Spotlight: Cliffwater and the Interval Fund Platform Behind CCLFX

Cliffwater built the first published direct lending benchmark years before it launched a fund, and that research now underpins a private markets interval fund platform the firm reports at $44.6 billion in net assets.

October 16, 2026

Cliffwater LLC is an alternative investment adviser and fund manager in Marina del Rey, California. Stephen Nesbitt founded it in 2004 and remains CEO. The firm built the Cliffwater Direct Lending Index (CDLI), the first published benchmark for direct lending, and spent years advising pension plans, endowments, foundations, and financial institutions on private markets before it launched a fund. According to the firm, its private markets interval fund platform had $44.6 billion in net assets as of July 31, 2026, the largest such platform in the market, and includes the two largest credit interval funds.

The Cliffwater Direct Lending Index

Cliffwater first published the CDLI in 2015, with data reconstructed back to September 2004 from the SEC filings of business development companies. The index is asset-weighted and is recalculated each quarter from BDC financial statements. As of mid-2026, Cliffwater reports that it covers more than 23,000 directly originated U.S. middle market loans totaling $553 billion. The firm has since added sub-indices, including CDLI-P for perpetual BDCs and CWBDC for public BDCs. Nesbitt also wrote Private Debt: Opportunities in Corporate Direct Lending, published by Wiley.

Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund (CCLFX)

CCLFX launched on June 5, 2019, and runs a multi-lender model: it allocates across more than 30 investment partners instead of originating loans itself. As of August 31, 2026, Cliffwater reports that the fund held more than 4,000 underlying credits, with 96% first-lien exposure, an average loan-to-value of 40%, and $31.1 billion in net assets.

The fund needs no subscription agreement and has no investor qualification standards. RIAs and institutions buy shares daily by ticker, with a $10 million minimum at the firm level. NAV is struck daily, repurchase offers are quarterly at no less than 5% of shares outstanding, and tax reporting is on a 1099-DIV. Disclosed total fees and expenses are 3.20%, as of July 29, 2026. That total includes a 1.00% management fee and 1.68% in fees and interest on borrowings. In November 2025, S&P Global Ratings assigned CCLFX an A issuer credit rating, which Cliffwater describes as the first public rating of an interval fund.

Enhanced lending and private equity

Cliffwater Enhanced Lending Fund (CELFX) launched in 2021 for private credit outside traditional senior direct lending. The firm describes it as weighted toward asset-backed lending, alongside second-lien, venture, specialty finance, royalty, litigation, and structured equity lending. Cliffwater marked the fund's five-year anniversary in July 2026. It described CELFX then as the second-largest private credit interval fund and reported 12% annualized net returns since inception.

Cliffwater also took over as investment adviser to Cascade Private Capital Fund (CPEFX) and restructured it as a private capital interval fund with daily NAV and ticker-based trading. CPEFX passed $5 billion in net assets in January 2026. Liz Campbell has led the fund as head of private equity and lead portfolio manager since August 2025.

A real assets fund in development

Cliffwater filed for Cascade Real Assets Fund in February 2026. Sean Brenan, previously global head of Goldman Sachs's real estate secondaries, primaries, and co-investment platform, joined in June as head of real estate and portfolio manager. Ryan Madani joined as a managing director in August. Sam Walsh followed later that month from GIC, where he had been head of multifamily and retail in North America. Cliffwater says it has allocated about $19 billion to real assets for its institutional clients.

TA Associates first invested in Cliffwater in 2023. In April 2025, TPG, through TPG Growth, and Temasek agreed to make a substantial minority investment, and Cliffwater's management kept majority control.

The index at mid-2026

Cliffwater released CDLI's mid-year results in August 2026. The index returned 3.0% for the first half of the year and 7.7% for the trailing year ending June 30. The firm reports nearly 22 years of CDLI returns averaging 9.5%, with 2008 the only negative year. The release also covered software loans, which the index marked down 3% in the first quarter and by less than 1% in the second. Cliffwater reads that pattern as a sign that private loan valuations may already account for the potential effect of AI on defaults.