HIG Capital Closes WhiteHorse Fund and Expands Into Secondaries

 Miami firm sharpens multi-strategy approach with record fundraising and senior hires from Morgan Stanley.

For many investment firms, summer months are a time to regroup. For HIG Capital, August brought momentum. The Miami-based private equity and credit specialist closed its largest-ever direct lending fund—raising $5.9 billion for its WhiteHorse Middle Market Lending Fund IV—while simultaneously adding senior talent to launch a new secondaries investment platform.

The double milestone highlights HIG’s strategy of layering capital formation with new vertical expansion, cementing its position as one of the most active players in middle-market finance.

Scaling Direct Lending in the Middle Market

The latest WhiteHorse fund builds on more than a decade of lending experience, with approximately $18 billion already deployed into U.S. middle market transactions. Fund IV maintains the affiliate’s focus on senior secured, floating-rate loans for companies with $30 million to $100 million in EBITDA.

“This is a period of significant opportunity for private debt,” said Stuart Aronson, Executive Managing Director and CEO of H.I.G. WhiteHorse. “We believe the coming years will offer compelling conditions for serving as a flexible partner to both sponsor-backed and independent borrowers.”

The strategy reflects broader industry trends: traditional banks pulling back from middle-market lending, while private credit providers step into the gap with customized structures and floating-rate protections.

Leadership Anchored in Long-Term Growth

The firm’s rapid fundraising success is rooted in leadership continuity. Co-founders Sami Mnaymneh and Tony Tamer, who launched HIG in 1993, remain at the helm, shaping capital allocation and expansion.

Mnaymneh, now Executive Chairman and CEO, cut his teeth at The Blackstone Group before founding the firm. Tamer, previously a partner at Bain & Company, brought consulting expertise that helped define HIG’s cross-strategy approach. Together, they have expanded the firm into a $70 billion global platform spanning credit, private equity, real estate, and growth equity.

In a statement, the pair described HIG as “one of the largest and most active credit investors in the middle market,” underscoring the role of WhiteHorse as a cornerstone strategy.

Recruiting Morgan Stanley Veterans for Secondaries Push

Perhaps the more forward-looking move came on the secondaries front. In August, HIG unveiled a GP Solutions Platform—its new entry point into continuation vehicles and GP-led transactions. The firm recruited four senior executives from Morgan Stanley’s private equity secondaries unit to launch the effort.

Dan Wieder now leads the group as Managing Director, alongside Managing Director Yash Gupta and Principals Austin Gerber and Joe Holleran. Collectively, they bring close to five decades of secondaries expertise.

The initiative places HIG among a growing circle of managers—Warburg Pincus and Leonard Green & Partners among them—building in-house secondaries capabilities to meet surging demand for alternative liquidity solutions from institutional investors.

Strengthening the Small-Cap Platform

HIG has also reinforced its small-cap investment strategy, appointing Harrison B. Davis as Managing Director in its Small-Cap & Growth (SCG) division. Davis, who joins from TZP Group where he co-led the Small-Cap strategy, adds more than 15 years of lower middle market experience.

“Harrison’s operational expertise and investment acumen in the small-cap sector will further strengthen our platform,” said Camilo E. Horvilleur, Co-Head of the H.I.G. SCG Fund.

Davis will work alongside a 40-person team targeting control equity deals in under-managed and high-growth North American companies with EBITDA under $15 million.

Technology and Media Deals Drive Activity

The buildout of HIG’s platform supports an active pipeline of transactions. Among recent headline deals is the acquisition of Kantar Media, a measurement and analytics group operating in more than 60 countries. CEO Patrick Béhar emphasized the partnership’s potential to “accelerate innovation on behalf of our clients, partners, and teams around the world.”

In the technology sector, HIG merged Converge Technology Solutions with Mainline Information Systems to form Pellera Technologies, a $4 billion-revenue enterprise focused on cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI. Additional investments included Quisitive Technology Solutions, a specialist in Microsoft ecosystem services, and GetixHealth, a provider of revenue cycle management for healthcare systems.

Global Reach, Multi-Strategy Depth

Today HIG operates across 19 offices in North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. Since its founding, the firm has invested in more than 400 companies; its current portfolio generates more than $53 billion in combined revenues.

WhiteHorse alone employs 85 credit professionals across the U.S. and Europe and has completed more than 285 transactions. Fund IV attracted commitments from a broad spectrum of global institutions, including pensions, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and family offices.

HIG’s full investment platform spans private equity, growth equity, real estate, infrastructure, special situations, and healthcare—now joined by its secondaries initiative, designed to provide liquidity and extension options for fund managers and their investors.

Positioning for the Next Cycle

For HIG Capital, the confluence of a record fundraise and a strategic buildout in secondaries represents more than just operational milestones. It signals a firm positioning itself for a shifting investment cycle, one where private credit and flexible liquidity tools are expected to dominate institutional agendas.

As the market digests tighter bank lending and longer holding periods, HIG appears set not only to keep pace but to shape the next chapter of middle-market investing.