This article originally appeared on BusinessDay.

The tidal wave of distributions flowing back to limited partners (LPs) over the past five years has left many significantly underweight in their allocations to private equity, historically their best-performing asset class.

But, as we discuss in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2016, new private equity funds are closing faster and the share of those that met or exceeded their fundraising targets was higher than at any time since the pre-crisis boom of 2007.

As a direct result, many LPs have been turning to novel ways to invest in private equity.

The expanding penumbra of shadow capital

Co-investing alongside a general partner (GP) or making direct investments that bypass a GP entirely are two fast-developing approaches that are growing in popularity with LPs. This shadow capital does not figure in the totals raised by private equity funds, but it is having a big influence on GP-LP relations and the evolution of the industry overall. LPs like co-investing because anteing up additional capital can buy them access to an elite GP — or squeeze concessions from one with middling performance — by putting money in its new fund and then writing another cheque that lets the LP ride shotgun with the fund while paying a far lower fee to the GP, taking a smaller bite out of returns.

Read the full article at BusinessDay.

Hugh MacArthur and Graham Elton are leaders of Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group. Andrei Vorobyov is a Bain & Company partner based in Johannesburg where he leads Africa’s Private Equity and M&A Practices.