Private Equity 24 Hours

Last updated: August 28, 2026, 8:44 AM ET

Deal Flow

The private equity landscape shifted dramatically in the past 24 hours as Advent International and Stripe abandoned their pursuit of PayPal, ending what Bloomberg reported would have ranked among the largest leveraged buyouts on record at over $50bn. The collapse of that megadeal contrasts with Apollo's significant stake in Atlantic Aviation, a transaction valuing the private aviation infrastructure platform at nearly $10bn, with KKR doubling its money while retaining ownership. In the AI infrastructure race, Anthropic struck a $45bn deal with Nscale to rent compute capacity, while Nvidia is reportedly acquiring Hugging Face for $12.9bn in one of the sector's biggest transactions.

Mid-Market Activity

Gen Nx360 Capital Partners closed its fourth fund at $865m, exceeding its target and marking the largest fundraise in the firm's two-decade history, with a focus on lower-middle-market services buyouts. In the education space, Leeds Equity-backed engage2learn acquired Instructional Coaching Group, the Nebraska-based provider of professional development and research-based coaching frameworks. BV Investment-backed Imagenet acquired Analytica Consulting, a data firm founded in 2015 that works with US government agencies and commercial organizations across healthcare, life sciences and manufacturing. GHK-backed WSB acquired Austin-based engineering firm Foresight, which specializes in geotechnical and structural engineering and project controls.

Consumer & Healthcare

PE-backed Authentic Brands acquired the intellectual property of Drake's lifestyle brand OVO, expanding its portfolio of celebrity-linked consumer brands. In veterinary care, Great Point-backed VetnCare acquired Geary Veterinary Hospital, a nearly five-decade-old practice in Walnut Creek, California, offering wellness, preventive and diagnostic services. On the startup front, fashion company Atorie raised $9.5M to bring consumers luxury goods without the markup, sourcing from the same factories that produce high-end goods.

Fintech & Fraud Prevention

Socure secured a $156M funding round at a $5.2bn valuation, while simultaneously acquiring AI fraud investigation startup Fravity. This deal reflects broader trends in financial services tech, as AI-driven fraud reshapes the sector—including Accel-KKR-backed Basware's agreement to acquire Trustpair, pairing invoice lifecycle management with payment fraud prevention. Meanwhile, FTV Capital has made a growth investment in Kingsview Partners, the wealth management platform serving more than 15,000 households through over 100 independent registered investment advisers.

Markets & Strategy

The secondaries market could reach $1trn in volume within four years, offering a potential solution to private equity's liquidity drought. Meanwhile, investors are questioning whether the operating partner model has become an ornamental exercise, says Lee McCabe of Claymore Partners. JPMorgan's David Sweet dismisses concerns about the high valuations PE firms are paying for fire protection companies, pointing to "battleship-defensibility" of those platforms; KKR's Industrial Physics also scooped up an electrical testing firm.

European Tech

European tech funding saw its second-busiest August on record even as just three deals account for almost half of all venture capital funding in Germany this year. US venture capital firms are increasingly among the most active investors in European deals, with the most active US VCs expanding their presence across the continent.