Private Equity 24-Hour Briefing
×Last updated: October 29, 2026, 4:10 PM ET
Take-Privates and Large Buyouts
Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management and Flynn Group have made a $7.35-a-share proposal peinsights.substack.com for Wendy's, teaming up with Blue Five Capital in an offer to take the fast-food chain private. Separately, Thrive Holdings, the vehicle linked to Jared Kushner, has agreed a $15.3bn all-cash deal peinsights.substack.com to buy ADT, with Apollo providing the financing for the US home security company.
Exits and Portfolio Deals
Carlyle and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have sold Black Sea Oil & Gas peinsights.substack.com to former portfolio company Mazarine, marking a return to a familiar buyer. I Squared Capital has agreed to acquire Orizon Aerostructures peinsights.substack.com, the Kansas City-based aerospace components maker. Blackstone Strategic Partners has bought into a $1.3bn co-investment portfolio peinsights.substack.com at a discount of roughly 20%, a sign that secondary buyers are still finding value in private assets.
Venture Funding and Valuations
Dream, a startup founded by former Palantir executives, has raised $17M from a16z techcrunch.com to build AI world models for construction. In Europe, Fractile has raised £540m in a Series C round sifted.eu, according to filings. A fintech that was not actively fundraising still closed a $90m round sifted.eu at an $800m valuation. Deeptech startup MuRay has raised €7.1m sifted.eu to inspect rocket engines, while Bleu Robotics has raised $5m sifted.eu for industrial humanoids.
Startup Market Dynamics
Crunchbase data shows Series B funding is up this year, with investors pouring around $48 billion into startups, yet fewer deals are closing news.crunchbase.com. Meanwhile, AI megarounds are masking a squeeze on seed startups news.crunchbase.com, as the Series A market shrinks beneath them. Norway's Investinor is raising a new LP fund sifted.eu amid a broader European push to back scaleups.
Fund Strategy and Leadership
CVC's debut credit secondaries strategy has moved past its fundraising target pei-secondariesinvestor.com, while LGT Capital Partners has named a secondaries leader as its new CEO pei-secondariesinvestor.com.
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