AI-driven disruption fears across industries are intensifying scrutiny of private credit lenders.

Direct lenders to software borrowers are in the eye of the storm, amid investor jitters over legacy loans and concerns over the opacity of valuations. Private credit has significant software exposure, with a recent analysis of Business Development Company (BDC) data by Debtwire finding that tech- and software- loans account for around 18% of gross loans at an industry level, as reported.

For credit secondaries investors, the current dislocation could present fresh opportunities, however. Among them, Tikehau Capital sees fertile terrain to deploy its second private credit secondaries fund.

“The secondary market is a liquidity solution provider,” Pierpaolo Casamento, Tikehau’s head of private debt secondaries in New York, told Mergermarket. “By definition, being able to provide liquidity at a time where people are increasingly concerned around and looking for it should be an opportunity.”

Tikehau Private Debt Secondaries II (TPDS II) closed last month on over USD 1bn, above its initial USD 750m target and more than double the size of its USD 415m predecessor. The fund is already around 50% invested.

The Paris-headquartered asset manager will primarily focus on LP-led secondaries with the new fund despite a recent pivot in the broader market towards GP-led deals. Last year, GP-led credit secondaries made up 61% of deal from about 45% in 2023, according to a report by Campbell Lutyens.

Casamento noted that the LP-led segment continues to post steady growth, though transaction sizes tend to be smaller. “The market is not that big,” he explained. “You really need about 10 GP-led transactions or so to be half of the market because those are pretty sizable transactions.”

The bulk of Tikehau’s investments will remain focused on corporate and performing credit, where the firm has existing expertise.

Tikehau eschews distress-control strategies and other approaches that target equity-like returns nor has the firm invested significantly in specialist areas. About 70% of its investments are in traditional direct lending strategies.

Still, diversification is an aim of every transaction. “We look for the ability to model and predict cash flows in a sensible way, and some visibility on exits,” said Casamento. “We want to try to model out effectively the performance of these portfolios and potentially take into account expected defaults and losses within our pricing.”

Like other secondaries funds, Tikehau has concentration limits. Investments are typically around USD 50m in size for LP-led deals, with more flexibility on GP-led transactions, which tend to be larger.

“You sometimes have syndications around those, so you may be able to size your ticket around your own appetite,” Casamento said.

There is an emphasis on the US, which accounts for about 90% of deployment, with the remainder in Europe.

“US LPs and GPs have used secondaries for a longer time, and I think that is reflected in the geographical split within our portfolio,” Casamento added.

Fundraising for Tikehau’s second credit secondaries vehicle kicked off in 2023. The pace accelerated last year as the global credit secondaries market exploded. According to Evercore, transaction volume grew from USD 5.8bn in 2024 to USD 20bn in 2025.

Despite the surge in market activity, Casamento argued that it was not a primary driver of the fundraise. Rather, Tikehau was able to point to an established track record in credit secondaries when speaking with LPs, he noted.

This played well particularly with institutional LPs, who grew to make up a larger portion of the fund’s investor base compared to family offices, which were prominent in TPDS I.

These investors frequently have exposure to either private equity secondaries or existing private credit commitments, Casamento added. In that context, credit secondaries can serve as a useful complement.

As for private credit’s ongoing market tumult, Casamento noted that there is typically a lag between public and private markets – let alone secondaries. Still, he argued that the asset class will need broadly to “disprove” investors’ concerns.

Against that background, he sees a key role for secondaries investors.

“This is a year where we have to continue to show that we can still find opportunities that are interesting and priced well that offer an attractive risk-return,” said Casamento.