Morgan Stanley Raises $400 Million for Its Eighth Growth PE Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley sees more opportunities in private tech companies.

The firm raised about $400 million for its eighth fund focused on private equity investments in growth firms. The fund, named North Haven Expansion Equity LP, targets later-stage companies in technology and other industries including consumer and media across North America and Europe, the bank said Monday in a statement.

Share-price plunges in some of the biggest publicly traded tech companies this quarter have raised questions about whether valuation concerns will carry over into private markets. Still, Morgan Stanley has seen success with its Expansion Capital platform and said its fundraising topped its estimate by $100 million.

“We are pleased to have the continued support of our investors for our long established private growth equity strategy,” said David N. Miller, head of private credit and equity for Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

Miller joined the bank in 2016 after leading Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp., a real estate investment trust he co-founded, and working at the U.S. Treasury Department and in the special situations group at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Recent investments by the Expansion Capital unit include Neo4j, a graph database platform based in San Mateo, California. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists used Neo4j to understand the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, and it was used by NBC in its investigation of Russian Twitter trolls. Morgan Stanley's unit also invested in Cohesity Inc. this year, a data-storage company that received funding from Softbank Group Corp. as well.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sonali Basak in New York at sbasak7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub

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