Private Equity 24 Hours

Last updated: September 11, 2026, 10:16 PM ET

Mega-Rounds Dominate a Monster Week

It was a blockbuster stretch for U.S. startup funding, with four companies each raising $1bn or more in a single week. The Boring Co. led the pack with a $3bn Series D, trailed by AI coding startup Cognition at $2bn, while Motive rounded out the top tier. The concentration of capital into a handful of names underscores how aggressively late-stage investors are crowding into perceived category winners even as earlier-stage dealmaking stays subdued.

Khosla Ventures Heads East

Khosla Ventures is opening a New York office this fall, its first outpost beyond Sand Hill Road, with partner Keith Rabois noting the space is "actually allegedly being built out now." The Manhattan expansion signals the firm's push to be closer to East Coast founders and capital. Meanwhile, Y Combinator's Garry Tan is urging American open-weight AI labs to distill frontier models, arguing the U.S. needs a robust non-Chinese set of open-weight options. On the events front, Tech Crunch Disrupt 2026 organizers issued a final call for Side Event applications, closing September 11 at 11:59 p.m. PT, while exhibitors have just one week left to secure tables before the September 18 deadline.

Healthcare and Fertility Roll-Ups Accelerate

Avesi Partners-backed Danforth Health acquired rare disease consultancy Ambit RD, which brings AI-powered analytics for patient identification to the platform. The deal reflects growing PE appetite for specialist services that help biopharma navigate commercial challenges in rare and specialty markets. In fertility care, InTandem Capital's Ivy Fertility acquired the Santa Barbara Fertility Center, founded in 2008 by reproductive endocrinologist Rene Allen, who will continue practicing as the clinic joins Ivy's expanding network. Separately, PE interest in life sciences software is intensifying, with Ardian, Bregal Sagemount, Riverside and Thoma Bravo among firms targeting the sector across eight notable deals, drawn by regulatory pressures and AI opportunities.

Industrial and Energy Exits

Bluejay Capital's Pacific West acquired Coleman Industrial Construction, a 1979-founded provider of construction, renovation, environmental and maintenance services for rail and industrial facilities serving Class I railroads. In renewables, Excelsior Energy Capital exited two utility-scale solar plants to Enel: the Faraday and Skyhawk facilities in Utah and Tennessee, both backed by long-term power purchase agreements with Pacifi Corp and the Tennessee Valley Authority. On the automotive software side, Main Capital Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake in VWE Automotive, a provider of software, data and transaction services for the sector, in a deal announced alongside HOF Capital's automotive bets.

Software Buyouts and Private IPOs

Bending Spoons agreed to acquire workplace collaboration platform Miro in an all-cash deal valuing the business at an enterprise value of $1.355bn, extending its buy-and-hold software playbook. In Europe, Francisco Partners and KKR agreed terms to acquire minority stakes in Italian software group Team System from main backer Hellman & Friedman, in what Reuters described as a private IPO structure. Accel-KKR agreed to take London-listed construction software group Eleco private in a recommended all-cash deal valuing the company at approximately £207.6m, delisting it from AIM.

Asian and European Deal Flow

CVC entered final talks to acquire the mainland China operations of contact lens maker Ginko International from EQT for up to $800m, according to Reuters, citing four people familiar with the matter. In Korea, Korea Post is seeking domestic blind-pool PE funds for 2026 and looks to commit 240bn Korean won to the strategy. In climate software, carbon accounting startup Greenly acquired competitor Normative in a €65m deal, consolidating a crowded European market for emissions measurement tools.

Fundraising and LP Appetite

EQT launched an evergreen fund to open its Asia platform to wealth investors, part of a broader push by mega-managers to tap private wealth capital. Connecticut is scouting opportunity in smaller GPs amid its PE buildout, with the system potentially expanding growth equity exposure that currently sits below its target allocation. On the venture side, US fund First Mark argued that Europe is underrated among American investors right now, while a wave of European founders have set up their own venture funds, reshaping the continent's early-stage landscape. Sifted also profiled the 10 most capital-efficient startups in DACH and CEE, and mapped the Sequoia venture scouts hunting for deals across Europe.

Sovereignty, Defence and AI Moats

Mistral's monster fundraise has reignited debate over whether European sovereignty is genuinely served by mega-rounds into homegrown AI champions. In defence tech, European scaleups face persistent funding gaps as they try to accelerate innovation and scale manufacturing. On strategy, Mighty Capital's SC Moatti argues AI itself is no longer a durable differentiator and that the strongest startup moats are counter-positioning and network economies. In healthcare staffing, Incredible Health co-founder Iman Abuzeid left clinical medicine to build a hiring platform that reverses traditional recruiting by having employers apply to healthcare workers — a model attracting fresh attention as labor shortages persist.