By Kaeb Mils
Dyal Capital Partners launched in 2010 with a narrow but unusual thesis: buy minority equity stakes in alternative asset managers and collect a share of their management fees. Fifteen years later, the business that grew from that idea — now the GP Strategic Capital arm of Blue Owl Capital — has completed more than 95 equity and debt transactions and manages $68.8 billion in assets (Blue Owl 3Q25 Overview). Along the way, it has captured over 60% of all capital ever raised in the GP stakes category, making it the dominant player in a field it helped create.
BOSE, the firm’s inaugural secondaries fund, which closed at roughly $3 billion in February 2026, marks a logical extension of that foundation. Where GP stakes involve owning a piece of the manager, BOSE involves owning a piece of the manager’s best portfolio companies through continuation vehicles.
From Dyal Capital to a $68 billion GP platform
Dyal’s original model was simple in concept — buy minority interests in asset managers, earn recurring revenue from their fee streams — but unusual in execution. Most institutional capital at the time flowed to the funds that managers operated, not to the managers themselves. Dyal’s willingness to write large checks (often exceeding $1 billion) and offer business services support, including fundraising assistance and digital transformation resources, gave it an edge in winning over sponsors wary of diluting their ownership.
The firm merged with Owl Rock Capital Partners to form Blue Owl Capital in May 2021, adding direct lending and alternative credit capabilities. A subsequent acquisition of Oak Street Real Estate Capital brought net lease real estate into the fold. BOSE arrived as the latest product expansion from what has become a $307.4 billion platform.
Why GP stakes and GP-led secondaries are natural complements
Blue Owl’s GP Strategic Capital team holds partnerships with more than 60 alternative asset managers globally (Blue Owl 3Q25 Overview). Those relationships provide visibility into which sponsors are considering continuation vehicle transactions — and which portfolio companies might become targets for GP-led deals. BOSE benefits from that pipeline.
Co-CEOs Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz described the connection directly: “Our expansion into this strategy further demonstrates the breadth and reach of the Blue Owl platform.”
What BOSE’s $3 billion close adds to the platform
Before BOSE existed as a formal fund, Blue Owl had already completed at least one GP-led deal. An August 2024 transaction gave limited partners in an Altamont Capital Partners fund the option to cash out or roll their stakes in Tacala, a major Taco Bell franchise operator.
PitchBook’s reporting on the BOSE close described Blue Owl’s framing of GP-led secondaries as offering investors access to the “greatest hits of private equity” — companies that sponsors have self-selected to retain. Chris Crampton, who heads the BOSE business, echoed that view: “We also continue to be highly encouraged by the level of interest BOSE is receiving from private equity managers and their management teams.”
