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Canada’s private equity industry is poised to complete a second consecutive year of robust fundraising. Thomson Reuters’ data suggest that buyout, mezzanine and other PE funds have secured more than $14.4 billion in committed capital in 2014. While that’s down slightly from 2013, it represents the second largest annual raise by Canadian funds to date.

Fulcrum Capital Partners has wrapped up the first close of its fifth partnership, Fulcrum Capital Partners V LP, securing $180 in committed capital. That’s 60 percent of the way to Fund V’s $300 million target, which the firm expects to reach in the first quarter of 2015. In that event, the new fund would be 55 percent larger than Fulcrum Capital Partners IV LP, which closed at $193 million in 2012.

The human side of private equity is what makes this such a fascinating asset class to cover.

Private equity ratcheted up its activity in Canada’s oil patch in 2014, signalling a potentially dramatic shift in the energy industry’s funding sources. To date this year, 46 oil and gas deals have absorbed $6.3 billion in disclosed values, according to Thomson Reuters' data. Pentti Karkkainen, co-founder of and senior strategy advisor to KERN Partners, said that record investment shows private equity is rapidly filling much of the void that has recently been left by traditional public market sources.

Distressed debt specialist Glendon Capital Management quickly hit the $1 bln hard cap on its debut fund in less than a year, following its spin out from Barclays Asset Management Group in 2013.

Robert Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, talked to peHUB about the biggest error women make in their private equity careers.

This week's jobs include vice president positions at TZP Group, Oaktree, Aequitas Capital and Citi; plus, a deputy investment officer at Utah Retirement. Also, Google Capital is seeking an associate.

As the private equity environment gets more competitive, some firms are finding an advantage by specializing in specific sectors. And according to a new study from Cambridge Associates, their limited partners are benefitting from their specialization.

Two months ago, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) created BDC Capital, a new division that brings its private capital teams together under a single roof. As part of this initiative, BDC’s long-standing subordinate financing group was renamed Growth and Transition Capital (GTC). BDC's Robert Duffy told peHUB Canada that GTC’s investment activity has grown sharply of late, with its portfolio value at cost rising 49 percent since 2011 to more than $600 million today.

A meteor is coming and it is going to kill your firm’s deal flow, writes guest columnist Devin Mathews of ParkerGale. Here's what you need to do to survive the Apocalypse.