Private Equity 24-Hour Briefing
×Last updated: November 2, 2026, 10:40 PM ET
Venture & AI Funding
Trajectory raised $45M techcrunch.com to make AI model training accessible to nontechnical experts, lifting the one-year-old startup to a $300 million valuation. Creandum closed a $750m fund sifted.eu, its largest to date, to back the AI boom. Record venture funding in 2026 is becoming increasingly concentrated news.crunchbase.com in massive AI rounds, leaving fewer checks for everyone else. Hypersonica raised €100m sifted.eu from Lightspeed and General Catalyst as missile defence demand accelerates.
Buyouts & Control Deals
Stonepeak completed its acquisition peinsights.substack.com of a 65% controlling stake in Castrol from bp, a transaction that carries roughly $6bn of bank financing. In Australia, Stonepeak finalized its purchase peinsights.substack.com of Estia Health as Bain exited its position in the aged care operator. Lazard closed its acquisition peinsights.substack.com of Campbell Lutyens and merged it into a new Lazard CL platform.
Infrastructure & Credit
Blackstone leads a $3.1bn investment peinsights.substack.com by a Canadian investor group into Mitsubishi's stake in LNG Canada, pairing global capital with domestic partners. Apollo launched European Credit Company peinsights.substack.com, a standalone lending platform with $11.5bn of capacity. AE Industrial closed an $850m continuation vehicle peinsights.substack.com for the Blue Raven asset, led by Lexington.
Fund Formation & Sustainability
I Squared and ADIA backed Avolon's peinsights.substack.com new aircraft leasing platform with a $1.4bn seed portfolio. Eurazeo was appointed peinsights.substack.com to manage a $40m nature allocation backed by Bof A and King Charles' Sustainable Markets Initiative. Apollo took a minority stake peinsights.substack.com in Mubadala Capital, one of several deals featured in this week's private equity roundup.
Ecosystem & Startup Hubs
Enduro Sat has become Bulgaria's satellite unicorn sifted.eu, putting Sofia on the global tech map. London was named the best global hub sifted.eu for launching an AI company. Investors also highlighted a shortlist of photonics startups sifted.eu to watch, while founders debated how to prove AI ROI sifted.eu to enterprise buyers.
Coming Up
The TechCrunch Founder Summit techcrunch.com takes place November 4 in Boston.