Goldman opens new retail path to private equity with latest fund

Goldman Sachs has launched a new open-ended private equity fund as part of its efforts to expand access to private markets for qualified investors globally.

The new G-PE fund, part of the G-Series suite Goldman offers through its alternatives business, is designed to offer exposure across several of its flagship private equity strategies.

The fund will provide allocations to buyout, growth equity, secondaries and co-investment opportunities, according to the firm. It joins a broader lineup of evergreen offerings from the G-Series brand, which spans multiple alternative asset classes including infrastructure, private credit, and real estate.

Goldman’s move comes as competition intensifies among Wall Street players seeking to grow their foothold in the private markets space, especially among wealthy individual investors. With institutional allocations largely saturated, firms like Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, and KKR are all intensifying their focus on high-net-worth channels.

“As more companies opt to stay private for longer and a greater share of economic growth occurs in private markets, investors will need to look beyond the public markets,” Kristin Olson, global head of alternatives for wealth at Goldman Sachs, said in a statement. “We believe private market investments can help our clients with the appropriate risk profile build a more diversified portfolio.”

The G-PE fund will be made available through Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management as well as through selected third-party distributors across several global markets. It is structured as an evergreen vehicle, meaning it does not have a fixed termination date and allows for periodic subscriptions and redemptions, subject to certain restrictions.

The fund’s launch is the latest step in Goldman’s ongoing strategy to broaden distribution of its alternative investments.

A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg this week that the bank aims to increase the volume of alternatives it distributes through third-party wealth platforms to approximately $8 billion this year, up from $5 billion in 2024. The same person said Goldman plans to nearly triple its dedicated headcount in the individual investor distribution unit to around 60 people worldwide over the next year.

The effort is part of a wider strategic push within Goldman’s asset and wealth management division, which is emerging as a growth engine for the firm. The alternatives business alone oversees more than $500 billion in assets and spans a variety of strategies including private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and infrastructure.

Goldman has also been active in the private credit segment, last year building a $21 billion war chest that included fundraising for its direct lending fund, its largest pool yet for the strategy. At the time,the firm was aiming to more than doubling its private credit assets to $300 billion over the next five years.

In addition to traditional institutional investors, Goldman has reported increased demand for these strategies among ultra-wealthy individuals. The average account size for these clients is around $70 million, and their appetite for alternatives is mirroring that of large institutions.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management had more than $3.1 trillion in assets under supervision globally as of December 31.