Private Equity 3d Briefing
×Last updated: March 13, 2026, 5:30 PM ET
Secondaries Market Surge
The global secondaries market is experiencing unprecedented activity, with deal volume hitting an all-time high in 2025 according to new data, even as LPs express process concerns secondariesinvestor.com. General Atlantic secondariesinvestor.com has entered the fray, partnering with placement agent Clipway to target $1 billion for a fund focused on growth equity and late-stage venture capital, a significant move by a major growth-stage investor. The European market is particularly robust, with participants noting "who isn’t selling?" amid a bustling environment featuring high-profile transactions like EQT’s record $5.5 billion pe-insights.com secondary exit from Swiss dermatology firm Galderma. This boom is driving structural innovation, as firms like W Capital Partners secondariesinvestor.com champion structured solutions to keep assets within flagship funds, while Lindsay Goldberg secondariesinvestor.com plots a dedicated continuation vehicle strategy. Meanwhile, Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance and Jasmin Capital secondariesinvestor.com formed a partnership specifically targeting co-control deals where GPs sell partial stakes via M&A while rolling remainder into continuation vehicles.
AI and Tech Investment Frenzy
Artificial intelligence continues to dominate venture capital and private equity check-writing, with a surge in funding for applied AI and robotics startups. A busy week saw AI, robotics, and e-commerce news.crunchbase.com top the largest global funding rounds, while February data revealed robotics and semiconductor startups quietly added the most new unicorns news.crunchbase.com. Notable deals include humanoid robotics maker Sunday reaching a $1.15 billion valuation techcrunch.com to build household robots and workflow automation platform Gumloop landing $50 million from Benchmark techcrunch.com to empower employees as AI agent builders. The investment calculus is sharpening; as noted in a recent analysis, VCs are recalibrating around agentic AI news.crunchbase.com, prioritizing startups with demonstrable production usage and revenue over flashy demos. This trend extends to specialized science, with Breakout Ventures raising a $114 million fund techcrunch.com to back AI-driven biology and chemistry startups. The sector's gravity is pulling in major PE firms, with Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman exploring an AI joint venture with Anthropic pe-insights.com, highlighting the blurring lines between venture and private equity in the AI infrastructure race.
Sector-Specific Deployments and Buyouts
Private equity is deploying capital across a diverse array of niche sectors, from women’s health to critical infrastructure. In healthcare, firms including Ardian, Charterhouse, CVC, and L Catterton pehub.com are active across various women’s health segments, while Owkin spinout Waiv raised $33 million sifted.eu to scale AI-powered medical testing. Industrial and manufacturing deals were prevalent, including Quadrivio Group’s acquisition pe-insights.com of French hair care brand Les Secrets de Loly, Norea Capital’s buy pehub.com of metal panel manufacturer Metalunic, and Chimney Rock’s purchase pehub.com of gas detection services supplier Gas Clip Technologies. The data center and HVAC sector is seeing PE firms hit high multiples pehub.com in refrigeration and structural design plays, driven by AI compute demand. Infrastructure remained a magnet, with ArcLight acquiring a 50% stake pehub.com in a 5.4 GW gas power portfolio and I Squared Capital nearing $10 billion pe-insights.com for its flagship infrastructure fund. Several firms also made platform investments, such as AE Industrial’s AIM MRO buying AA Bushings pehub.com and Riverglade-backed Dynamic Access acquiring Picc Stat pehub.com.
Exit Strategies, Fundraising, and Platform Building
Exits and fundraising activity provided mixed signals. CVC reported a record year privateequityinternational.com, realizing €21.9 billion in exits in 2025—a 77% increase year-over-year—while TPG completed a $4.75 billion sale pehub.com of Intersect to Google. Blockbuster secondary sales continued, with EQT leading the $5.5 billion Galderma exit pe-insights.com. On the fundraising front, I Squared Capital neared the $10 billion mark pe-insights.com for its infrastructure fund, and UVC Partners raised €77 million sifted.eu for a new growth fund, marking a move into multi-stage investing. However, the market for new mega-funds appears selective, with rumors swirling about General Catalyst raising $10 billion techcrunch.com and Spark Capital $3 billion, while other firms face a slower grind. Strategic portfolio building was evident as Blackstone and Blue Owl Capital bought a minority stake pehub.com in the $16 billion private equity platform Atlas Holdings, providing growth capital to the industrial holding company. This follows a shorter hold period exit, as E2P sold Furlani Foods to Arbor Investments pehub.com after a three-year hold where operational goals were met faster than planned.
Regulatory Scrutiny and Market Risks
Heightened regulatory and market risks surfaced across multiple fronts. Deutsche Bank disclosed €26 billion ($30 in private credit exposure pe-insights.com as it plans an expansion, even as Partners Group chair Steffen Meister warned pe-insights.com that default rates in private credit could rise due to AI-driven market reshaping. In Europe, EU Inc. criticized leaked plans sifted.eu for the proposed 28th regime as insufficient, potentially impacting fund structuring. A significant governance dispute made headlines as Allica Bank’s founder sued an investor sifted.eu for "unfair prejudice," highlighting tensions in portfolio companies. The evolving DC pension landscape also drew attention, with a US pension fund banning private markets privateequityinternational.com from its DC portfolio, a move that could have broader implications for capital access. These developments coincide with a re-evaluation of strategies, as evidenced by Cliffwater’s CIO calling for a reconsideration secondariesinvestor.com of NAV "squeezing" practices in secondaries and Hamilton Lane’s analysis privateequityinternational.com showing early outperformance by evergreen funds over closed-end peers, a structure gaining traction.