Private Equity 24-Hour Briefing
×Last updated: October 27, 2026, 11:10 PM ET
Venture Capital Fundraising
Disruptive techcrunch.com closed a $10B fund and plans to make large bets on at least 10 companies spanning AI and defense. October SEC filings also point to heavy activity across the sector, with 8VC and Benchmark techcrunch.com among the firms raising significant new capital. Separately, Europe's Q3 funding sifted.eu tally was reported across 55 rounds.
Buyouts & Acquisitions
Guidewire techcrunch.com agreed to buy Hyperexponential for $1.7B in cash, a deal expected to close next year that will bring AI agents to insurance underwriting. Ares Capital peinsights.substack.com struck a $2.6bn deal to acquire Apollo-managed Mid Cap Financial. CVC DIF peinsights.substack.com completed the acquisition of a majority stake in the Algeciras shipyard Cernaval, while OMERS peinsights.substack.com bought an indirect minority stake in Brookfield-backed La Trobe Financial.
Fundraising & Fund Closes
Advent peinsights.substack.com raised $30bn across its global fund complex, with GPE XI beating its target and a mid-market fund debuting alongside it.
Financing & Infrastructure
Blackstone peinsights.substack.com took a second lien in a $63bn financing for Anthropic's Broadcom compute, joining Bank of America, Citi, and Morgan Stanley in the deal.
AI & Startup Valuations
Sequoia and General Catalyst sifted.eu reportedly valued an ex-police chief's AI startup at $400m. Robotics funding surged 185% in Q3 as the US and China led the physical AI push, according to Crunchbase data news.crunchbase.com. Meanwhile, European fintech founders sifted.eu are pivoting to AI for a second act, and commentary on AI agent governance news.crunchbase.com argues such systems need operational oversight akin to employees in regulated roles.
Regulation & Governance
Revolut sifted.eu faces Bank of England scrutiny over its product approval process, according to reports. Nik Storonsky's warnings about venture capital influence on founders have also drawn attention, in a piece questioning sifted.eu how dangerous VCs really are.
Sector Outlook
The used-car industry sifted.eu is being positioned as Europe's untapped asset, looking beyond the EV hype.