(Bloomberg) -- Phoenix Merchant Partners has raised more than $900 million for a private credit strategy aimed at mid-size companies not backed by private equity firms.

The strategy will focus on lending to companies in the industrials, telecom, health care and energy transition sectors, among others, with between $20 million and $100 million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to Phoenix Chief Executive Art Mbanefo.

“We see significant unmet financing needs among unsponsored businesses in the middle market,” Mbanefo, an Orix Corp. and Barclays Plc veteran who founded Phoenix Merchant last year, said in a press release. The firm will invest across the capital structure, he added in an interview.

Phoenix Merchant is continuing to build out its team as it starts to deploy capital. It recently added Adrian Macedo as head of investments, according to the release. Macedo was previously at Orix, where he was a managing director.

Julia Henderson, previously head of portfolio management at Stable Corp., is set to join Feb. 1.

Phoenix closed its first financing to Gryphon Holdings, a reinsurance company, earlier this month, according to the release.

(Updates with information on new hires beginning in fourth paragraph)

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