Veritas raises $15.3B for defense, national security deals

Jessica Hamlin

Wed, February 18, 2026 at 8:25 AM GMT+9 3 min read

Veritas Capital closed its ninth private equity flagship strategy Tuesday, raising $15.3 billion to invest in software, aerospace and defense, national security and healthcare.

This latest commingled vehicle closed on $14.4 billion in September. The $54 billion PE and credit manager stayed in the market to raise additional dollars for separately managed accounts, which are included in the most recent total, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The amount raised by Fund IX and related vehicles marks a 40% increase over its predecessor, which raised $10.7 billion before wrapping up fundraising in 2022, amid strengthening investor interest in industries that sell products to the US government or are affected by government regulation and policy.

Limited partners include the Calpers, which committed $400 million; the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which invested $300 million; the Oregon Investment Council; and the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.

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The successful close is a rare bright spot in a prolonged downturn for PE fundraising and partly reflects the strong cash-on-cash returns that Veritas has achieved.

The firm’s first six PE funds, ranging in vintage year from 1997 to 2017, have all distributed more than 2x investors’ committed capital, according to PitchBook data. The 2017 vintage Fund VI has distributed 2.5x, well above the top-decile threshold of 1.89x.

The broader PE universe has not been as successful at generating distributions, with managers unable to exit investments at preferred multiples, holding onto LP capital for longer and leaving fund investors without enough cash on hand to commit to follow-on funds.

PE fundraising fell 32.3% year-over-year for the trailing four quarters ending Q3 2025, according to PitchBook’s latest Global Private Market Fundraising Report.

Investors were buoyed when White House officials met with PE executives in October as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to supplement the federal defense budget with private capital, the Financial Times reported at the time.https://www.ft.com/content/0e9228db-9fa5-4f90-ab8a-93aadcb62d57

Congress approved the US government’s FY 2026 defense budget on Feb. 3, which allocates $838.5 billion. The bill now sits with President Donald Trump to sign into law.

Still, Veritas has made its name in a vertical that has been hit hard by tariff policy uncertainty and its impact on supply chains. The total exit value of PE-backed aerospace and defense companies fell 31% year-over-year, according to PitchBook’s Q4 2025 Aerospace & Defense Report.

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“Rising valuations, defense budget uncertainty and a narrow IPO window likely restricted A&D exits in Q4, though we did see improvement from the prior quarter,” said Jim Corridore, PitchBook’s lead research analyst for the industrials sector and the author of the report.

Veritas Capital’s investments in the sector include its 2017 acquisition of government IT services firm Peraton, which it later combined with data management firm Perspecta in 2021.

Other investments through its flagship strategy include Chromalloy, a manufacturer of aftermarket parts and repairs for airplanes, and Frontgrade Technologies, which produces radiation and signal processing components for satellites and defense agencies.

This article originally appeared on PitchBook News

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