Private Equity 3d Briefing
×Last updated: March 12, 2026, 4:32 AM ET
Fundraising Surge Continues Amid AI Frenzy
Venture capital mega-funds are making a comeback, with General Catalyst rumored to be raising $10 billion techcrunch.com and Spark Capital targeting $3 billion techcrunch.com, following a wave of large closes. This follows Bain Capital securing $12.5 billion pe-insights.com across its latest Asia and Japan buyout vehicles, underscoring continued institutional appetite for private markets. The fervor is fueled by an AI-driven unicorn boom, with almost 40 new unicorns minted techcrunch.com this year and Legora’s $550 million Series D news.crunchbase.com valuing the Swedish legal AI platform at $5.55 billion. The trend extends to science-focused investing, where Breakout Ventures raised $114 million techcrunch.com to back early-stage startups in biology and chemistry, finding growing success beyond pure software plays.
AI Investment Shifts from Hype to Measurable Outcomes
The venture community is recalibrating around agentic AI news.crunchbase.com, prioritizing startups that demonstrate real production usage and revenue over flashy demos. This pragmatic turn coincides with staggering capital commitments to foundational AI research, exemplified by the $1 billion seed round for Paris-based AMI news.crunchbase.com, Europe’s largest ever, to build AI "world models." The infrastructure build-out is massive, with Nscale set to deliver $14 billion of compute capacity sifted.eu to meet demand. Meanwhile, Khosla Ventures’ Ethan Choi news.crunchbase.com notes a philosophical flip toward founder-first investing and warns that AI could displace entry-level jobs, highlighting the technology’s disruptive potential across the economy.
Secondaries Market Hits Record Volume Amid Strategic Evolution
GP-led secondaries activity hit an all-time high in 2025 secondariesinvestor.com, though record growth hasn’t necessarily translated to limited partner satisfaction with process efficiency. Firms are adapting, with Lindsay Goldberg plotting a build-out secondariesinvestor.com of its continuation vehicle strategy and Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance forming a partnership secondariesinvestor.com with Jasmin Capital to focus on co-control deals. The market’s scale was validated by EQT leading a record €5.5 billion ($6 secondary exit pe-insights.com in Swiss biopharma group Galderma. Furthermore, CVC Capital Partners secured €3.7 billion pe-insights.com in financing for its Global Sport Group, backed by KKR and Pimco, showcasing the use of structured debt in large portfolio company financings.
Blockbuster Exits and Strategic Divestments
Major exits are accelerating, with CVC reporting €21.9 billion in realised exits privateequityinternational.com for 2025—a 77% increase year-on-year. TPG completed a $4.75 billion sale pehub.com of data center platform Intersect to Google, while Monomoy Capital agreed to buy Jiffy Lube pehub.com from Shell in a $1.3 billion deal, betting on the automotive services sector. Blackstone took a majority stake pehub.com in Advanced Cooling Technologies, an aerospace and defense supplier, and alongside Blue Owl, bought a minority stake in the $16 billion industrial platform Atlas Holdings pehub.com. In a separate move, Blackstone tapped Citi pe-insights.com for a potential $1 billion sale of Shya Hsin Packaging, exploring portfolio pruning.
Healthcare Consolidation Drives Add-On Activity
Healthcare services remained a hotbed of add-on acquisitions, led by Riverglade-backed Dynamic Access acquiring Picc Stat pehub.com, a family-owned vascular access provider. Chicago Pacific Founders invested in Nexben pehub.com, a Minneapolis-based healthcare benefits manager, while NorthEdge Capital-backed Ramarketing picked up ISR Market Research pehub.com, a pharma outsourcing specialist. The sector’s resilience was noted by Auréa’s Aparna Aiyar pehub.com, who highlighted beauty and founder-led brands as resilient areas within consumer discretionary. Further afield, BV Investment backed Moxe Health pehub.com, a clinical data exchange platform, and Lone Star agreed to buy Lonza’s Capsules and Health Ingredients division pehub.com from the Swiss life sciences giant.
Industrial and Technology Add-Ons Span Sectors
Industrial add-ons were prevalent across sub-sectors. Chimney Rock acquired Gas Clip Technologies pehub.com, a supplier of portable gas detection systems for industrial and marine markets. AE Industrial’s AIM MRO bought AA Bushings pehub.com, its fourth add-on in aerospace maintenance parts. Hyper