Private Equity 24-Hour Briefing
×Last updated: October 29, 2026, 11:10 PM ET
Mega-Deals & Take-Privates
Thrive Holdings techcrunch.com, the OpenAI-backed vehicle, is buying ADT in a $15.3 billion deal. The all-cash take-private, with Apollo writing the cheque, values the US home security provider at a substantial premium. Separately, Blackstone Strategic Partners peinsights.substack.com acquired part of a $1.3bn portfolio of private co-investments at a roughly 20% discount, underscoring continued secondary-market appetite for discounted exposure. I Squared Capital peinsights.substack.com agreed to buy Kansas City-based aerostructures maker Orizon, extending its industrial portfolio.
Exits & Portfolio Sales
Carlyle and the EBRD peinsights.substack.com agreed to sell Black Sea Oil & Gas to former portfolio company Mazarine, a recycling-style exit that keeps the asset within a familiar ownership circle.
Venture Funding & Fundraising
Fractile sifted.eu raised £540m in a new Series C round, according to filings, one of the largest European raises of the period. Norway's Investinor sifted.eu is out raising a fresh LP fund of roughly NOK 200–300m as European policymakers push to close the scaleup funding gap. Dream techcrunch.com, founded by ex-Palantir executives, launched with $17M from a16z to build AI world models for construction. Deeptech startup MuRay sifted.eu raised €7.1m to inspect rocket engines, while Bleu Robotics sifted.eu raised $5m for industrial humanoids that can be deployed after roughly 20 minutes of training.
Stage-Level Dynamics
Crunchbase data shows Series B funding news.crunchbase.com rising in dollar terms, with around $48 billion invested so far this year, yet fewer deals are closing. Meanwhile, jumbo Series A rounds news.crunchbase.com driven by AI megarounds are masking a shrinking Series A market and squeezing seed-stage founders. A fintech that was not actively fundraising nonetheless closed a $90m round sifted.eu at an $800m valuation, a sign that high-quality deals still clear even in a cautious market.
Policy & Talent
Alex Depledge criticized sifted.eu the UK Budget's approach to startups, saying there is "no magic money tree" for founders after her exit from government. On talent, VCs are sharing sifted.eu how to build investment theses for early-stage deals, while founders hiring sifted.eu against warp-speed AI labs face intense competition for people. Questions also persist over whether Europe's fastest-growing startups sifted.eu are hiring the right profiles.
Coming Up
The TechCrunch Founder Summit techcrunch.com takes place on November 4, featuring founders and investors on its stages.