OceanSound Partners hauls in $3.4B for third fund

OceanSound Partners, a private equity firm focused on technology integrators working in government and highly-regulated markets, has fetched $3.4 billion in capital commitments for its third main fund and related vehicles.

That figure is more double the amount collected for OceanSound’s second fund, which closed in late 2024 at $1.5 billion, and it exceeds the third fund’s hard cap of $2.9 billion.

Fund II is largely invested with some capital remaining for follow-on acquisitions by portfolio companies, OceanSound said Wednesday.

OceanSound was founded in 2019 by CEO Joe Benavides, formerly a partner at Veritas Capital and a managing director at The Blackstone Group.

OceanSound typically invests between $75 million and $350 million to acquire controlling ownership positions in companies, whose touted enterprise values are usually in the range of $150 million-to-$750 million.

Like with most PE firms, follow-on transactions are a regular feature for OceanSound for each of its portfolio companies. OceanSound first invested in the digital transformation specialist SMX in 2019 and has since supported several acquisitions to further scale out that company.

Then in 2024, SMX moved into $1.15 billion continuation fund in 2024 that OceanSound created and Apollo Group entered into as a major partner.

OceanSound’s portfolio of companies in the government market also includes the likes of Antenna Research Associates, Certerra, DMI and Lynx.

Paul Weiss worked as legal counsel for OceanSound, whose exclusive global placement agent was UBS.