Private Equity 3 Days

Last updated: August 5, 2026, 11:30 AM ET

Private Equity Dealmaking and Investments

Veritas is set to acquire the environmental consultant Trinity Consultants from Oak Hill. Oak Hill purchased Trinity in 2021 from LLCP. Thoma Bravo agreed to sell a majority stake in Command Alkon to Francisco Partners. Command Alkon is a software platform serving the heavy building materials industry, which Thoma Bravo has been transforming with a focus on cloud and AI. Francisco Partners has also agreed to acquire a majority stake in Command Alkon from Thoma Bravo. Mutares has completed its largest deal to date, acquiring SABIC's engineering thermoplastics business in the Americas and Europe for $450 million. This business, which will be rebranded Nex Point Materials, employs approximately 2,800 people and generates around $2.5 billion in annual revenue. Ridgemont has acquired Entact, an environmental remediation and geotechnical construction services firm, from JFLCO. Wynnchurch-backed Trimlite acquired Barnett Millworks, a doormaker, expanding its reach into the Southeast market. Wind Point Partners has acquired ECI, a managed services provider for alternative asset managers, from H.I.G. Capital. EIP OceanSound-backed Convey have acquired Selectron, a provider of government and utility software. Axum Capital agreed to acquire Barcode, a plant-based hydration drink brand. BV Investments is backing Thomas & Company, a workforce compliance service provider, to support its growth. Sheridan Capital has acquired Carolina Components Group, a provider of custom-engineered bioprocessing assemblies. KKR is set to acquire Integer Holdings, a medical device company, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $5.7 billion. KKR also plans to acquire a 50% stake in Total Energies' European onshore solar and wind business for €1.8 billion. This follows KKR's $1.25 billion acquisition of Total Energies' North American solar business in late 2025. Waterland has taken a majority stake in Norisol, a Danish provider of technical insulation, scaffolding, and marine solutions, which expects revenue to exceed DKr1 billion in 2026. TSG Consumer has acquired a majority stake in the body care brand Saltair. Nordic Capital is acquiring BWX Technologies' medical isotopes business for up to $800 million.

Major Transactions and Valuations

Silver Lake and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia have finalized their $55 billion all-cash acquisition of Electronic Arts, marking the largest leveraged buyout on record. Permira has agreed to sell Bio Catch, a fraud intelligence provider protecting over 760 million consumers, to Visa for $2.4 billion. CVC and Partners Group are exiting their investment in Żabka Group, Poland's largest convenience retailer, with Alimentation Couche-Tard making an $8.6 billion bid. EnCap Flatrock sold Momentum Midstream, which operates a large natural gas system, to Williams for $5.5 billion. Clearlake co-founder Behdad Eghbali is reportedly nearing a record $3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres, which would be the most expensive franchise sale in Major League Baseball history. PE-backed ContextLogic is acquiring chemicals manufacturer gChem from Eagle Tree for $850 million, making it Context Logic's second operating business. EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund has invested €450 million in ICEYE, a Finnish satellite imaging company valued at €10 billion. Met Life Investment Management has closed its third managed secondary transaction, raising approximately $1.2 billion for its private equity partners fund, with Lexington Partners as the lead investor. This follows a portfolio of funds and co-investments with a net asset value of $1.8 billion that Met Life had been marketing.

Venture Capital and Startup Funding

Robinhood is launching a new fund that will allow retail investors to invest in startups backed by Y Combinator. VC investor Ryan Moore has closed on $78.5 million for Revenant Ventures' debut fund. Global venture funding reached $65 billion in July, a 100% year-over-year increase, with a record number of billion-dollar venture rounds. Menlo Ventures is deploying $3 billion in new capital, with a focus on larger AI-driven deals. Index Ventures raised a new $2 billion fund, doubling down on its AI investments. Marc Benioff-backed startup called June has raised $20 million in pre-seed funding to simplify AI adoption. WindBorne Systems which uses AI-powered weather balloons, has raised a $37 million Series B round. Magic School AI an edtech startup founded by an educator, has secured $63 million from VCs. Zurich-based Exclaim Robotics has raised $4.95 million, emerging from stealth. Plural has backed a $43 million round for battery startup Ore Energy. European robotics startups have collectively raised more funding in the first six months of the year than in the previous two years combined. HappyRobot has received backing from Andreessen Horowitz at a $1.2 billion valuation. The legaltech firm Wordsmith has raised a $14 million Series B extension. Fintech startup Moss has achieved unicorn status with a €30 million Series C round. Oxylabs, after a decade of declining VC offers, has reached a $3.6 billion valuation.

AI's Growing Influence and Impact

Artificial intelligence is becoming an integral part of investment firm operations, with Njord Partners citing AI as a "key part" of their operational improvements and a "natural part" of how the firm functions. The potential of AI to improve administrative processes, metadata management, royalty processing, and licensing efficiency in the music industry is significant, with deal activity described as "exceptionally active". However, the integration of AI into a startup's strategy can inadvertently reduce its exit value, according to strategic adviser Itay Sagie. Yann LeCun a prominent AI researcher, has joined a new venture capital firm backed by 244 limited partners. AI is also being leveraged to enhance weather prediction capabilities, as seen with Wind Borne Systems' use of AI forecasts. Nscale will provide compute resources to AI researchers at Oxford, UCL, and Imperial College London. The increasing use of AI-generated content may lead to a re-rating of data assets that are "rights-clean," meaning they have clear ownership and usage rights, according to Graphite's Mike Tilbury. The development of secure and user-friendly AI requires careful consideration of data management, as data siloed in one place only offers a partial picture.

Fundraising and Investor Activity