What a difference a year makes — or even three months. At this time last year, we were looking at a first quarter fund raise of just over $70 billion. Even if you take out the two megafunds that contributed $31 billion all by themselves, that quarter raised significant capital. Now, it appears 2023 is going in the opposite direction.

With the exception of first quarter 2009, which was the height of the financial crisis, 2023 saw the worst first quarter on record. During first quarter 2023, six funds raised an aggregate of only $4.2 billion. This is just a third of that raised in fourth quarter 2022, and only 6 percent of the amount raised in first quarter 2022.

Multibillion-dollar funds have become de rigueur in the infrastructure world. Not so this quarter. The only fund to break the $1 billion milestone was Equitix’s Rakiza Infrastructure Fund, which closed on just over $1 billion for investment in Oman and Saudi Arabia. The fund will execute a diversified strate