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Institutional Investors Expand Private Markets Exposure Across Private Credit, Private Equity, Infrastructure and Venture Capital

A series of recent institutional appointments and allocations across the UK, US, Italy and South Korea shows continued deployment into private credit, private equity, infrastructure and venture capital, alongside internal investment-team expansion. Across the five developments, investors are strengthening specialist capabilities, allocating meaningful capital to established managers and using both fund commitments and co-investments to build private-market exposure.

NEST Corporation – Private Credit Team Expansion

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) Corporation appointed Sanderson Executive Limited under a £32,000 recruitment contract to recruit an Investment Manager – Private Credit. While this is not an investment mandate, the appointment signals NEST is strengthening specialist internal capability to source, evaluate and oversee private credit investments, potentially supporting future manager-selection activity.

LACERA – $275 Million Across Private Equity and Energy Infrastructure

The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) approved two significant private-market allocations:

• $75 million co-investment alongside AE Industrial Partners within private equity.

• $200 million commitment to Energy Capital Partners VI, targeting energy transition, electricity infrastructure and sustainability infrastructure across primarily North America and Europe.

The allocations demonstrate LACERA's willingness to deploy large tickets through both established manager relationships and direct co-investment opportunities.

Ohio SERS – $125 Million Across Private Equity and Private Credit

The School Employees Retirement System of Ohio (SERS) approved two new private-market commitments:

• Up to $50 million to Primus Capital Fund X for middle-market growth private equity.

• Up to $75 million to Sagard Credit Partners III for direct lending/private credit.

Together, the commitments show continued SERS demand for specialist middle-market private equity and institutional direct-lending strategies.

Puglia Sviluppo – €50 Million Across Three Venture Capital Managers

Puglia Sviluppo S.p.A. selected multiple external managers under its €60 million Equity Puglia venture-capital programme, including:

• AVM SGR – €20 million

• FundRock LIS – €20 million

• AManco – €10 million

The awards highlight Puglia Sviluppo's use of a multi-manager external VC structure, with allocations split across Italian and Luxembourg-based investment platforms following a competitive process that attracted 11 offers.

Korea Post Insurance – Domestic AI Venture Capital Manager Selection

Korea Post Insurance, part of Korea Post's Asset Management Bureau, selected Woori Venture Partners as one of three preferred bidders for its up to KRW 60 billion domestic venture-capital programme. Individual allocations have not been disclosed. The mandate focuses heavily on the AI value chain, including infrastructure, models, applications and AI-enabled technologies, with substantial institutional requirements around manager scale, staffing and fund formation.

What this Signals

Taken together, these developments point to continued institutional demand across several areas of private markets. Private credit and direct lending remain active allocation areas, while investors are also committing substantial capital to middle-market private equity, co-investments, energy-transition infrastructure and venture capital.

For investment managers, several themes stand out: institutional investors continue to favour established specialist platforms, scalable fund structures, co-investment capability and clearly differentiated sector expertise. The activity from LACERA and SERS also demonstrates that sizeable commitments are still being made across private markets, while the Puglia and Korea Post selections show that competitive institutional manager searches remain active in venture capital.

PensionMandate Intelligence Takeaway

These appointments collectively reinforce the breadth of current institutional private-market demand. Managers with strong capabilities in private credit, direct lending, co-investments, middle-market private equity, energy-transition infrastructure and specialist venture capital should continue monitoring these investors and comparable institutions for subsequent fund commitments, follow-on allocations and competitive manager searches.