The amount of capital raised for debt investments nearly doubled from 2013 (21 funds, $11.3 billion) to 2014 (22 funds, $22.4 billion), according to data from IREI’s FundTracker database. In addition, the locus of debt fundraising activity has shifted from North America to Europe, and global debt funds are also on the rise.

In 2013, 13 debt funds targeting investment in North America closed with more than $5.3 billion in capital, while only nine North American debt funds closed in 2014 with total equity fundraising of nearly $4.0 billion — a 25 percent drop. And in the first four months of the year, not a single fund targeting North American debt has held a final close. Not only that, but North American debt funds went from nearly half of the total fundraising in 2013 to only 18 percent in 2014.

By contrast, capital raised by Europe-focused debt funds saw a 225 percent increase from 2013 (four funds, $2.5 billion) to 2014 (nine funds, $8.1 billion), and European fu