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NEW YORK, Sept 23 Reuters KKR Co has raised 4.6 billion for its debut fund focused on midsized deals in North America despite a difficult fundraising environment as high interest rates dampened investors39; appetite for debtdriven buyouts, the U.S. private equity firm told Reuters on Monday.

New Yorkbased KKR, which had 601 billion in assets under management as of the end of June, has been attempting to raise capital at a difficult time for fundraising for large buyout firms.

KKR is also planning to raise 20 billion for its latest flagship North America private equity fund, Reuters reported in June.

Some investors, or limited partners, have been reluctant to make new commitments to private equity firms, which have struggled to return capital as persistently high interest rates have made selling companies to other buyout firms or refinancing companies challenging.

We are in the context of a really difficult fundraising environment, but we blew past our target, and we could have raised a lot more capital than the hard cap. It39;s a real validation that we are differentiated, Pete Stavros, KKR39;s global cohead of private equity, said in an interview.

Private equitybacked deal volumes, however, are expected to bounce back in the near term, after the Federal Reserve cut U.S. borrowing rates last…