Starwood Closes $10.2B Distressed Fund XIII; MGX Hits $49B on Debut

Starwood Capital Group closed Starwood Distressed Opportunity Fund XIII at more than $10.2B, drawing over 300 new and existing investors across roughly 20 countries; according to Dakota data, the Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois and Teacher Retirement System of Texas each committed $300M. The close pushes Starwood's firm-wide AUM to approximately $130B and follows Fund XII's $10B-plus close in 2021.

In other GP fundraising, Abu Dhabi's MGX held a final close on its debut fund at $49B, above its $45B target, with the AI-focused vehicle already deployed across 14 companies including stakes in Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI. Hamilton Lane closed its sixth Direct Equity fund, Equity Opportunities Fund VI, at $3.8B, nearly double the $2.1B raised by its 2023 predecessor.

Among US allocator activity, GTCR's newly launched Fund XV drew fresh commitments from both the Boston Retirement System, which approved $10M to the vehicle alongside $10M to JFL Equity Investors VII, and the Louisiana State Employees Retirement System, which re-upped with $100M. Boston Retirement also voted to retain PanAgora Asset Management on its roughly $384M core international equity mandate and is advancing a private debt search spanning direct lending and credit opportunities strategies.

In people news, CalPERS promoted Justin Scripps to managing investment director for global fixed income, succeeding Arnie Phillips, to oversee a portfolio of approximately $175B. And in other appointments, AP Pension named Henrik Steenstrup, formerly of Copenhagen's By & Havn, as CEO of its real estate subsidiary AP Ejendomme.

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

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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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Digital assets have crossed the threshold from speculative fringe to documented institutional allocation. 

Dakota Marketplace tracks more than 4,000 institutional investors with disclosed digital asset ETF positions, spanning hedge funds, RIAs, endowments, and state pension funds, with new filers appearing every 13F cycle. The access barriers are gone, the regulatory framework is taking shape, and the largest capital pools in the world are still in the early stages of their digital asset journey.

A new Dakota Research report covers who is allocating and through which vehicles, how the manager universe is structured across VC, institutional asset managers, and hedge funds, where the regulatory calendar stands, and why tokenization is beginning to blur the line between a crypto allocation and a private markets allocation delivered on-chain.

Download the full report →