Growth investor managing $130 billion weighs return to public markets
General Atlantic runs a roughly $130 billion-asset business focused on growth investing while also operating in credit, climate and infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter. The New York-based firm is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford and holds investments in companies including Anthropic and Vuori.
The firm has recently refreshed its IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the people said, nearly three years after first filing to go public. A public debut could come this year, though the people cautioned there are no guarantees the firm will proceed, and that timing depends in part on market conditions.
General Atlantic would enter a public investment-management landscape where most major peers are already listed. TPG went public in the U.S. in 2022 at a valuation of more than $10 billion when it managed over $100 billion, and Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, KKR and the Carlyle Group are also public. Internationally, CVC Capital Partners listed on Euronext Amsterdam in 2024. The broader IPO market has been heating back up after a mostly quiet stretch, driven by demand in industries such as AI, aerospace and defense.
General Atlantic confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO in December 2023 but did not move ahead at the time, the people said.
Shares in many of the largest private-equity players have come under pressure this year as investors debate the health of their private-credit businesses. General Atlantic is also part of a group of Wall Street firms that recently teamed up with Anthropic to sell artificial-intelligence tools to companies, including those backed by private-equity firms.