Access considerations – multi-GP or single-GP evergreens?

At their core, evergreen funds are open-ended vehicles that provide investors with regular subscription and redemption windows, bypassing the finite lifecycle of traditional closed-end structures that require investors to manage capital calls over a multi-year investment period; typically four to five years.

Two roads diverged in an evergreen fund

By contrast, an investor’s capital is fully invested on day one in an evergreen fund, making them operationally far easier to manage.

Within this format, two dominant models have emerged: multi-GP and single-GP evergreens.

Multi-GP evergreens are particularly effective for delivering diversified private markets access at scale to newer entrants to private markets.

These structures aggregate investments across numerous general partners, deploying capital via co-investments, secondaries, and, to a lesser extent, primary fund allocations.

Single-GP evergreens, by contrast, are vertically integrated platforms that originate, underwrite and manage direct investments in-house. The GP has full control of deal selection, valuation methodology and liquidity management, leveraging the firm’s own sourcing engine to build portfolios tailored to a defined investment thesis. They are the ones in the driving seat, not a third-party manager.