Private Equity 3 Days

Last updated: August 6, 2026, 2:30 AM ET

Dealmaking and Acquisitions

Bain Capital is set to acquire Gong cha, a popular tea beverage chain, from TA Associates. Veritas Capital is acquiring environmental consultant Trinity Consultants from Oak Hill. KKR-backed FGS acquired government affairs firm Rich Feuer Anderson, marking its second such acquisition. ContextLogic, backed by private equity, is acquiring chemicals manufacturer gChem from Eagle Tree for $850 million. Mutares has completed its largest deal to date, acquiring SABIC's engineering thermoplastics business in the Americas and Europe for $450 million. Ridgemont has acquired remediation services firm Entact from JFLCO. Wynnchurch-backed Trimlite acquired doormaker Barnett Millworks, expanding its market reach. Waterland has taken a majority stake in Danish industrial services firm Norisol, which posted an operating margin exceeding 13% in 2025. EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund has made its first investment, co-leading a €450 million round into Finnish satellite imaging company ICEYE at a €10 billion valuation. Nordic Capital is acquiring BWX Technologies' medical business for up to $800 million in a radiopharma bet. Apollo is acquiring Maverick Water Group, an operator of alternative non-potable water systems, from Crosstimbers Capital Group. Sheridan Capital has acquired Carolina Components Group, a provider of custom-engineered bioprocessing assemblies. KKR is set to take Integer Holdings private in a $5.7 billion all-cash transaction for the medical device company. Thoma Bravo is selling Command Alkon, a software provider for the heavy building materials industry, to Francisco Partners. Axum Capital agreed to acquire beverage brand Barcode, a plant-based hydration drink brand. AshGrove is backing 10x Banking, a provider of cloud-native core banking technology. BV Investments is backing workforce compliance service provider Thomas & Company. Wind Point Partners has acquired ECI, a managed services provider for alternative asset managers, from H.I.G. Capital. EIP OceanSound-backed Convey has acquired government and utility software company Selectron.

Fundraising and Investor Activity

CVC and Veritas Capital have both submitted competing £1.56 billion cash proposals for Bodycote plc. Met Life Investment Management has closed its third private equity fund, Met Life Investment Private Equity Partners Fund III, at approximately $1.2 billion, with Lexington Partners as the lead investor. MetLife had previously shopped a portfolio of funds and co-investments with a net asset value of $1.8 billion. Adams Street doubled its fund size with its latest flagship secondaries raise, securing $2.7 billion for Fund 8 as part of a $5 billion secondaries program. GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, is preparing to sell around $1 billion worth of private equity fund stakes on the secondary market. TPG is targeting $17 billion for its third healthcare fund, TPG X, which is part of its larger $94 billion Capital platform. Nextalia has held a first close of over €1.1 billion on its second flagship fund, Nextalia Private Equity II (NPE , attracting commitments from more than 200 investors. Apollo is roughly halfway to its target for Fund XI, which has a goal of $22 billion-$25 billion and began fundraising in February. Robinhood is launching a fund that will allow retail investors to back Y Combinator startups. VC investor Moore has closed on $78.5 million for Revenant Ventures' debut fund. The EU's €5 billion tech superfund is now officially open for business. EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund has made its first investment into ICEYE, a Finnish satellite operator, for €450 million. Lane's co-chief Erik Hirsch noted that investor hesitancy in evergreen funds is likely temporary, with some investors "housing capital" before redeeming to fund a Hamilton Lane SMA.

Market Trends and Valuations

The San Diego Padres are reportedly nearing a franchise sale to Clearlake co-founder Feliciano for a record $3.9 billion, which would be the most expensive sale in Major League Baseball history. The music industry is experiencing exceptionally active dealmaking, with some of the biggest deals the industry has ever seen, partly driven by AI's potential to improve administration, metadata management, and royalty processing. Carlyle's chief Harvey Schwartz stated that cyclical tailwinds buoying the secondaries market are expected to persist for "the next several years" and that the firm increasingly views Alp Invest as a corporate finance business rather than a standalone secondaries unit. Carlyle's US strategy has been distributing capital at more than double the industry rate. Private equity firms are showing growing interest in the US naval sector, with the US Navy budget exceeding $300 billion. European robotics startup sector has seen more funding in the first six months of the year than in the previous two years combined. Global venture funding reached $65 billion in July, a 100% year-over-year increase, with July marking a record number of billion-dollar venture rounds. AI is impacting various sectors, with companies like Wind Borne Systems raising $37 million for its weather prediction balloons and AI forecasts. Legaltech startup Wordsmith has raised a $14 million Series B extension from Index and FT Ventures. Fintech startup Moss has achieved unicorn status with a €30 million Series C funding round. Oxylabs, after a decade of declining VC interest, has reached a $3.6 billion valuation. Menlo Ventures' Matt Murphy highlighted that AI is driving the firm toward larger deals and sees significant opportunities in the next wave of AI development. Tech strategic adviser Itay Sagie argues that while integrating AI can enhance a startup's valuation, it can inadvertently reduce exit value.

Strategic Partnerships and AI Integration

Lightspeed partners Josh Machiz and Claire Zau discussed their firm's social media strategies and podcast, Lightwork, on the Equity studio. EQT has partnered with Finnish satellite imaging company ICEYE, backing the operator at a valuation of €10 billion. Clearlake has partnered with OpenAI, joining other PE firms like Blackstone, TPG, and EQT that have been active in partnering with AI businesses. Njord Partners' Arvid Trolle emphasized that AI is a "natural part" of how the firm operates and a "key part" of operational improvements, noting resilience in the value segment and exit market. Graphite's Mike Tilbury suggests that the rise of AI content could lead to a re-rating of data assets with "rights-clean" data, as these inputs are critical for AI development. Marc Benioff-backed startup, June, has raised $20 million to simplify AI adoption. Nscale will provide compute resources to AI researchers at Oxford, UCL, and Imperial. Y Combinator startups will be accessible to retail investors through a new fund on Robinhood. The article "How to build secure and user-friendly AI: ‘If data sits in a silo, it only sees part of the picture’" discusses the importance of integrated data for AI development.

Venture Capital and Startup Ecosystem