Private Equity 3d Briefing
×Last updated: March 24, 2026, 3:30 AM ET
Fundraising & Secondaries Activity
European private equity fundraising showed continued momentum with Air Street Capital closing techcrunch.com a substantial Fund III, raising $232 million primarily focused on early-stage AI companies across Europe and North America, positioning it as one of the largest solo VCs on the continent closing Europe’s largest solo GP fund sifted.eu. Growth equity also saw major commitments, as Lead Edge Capital secured pe-insights.com $3.5 billion for its seventh fund dedicated to software investments. Conversely, institutional investors are actively seeking liquidity; the University of California is shopping secondariesinvestor.com a $3 billion limited partner portfolio in the secondaries market, which aligns with broader interest in liquidity solutions, evidenced by Mercer’s recent acquisition privateequityinternational.com bolstering Altamar CAM's secondaries capabilities following increased LP demand.
Dealmaking & Exits Across Sectors
Deal activity spanned defense, technology, and healthcare, though exit windows remain pressured. In the defense space, Arlington Capital agreed to purchase pehub.com Eptec Defence, a specialist in naval and defense preservation services, while Advent-backed Cobham Ultra is selling its Ultra Cyber unit pehub.com to Airbus Defence and Space, following advice that exit difficulties are leading to longer sell-side preparations and partial sales pehub.com. Healthcare saw Olympus Partners agreeing to divest pehub.com the retina business of Eye South for $1.1 billion, and in the US, Aquiline-backed Relation completed its acquisition pehub.com of Chinook Insurance Group. In the technology sector, Francisco Partners is divesting music publisher Kobalt pehub.com to Brookfield-backed Primary Wave, while Diversis scooped up fintech firm LTi pehub.com.
Sector-Specific Transactions and Portfolio Moves
Infrastructure and energy transactions remain key focuses for global players, with private equity and infrastructure funds targeting a $7 billion Kuwait pipeline deal pe-insights.com as Gulf energy transactions advance. Meanwhile, Actis finalized its investment in Southeast Asia, acquiring a 90% stake pe-insights.com in Singapore-based environmental management firm 800 Super for an undisclosed sum, bringing Actis's total deployment in the region to $1.7 billion acquiring the environmental business pehub.com. In European buyouts, One Equity completed a take-private transaction pehub.com for UK wholesale distributor Kitwave, and Apollo, alongside CVC, is acquiring a 37% minority stake pe-insights.com in packaging firm Syntegon to fuel its next growth phase.
AI Investment and Founder Dynamics
Venture capital is heavily concentrated in AI infrastructure, despite an overall slowdown in US startup funding largely attributed to a lack of massive AI rounds in March slowing overall US startup funding news.crunchbase.com. Gimlet Labs, addressing the AI inference bottleneck, successfully raised an $80 million Series A techcrunch.com for technology that allows AI workloads to run simultaneously across various chip architectures, including NVIDIA and AMD. Competition for capital is intense, as demonstrated by OpenAI offering PE firms pe-insights.com a guaranteed minimum 17.5% return to finance its AI joint venture push. Separately, the rhetoric around AI intellectual property is heating up, with the Mistral CEO sparking debate sifted.eu by proposing a 'build code, not tax' approach to copyright.
European Deep Tech and Robotics Ventures
European deep tech and specialized robotics startups continue to attract significant venture backing, albeit with some early exits raising questions about timing. A robotics spinout, Rivr, has prompted debate sifted.eu over whether its sale to Amazon occurred prematurely relative to its potential growth trajectory. In related deep tech, an Oxford spinout focusing on solving long-term memory issues in robotics secured funding sifted.eu from Amadeus Capital and OSE. Furthermore, the French-Italian VC 360 Capital raised €85 million sifted.eu for a deeptech fund receiving backing from a major European defense prime contractor. In the UK, investors are closely watching emerging companies, including those selected for the Future Fifty growth programme sifted.eu, while policymakers are urged to move beyond mere flirtation with founders and commit to concrete support sifted.eu.
Personnel Moves and Niche Market Focus
The private equity industry saw key personnel appointments and the launch of specialized firms. GTCR appointed pehub.com Donnie Phillips as Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer in its Chicago office, while ECI announced the addition pehub.com of David Danon as a new partner from Bain Capital. Meanwhile, former NFL player Terrence Murphy launched Synergy Sports Capital pehub.com and announced its debut deal, following a profile on him as a dealmaker to watch alongside other prominent figures pehub.com. In niche areas, 5(c) Capital, a new VC firm backed by the CEOs of Kalshi and Polymarket, raised a $35 million fund techcrunch.com specifically to back startups supporting the burgeoning prediction markets category. Research suggests that independent sponsors, often prioritizing greater deal selectivity and lower entry multiples, are typically seeking return multiples greater than 3x privateequityinternational.com.