It’s no secret that it has become more difficult for traditional private equity firms to raise captive funds. In fact, California Public Employees’ Retirement System is looking to further reduce its number of private equity relationships by up to two-thirds. The harder fundraising environment, coupled with investment restraints and increased reporting requirements, has led more investment professionals to complete deals on a deal-by-deal basis as independent sponsors. The independent sponsors’ efforts are making more of an impression on the deal business than ever before. Traditional private equity firms are working with independent sponsors to generate deal flow and traditional limited partners that more often want to invest directly into companies are also seeing the benefits of working with independent sponsors. Mergers & Acquisitions Magazine convened a special roundtable to discuss the benefits and challenges of working with independent sponsors. Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP sponsored the event and the excerpted discussion that follows provides a range of perspectives from key players in the industry. Participants included traditional private equity investors, an investment banker, a fundless sponsor, a family office investor and a lawyer.