Private Equity 24 Hours

Last updated: August 26, 2026, 9:14 PM ET

Deal Activity

Private equity dealmaking accelerated across multiple sectors, with Hull Street Energy acquiring a 1,263 MW power portfolio from Rockland Capital, including a 677 MW natural gas facility in Illinois and a 586 MW dual-fuel plant in Ohio. In the mid-market, Hidden Harbor Capital Partners bought Escape Fire Protection, a Minnesota-based fire and life safety services provider. Falfurrias-backed cap Spire expanded its commodity trading expertise with the acquisition of FinTark, a London-based CTRM consultancy focused on European energy and global metals markets. In healthcare, Radiology Partners, backed by Whistler Capital, agreed to acquire Everlight Radiology from Livingbridge, adding an international teleradiology provider with more than 800 radiologists across 40-plus countries.

Fundraising & Capital

Venture firm Capital F closed a $17M debut fund targeting the "female economy"`—markets where women drive demand across health, digital commerce, and AI tools. Step Stone doubled its target for its debut infrastructure raise to $1.5bn, bringing its total infrastructure secondaries program to $1.7bn as the firm looks to deploy into the growing asset class.

Pan-African venture firm Ventures Platform raised $84M for its second fund, expanding beyond its home market of Nigeria to back startups across a broader African geography. The firm's second fund ambitions signal growing institutional appetite for African tech despite a tough fundraising environment.

In the UK, fund managers are competing to run the £1bn Scale-up Fund, with several prominent asset managers reportedly positioning for a mandate to manage the vehicle. Meanwhile, Swiss LP adviser InPact enters infrastructure secondaries and is eyeing PE GP-leds, with founder and CEO Antoine Prudent noting the institution is also looking at real estate secondaries to expand its exposure across the alternative assets spectrum.

Sports Deals

Scarcity value is driving a surge in professional sports team deals as institutional investors increasingly see franchises as a distinct asset class. Apollo, Joshua Kushner and José E. Feliciano are among prominent investors pursuing deals, while firms including Apollo, Arctos and Blue Owl are active in the sports team market.

Professional sports team valuations climbed rapidly through 2025 and moved quickly, offering a potential hedge against broader market volatility. The deal dynamics reflect a broader trend of institutions looking beyond traditional private equity strategies.

A separate sports-related investment saw Genstar preparing to acquire First Eagle for Victory Capital Holdings in a deal valued at around $7bn, as detailed in commentary on Apollo's sports push.

Key Personnel Moves

The UK's largest private pension scheme, ISS, hired Robert Ross from CalSTRS to lead its private equity program, a significant personnel move signaling pension fund commitment to build out its private equity oversight.

Star Mountain added Adam Fitzner as managing director and strategic portfolio partner, leveraging his expertise in operational value creation to strengthen its portfolio company optimization efforts.

Secondaries and Liquidity

Markets in the secondaries segment are expanding. One report highlighted record fundraising totalling $166bn in 2024. A global survey underscores renewed buyer sentiment and shifting dynamics, as firms increasingly turn to secondaries for liquidity rather than traditional exits.

The Hong Kong family office of tycoon Peter Woo is exploring the sale of around $1bn of private equity stakes on the secondary market. The chart reflects growing appetite from wealthy families to monetize their exposure amid constrained distribution.

Texas Permanent is seeking increased leverage capacity, with a $62bn pension looking to boost its leverage facility to 15% to generate liquidity for continued commitments. The pension's move underscores an innovative approach to addressing the distribution drought.

In Australia, Pacific Equity Partners leads a four-way battle for Fleet Partners, with new bidder Sumitomo Corporation joining the fray with an A$813.1m ($582m) offer for the vehicle leasing group that has now drawn four bids. The competitive final stages indicate high demand for earning assets.

Consumer and Retail

Soho Square is closing in on the deal to acquire a significant minority stake in luxury handbag maker Strathberry, with a reported valuation of £100m. The Edinburgh-based label, known for its European aesthetic and social media presence, would benefit from Soho Square's backing strategy performance, as reported by Sky. The funding round reflects a PE focus on European luxury and lifestyle.

In Europe, the "Spotify problem" continues to strengthen Sweden's founder network as home-grown companies, including the $400M raise at a $13.3B valuation for Lovable, roughly doubling in eight months, demonstrates the power of the founder network at work in Sweden.

Payments Tech

Agentic commerce is now driving new activity in payments. Accel-KKR-backed Basware is acquiring Trustpair in a binding agreement that pairs its invoice lifecycle management with payments fraud prevention technology. Trustpair, a Nacha Preferred Partner, provides finance teams using ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle and Coupa. The combined platform is positioned for growth in the payments sector.

Separately, Apis Partners' Matteo Stefanel says financial institutions need to participate in the "lightspeed discussion between various agents" to facilitate agentic shopping transactions, potentially spurring investments in payments infrastructure.

Software purchase fraud prevention gains traction as Basware and Trustpair merge to combat invoice fraud at the API layer. The transaction is expected to support strong adoption.

Legal Tech and Operations

Legal technology funding has dropped slightly from all-time highs, but longer-term traction remains intact. In the past two years, VCs have invested over $7 billion in legal tech startups, most with an AI focus, after a record year when funding reached $4.6 billion. The breakdown from Crunchbase News shows consolidation at stake.

There is a deeper question about AI's benefit in private markets. A MIT report reveals only 5% of AI pilots succeed, suggesting that while breakthroughs occur frequently, actual operational success remains rare. In line with this, Brookfield argues that truly effective AI investing depends on operational know-how, not just models. The narrative around AI investing is driven by analysis of how real value gets generated across portfolios.

Tech & Innovation Focus

Scottish deep tech is booming. An ecosystem matures beyond university labs into startups with international scale, and the people there describe the shift positively: they argue a huge change is happening in the Scottish deeptech ecosystem. At the same time, AI's impact on private markets operations is visible in the operations transformation piece by Secondaries Investor.

A cluster of AI safety startups according VCs attracts attention. Meanwhile, university spinouts landed Tier-1 seed checks in 2026, including in deep tech, life science, and AI.

Market Structure & Data

Secondaries Investor has released a recent Research & Rankings slate highlighting trends and data points. It has identified top secondaries firms and unveiled the class of Next Gen Leaders to map the talent pool driving the industry. The Women of Influence insights detail the intersection of AI and new leadership.

The Global Market Survey offers new insights into secondary buyer sentiment, while the Private Markets 2030 outlook maps trends and expectations, including professionalization, artificial intelligence, and shifting LP preferences. The global market survey 2026 will collect real-time data.

On the legal side, the firm published its Law Firm Survey to rank top advisors in the field, with results available on the secondaries law firm.

Finally, growth and regulation in the secondaries market are attracting attention under the Editor's View, looking at how liquidity and the drive to secondary transactions across secondary markets intersect.

Geographic and Technology Trends

In Asia, Chinese private equity activity is rebounding, echoing momentum across fund managers in growth markets. Peter Woo's structure is going into secondary to extract liquidity.

Meanwhile, QIC plans co-investments and single-asset CVs in a "full liquidity crunch," seeking control. This includes part of the Fleet Partners battle, underlining ongoing Australian private equity activity.

Technology & Privacy

Meta's smart glasses incite a privacy debate at tech events, sparking industry-wide questions on whether to ban them, raising concerns on how to handle constant surveillance in startup spaces.

Conclusion

Private markets were the sum of these parts: substantial vertical-focused trades (power, healthcare compliance), the enlargement of infrastructure and secondaries platforms, fresh activity in sports entities, and the rise of AI/agentic infrastructure in operations. Players are showing unusual flexibility—perhaps an appetite for nimbleness—supported by GPs looking for control in a stricter compensation environment.

Next up: watch for team moves, including Fitzner and the latest secondaries infrastructure, to extend the asset class, to respond to the liquidity push from new capital, new talent, and new platforms.