About Slate

• Founded: 2012

• Headquarters: New York, NY, United States

• AUM: Approximately $6bn (as of 2024)

• Strategy: Private credit, senior secured lending, middle market

• Track record: Prior funds include $2bn+ flagship senior lending vehicle; expanded from core real estate lending into corporate credit starting 2017

• Leadership: Co-founded by David Schwartz and Jacob Walthour Jr.

Slate has closed a $1bn separately managed account dedicated to expanding its senior lending platform. The New York-based credit manager is layering additional competitive lending capacity onto its flagship platform, with further capital-raising initiatives underway. The SMA structure allows institutional LPs to access Slate's deal flow with tailored terms separate from the commingled fund.

The $1bn close positions Slate to compete more aggressively in the senior secured middle-market lending space at a time when traditional bank retrenchment has opened capacity for direct lenders. But separately managed accounts introduce operational complexity that commingled funds avoid — reporting obligations multiply, side-by-side management raises allocation questions, and LPs in the flagship fund watch whether the best deals flow to the SMA or the pool. A $1bn SMA alongside an existing flagship means Slate is now managing at least two capital bases with potentially overlapping mandates, which works smoothly only if deal flow stays abundant.

The test will be deployment pace over the next 12–18 months. If Slate can put the capital to work at attractive spreads without cannibalizing returns in the flagship vehicle, the SMA model proves its value as a scaling tool. If deployment slows or the firm finds itself managing allocation tensions between LPs, the additional capital becomes a drag on decision speed — the opposite of what competitive lending requires.

Source: Private Debt Investor