Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners appears to be forming a tech-focused venture debt vehicle, as a compliment to its broader credit platform.
Silver Lake today filed with the SEC for a pooled investment vehicle called Silver Lake Waterman Fund, which can raise up to $75 million (with nearly $18 million already committed). One of the four listed executives is Rick Stubblefield, a longtime venture debt investor who has spent the past two-plus years running a small shop called Waterman Capital Partners. Before that, he spent 17 years as a co-founder and managing director of Lighthouse Capital Partners.
I called Silver Lake’s Menlo Park office and asked for Stubblefield. The receptionist told me that he wasn’t in today, and that his voicemail had not yet been set up. Basically sounds like he’s now a Silver Lake employee.
The other three executives listed on the filing are existing Silver Lake staffers: Managing directors Egon Durban, Jim Davidson and Shawn O’Neill (an investment banker who quietly joined the firm last year).
I’ve left a message with a Silver Lake spokesman for more details, and will update this post if I hear back. The firm already has a credit platform, to go with its general private equity, middle-market private equity and energy/resource private equity practices.
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