Private Equity 24-Hour Briefing

Last updated: November 7, 2026, 4:40 AM ET

Venture Capital Model

Sequoia is shutting down its Scouts program techcrunch.com, a move that marks the end of an era for a model the firm pioneered and many venture houses later copied. The exit also has implications across the Atlantic, as Sequoia's London retreat sifted.eu raises questions about the firm's European footprint.

Megadeals and Startup Funding

This week brought a heavy run of large rounds, with AI, defense and space technology leading the biggest raises news.crunchbase.com. General Catalyst topped the lead-investor tables news.crunchbase.com for October in a busy month for U.S. startup dealmaking. Challengers to entrenched players are also drawing attention, with analysts noting that AI chip startups can take on Nvidia's dominance news.crunchbase.com by building differentiated products.

Defence Rollups

European founders are turning to rollup strategies in defence sifted.eu, though some investors remain wary of the approach.

Buyouts and Exits

Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund have held talks on a roughly $25bn take-private of Unity peinsights.substack.com, following the EA deal. PAI and ICG are set to exit StellaGroup peinsights.substack.com as VELUX owner VKR makes an offer for the French shutters and sun protection maker.

Fundraising

Advent raised $30bn peinsights.substack.com as GPE XI beat its target, in a week that also saw a mid-market fund debut. Sagard closed a record emerging manager fund peinsights.substack.com on €520m ($600m). Ares, meanwhile, has added equity to its lending role peinsights.substack.com with Equinox, which is lining up $1bn for growth.

Coming Up

Equinox's $1bn growth raise peinsights.substack.com is in progress, and the Unity take-private talks peinsights.substack.com remain under discussion.