By Chibuike Oguh

(Reuters) – Buyout firm KKR & Co (NYSE:) Inc said on Monday it has raised $19 billion from investors for its latest flagship North America private equity fund, its biggest fund ever.

KKR stated that the fund contains $2 billion in investments by employees and affiliates, as well as funds from its balance sheet. Sources told Reuters that the fund attracted $24 trillion in investment commitments, but KKR scaled it down to allow it to deploy capital more selectively.

The fund, KKR North America Fund XIII (formerly KKR North America Fund XII), will invest in businesses in various sectors including financial services and healthcare.

The $17.6billion KKR 2006 Fund was the previous largest fund. This is the first time that Pete Stavros (and Nate Taylor) have raised a fund. They were co-heads for KKR Americas’ private equity division in 2019.

KKR reported that the current KKR Americas XII Fund had a net rate of return (41.9%) at the close of 2017. It received $13.9 Billion from investors.

Stavros stated in an interview that “the approach that we have found to work for us has been to find businesses we believe we can take up to another level and working across the company to take them to greatness.”

KKR stated that it will implement its employee stock-ownership program in all companies in which the fund holds a majority share. The program has awarded stock to more than 45,000 employees in 25 KKR-backed businesses, according to the New York-based company.

Stavros who created the program for KKR stated, “What began out in our industrial investments are now the standard operating procedure across all private equity control investments of ours in North America.”

KKR Americas’ private equity platform manages more than $90 trillion in assets.