Apollo Debt Solutions BDC launched with more than $1 billion in assets under management. On Jan. 7, the fund broke escrow with approximately $657 million in equity net proceeds for its continuous public offering. In connection with breaking escrow, the fund issued and sold 26,258,912 shares of beneficial interest in the continuous public offering. The fund intends to continue selling shares in the offering on a monthly basis.

The fund invests primarily in directly originated assets, including debt securities, and specifically focuses on large-cap origination. The fund is managed by an affiliate of Apollo, which has an alternative credit business with approximately $341 billion in credit assets under management.

“We are pleased to break escrow and begin actively investing the fund, leveraging our extensive experience across private credit, direct origination and our status as a preferred lending partner to thousands of companies and sponsors,” Earl Hunt, a partner at Apollo and chair and CEO of Apollo Debt Solutions BDC, said. “We look forward to working with our distribution partners to continue growing ADS.”

“Individual investors have long been under-allocated to alternatives, and we believe this strong initial fundraise for ADS demonstrates the pent-up demand investors and their wealth advisors have for strategies of this kind,” Stephanie Drescher, chief client and product development officer at Apollo, said. “We’re excited for a growing set of investors and advisors to access Apollo’s asset management expertise through ADS and other current and prospective offerings.”

Apollo Debt Solutions BDC is the first non-traded business development company sponsored by affiliates of Apollo.