The Singapore buyout shop, which spun out of Standard Chartered in one of Asia's largest secondaries deals, will initially target GP-led deals in Korea.
The buyout firm is considering using the secondaries market to help it avoid overstepping concentration limits.
The US subsidiary of the Japanese financial services conglomerate will initially invest off balance sheet before launching a third-party fund.
The fund has $250m of initial capital to invest primarily in secondaries and will target high-net-worth individual investors in the US.
Declining multiples spell trouble for deals done in recent years, when valuations were at historic highs, said ex-Ardian secondaries head Vincent Gombault.
UK head Olivier Decannière and former US head Benoît Verbrugghe are among those not listed as key people on the secondaries giant's ASF IX fund, which is seeking $15bn.
The GP-leds specialist firm, which is run by three former CPP Investments professionals, has been raising a fund focusing on single-asset opportunities.
While few established secondaries firms remain independent after a glut of M&A transactions last year, more groups than ever are seeking a seat at the table in the expanding marketplace.
Oaktree's parent company, Brookfield, has opened another front in its expansion strategy, having entered the real estate and infrastructure secondaries markets beginning in 2020.
Charles Wan, whose departure from Atlantic Pacific was reported in January by Secondaries Investor, will hire up to six people to cover Asia on a primary and secondary basis.