supply, accelerating media rights revenue, and a growing wave of institutional capital. The Ross-Arctos Sports Franchise Index delivered 16.0% annualized returns over the trailing 10 years through Q1 2026. KKR's $1.4B acquisition of Arctos Partners in February 2026 — the firm that holds positions in 15 institutional sports franchises — is the clearest signal yet that the largest alternative asset managers now view sports as a core allocation category.

This report covers the investment case for sports as a discrete asset class, ownership structures and valuation trends across all four leagues, the 16 institutional platforms actively deploying capital, the nine funds currently in market, which LP categories are committing and why, and where the market is heading over the next decade.

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