Last updated: August 7, 2026, 1:44 PM ET
Mega-Deals & Take-Private Action
The biggest story of the past three days is Apollo securing a recommended cash offer for easyJet valuing the FTSE 100 airline at approximately £5.7bn, ending a fast-moving four-week bidding contest. In a separate UK development, Bodycote plc confirmed receipt of two competing conditional cash offer proposals from CVC and Veritas Capital Fund IX, with the bids valuing the heat treatment specialist at roughly £1.56bn. The rise of so-called ‘bear hugs’ in UK take-privates is on the up, as public market discounts make unsolicited approaches increasingly attractive to private equity buyers.
Across the Atlantic, Clearlake co-founder José Feliciano is nearing a record $3.9bn deal to acquire the San Diego Padres, which would mark the most expensive franchise sale in Major League Baseball history. In the healthcare sector, KKR has agreed to acquire Medicover India, the Indian hospital operations of Nasdaq Stockholm-listed Medicover AB, adding a scaled multi-specialty network of 24 hospitals to its portfolio. Meanwhile, Bain Capital is set to acquire Gong cha from TA Associates, adding the global tea beverage chain to its consumer holdings.
Credit & Private Debt
Ares Management is leading a $2.2bn direct loan to finance Med Impact Holdings' planned acquisition of Puerto Rico-based Medical Card System, according to Bloomberg. In a landmark BDC continuation vehicle, BlackRock TCP Capital has agreed to sell a $523m slab of its private credit portfolio to funds and accounts managed by Pantheon. The new vehicle will house over $500m of debt positions held by TCPC, with pricing coming in at 95% of gross fair value as of 31 December 2025.
Secondaries & Continuation Vehicles
The GP-led market's domination in the first six months of the year is being driven by more than just market volatility, with fundraising and expansion into new asset classes also fueling growth. Singapore's GIC is preparing to offload around $1bn worth of private equity fund stakes on the secondary market, according to sources cited by Bloomberg, as sovereign wealth funds keep tapping the market for liquidity. The single-asset secondaries market within infrastructure is blooming, though discipline, alignment and entry valuations remain critical to ensuring buyers secure good deals, writes Stafford's William.
Venture secondaries are heating up as G Squared has secured $2.3bn for its seventh flagship fund, which is about twice the size of its previous vehicle and took half as long to raise. VC investor Ryan Moore has closed on $78.5m for Revenant Ventures' debut fund, a regulatory filing shows, targeting VC secondaries. Carlyle chief executive Harvey Schwartz said the cyclical tailwinds buoying secondaries will persist for the ‘next several years’, as the firm increasingly views Alp Invest as more of a corporate finance business than a standalone secondaries unit. For LPs assessing quick-flip continuation vehicles, judging the asset's hold period alone is an imperfect metric, according to PE International analysis.
Fundraising & LP Activity
TPG has nabbed the lion's share of its $17bn target for TPG X and its third healthcare fund, with the two funds launched in mid-2025 as part of TPG's $94bn Capital platform for large-scale global private equity investing. In Europe, Nextalia held a first close of more than €1.1bn on Nextalia Private Equity II, pulling in commitments from over 200 investors in the five months since it opened fundraising in February, pushing the Italian platform past €3.4bn. The EQT-managed Scaleup Europe Fund has made its first investment, co-leading a €450m round into Finnish satellite imaging company ICEYE at a €10bn valuation, from its €5bn fund.
Mega-firms are largely defying fundraising and exit headwinds, according to PE International's earnings season analysis, with OMERS plotting a fivefold increase of its PE portfolio. On the LP side, New Jersey Division of Investment CIO Shoaib Khan says re-ups and new opportunities are being looked at on equal footing, despite being spared liquidity concerns in the slow exit market. Boston Retirement Systems has issued an RFP for up to a $85m private equity mandate, while Italian pension fund ENPAV has released an RFP for private equity co-investment. In Asia, MMAA looks to commit 300bn Korean won to domestic blind pool private equity and venture capital funds, and Korea Post Insurance seeks 60bn Korean won for domestic blind-pool VC funds. The Danish retirement scheme Industriens Pension favours indirect over direct investment in secondaries and has made commitments to all five infra secondaries vehicles managed by Pantheon. Hamilton Lane's co-chief Erik Hirsch said ‘evergreen hesitancy only temporary’, noting some investors have been housing capital in evergreens before redeeming to fund a Hamilton Lane SMA.
Infrastructure & Energy
LS Power has agreed to acquire the Brazos Valley gas-fired power plant from Constellation, satisfying a regulatory divestiture commitment tied to Constellation's 2025 acquisition of Calpine. Partners Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in AVK Power Solutions, a Maidenhead-based provider of power systems for data centers and AI infrastructure that has delivered more than 20,000 projects and installed approximately 3.5GW of power across Europe's FLAP-D markets. Veritas Capital is set to acquire Saber Power Services from Greenbelt, a vertically integrated power infrastructure services platform that helps customers build, modernize and maintain critical electrical systems.
Healthcare & Workforce Services
Private equity firms are increasingly targeting tech-enabled healthcare workforce services, with Accel-KKR, Bain, Knox Lane and LLR Partners among those transacting in the sector. A look at the clinical workforce services space shows private equity firms such as Accel-KKR, Bain and Knox Lane making concentrated bets on technology-driven staffing platforms. Tortuga Growth Partners has invested in Advanced eClinical Training out of its Fund I, L.P., adding to the healthcare education vertical. In the radiopharmaceuticals space, Nordic Capital has inked a deal for BWXT's nuclear medicine business valued at approximately $800m.
Consumer & Other Deals
Sunoco has agreed to acquire Court Square-backed oil transporter Offen Petroleum for $600m, which operates a fuel distribution network delivering approximately 2.5 billion gallons annually to around 7,000 customers. MPK Equity-backed Gorgeous Collective has acquired Clean Your Dirty Face, marking the first acquisition for the platform since its launch earlier in 2026. Axum Capital has agreed to acquire beverage brand Barcode, a Los Angeles-based plant-based and hydration drink company. PE-backed ContextLogic is acquiring chemicals manufacturer gChem from EagleTree for $850m, which will become Context Logic's second operating business following its early 2026 acquisition of US Salt. Copley Equity-backed FMG Leading has snapped up Broadbranch Advisors, with the deal closing at the end of July. RedBird's Affinia has added Wilson Partners in a UK accounting tie-up, with Wilson Partners advising SMEs, private individuals and PE investors across the UK. KKR-backed FGS has scooped up government affairs firm Rich Feuer Anderson, marking FGS's second acquisition of a bipartisan government affairs firm following the September 2025 acquisition of Tarplin, Downs & Young. Nexa Equity-backed Facility Grid has acquired autonomous commissioning company PingCx, introducing a new product strategy centered on three integrated offerings — FG Construct, Validate, and Sustain. Arlington-backed TRP Infrastructure has closed five add-on deals to form a new highway plastics division called Gulf Highway Materials. Ridgemont has acquired remediation services firm Entact from JFLCO, a national provider of environmental remediation and geotechnical construction services. Veritas is also set to acquire environmental consultant Trinity Consultants from Oak Hill, which Oak Hill acquired in 2021 from LLCP. Verdane has made a majority investment in Factbird, a Danish IoT and recurring software company providing manufacturing intelligence services. Advent has agreed to acquire FNZ Bank, an independent wealth management banking and infrastructure provider in Germany offering banking, custody, transaction execution and regulatory services. Thoma Bravo is selling Command Alkon to Francisco Partners, a software and platform technology provider for the heavy building materials industry. Broad Sky has grown Smith + Howard 4x before exiting to TPG, with Broad Sky CEO Tyler Zachem noting the business is durable since tax and audit advisory are needed in good and bad times. Partners Group is in talks to buy beauty biz Aroma-Zone from Eurazeo, while CVC and Veritas Capital vie for Bodycote. GSAM is lining up data center contractor Divcon for sale, which provides building management and electrical power monitoring systems to data centers and other mission-critical facilities. The music market is an ‘exceptionally active’ market, says Reed Smith's Josh Love, with PE firms like Blackstone, TPG and EQT also active in partnering with AI businesses. AI has enormous potential to improve administration, metadata management, royalty processing and licensing efficiency in the music industry, Love told PE Hub.
Corporate & Leadership Moves
Bernard Arnault has named Aymeric Le Clere as chairman and CEO of Financière Agache, the €3.1bn capital holding vehicle that anchors the Arnault family's control of LVMH, according to a filing. The reshuffle at the LVMH holding structure represents the latest in a series of leadership changes at the top of the luxury empire. Allianz posted record operating profit for the second quarter and first half of 2026, with the standout contribution coming from its asset management arm, which saw €39bn of net inflows as PIMCO and AGI pushed third-party AuM to a record €2.16tn. Carlyle's realisations drove a strong earnings quarter, with the firm's US buyout strategy distributing capital at more than double the industry rate, chief executive Harvey Schwartz noted on the firm's latest results call. Apollo, a year after acquiring a GP, downplays manager consolidation, while also backing a novel first-time fund, according to PE International's Side Letter.
Venture & Startup Activity
Active startup investors kept up the pace in July, with familiar names topping the ranks in several metrics including most prolific venture dealmakers, most active lead backers, and biggest spenders. Y Combinator's growing class of second-timers reflects a notable trend, with a dataset of 454 repeat founders revealing interesting insights about the accelerator's evolving founder base. Robinhood is listing a fund that lets anyone back Y Combinator startups, intending to let retail investors participate in early-stage venture returns. Moove has raised $250M to become the backbone of the robotaxi industry, scaling up its autonomous vehicle fleet management business with plans to someday own, not just manage, Waymo robotaxis. WindBorne Systems has raised a $37 million Series B round to scale its weather balloons and AI forecasts, betting that AI can make weather prediction both better and lucrative. Legaltech Wordsmith has raised a $14m Series B extension from Index and FT Ventures, according to Sifted. Fintech startup Moss has been crowned Europe's newest unicorn with a €30m Series C. After a decade of turning down VCs, Oxylabs has hit a $3.6bn valuation, with the founders citing 'right timing, right partner.' MagicSchool AI, founded by an educator, has raised $63M from VCs, leading off a series featuring startup founders from non-technical backgrounds who have launched successful ventures. Yann LeCun has joined a new VC firm as the prominent AI researcher adds his name to the venture world. Lendable is chasing the superapp dream, with the company noting it is 'more constrained by capacity than ideas'. A16z has 30+ venture scouts hunting for deals across Europe, according to Sifted's analysis. Pleo is facing a culture crisis with executive exodus, unhappy staff and sale speculation, according to Sifted's investigation. The UK has expanded its talent visa to more than 100 companies, broadening access to international tech talent. QMUL spinouts are looking to raise, according to Sifted. The 144 new funds this year reveal Europe's investment market pulse, according to Sifted's analysis. Europe's 50 most active equity investors in H1 2026 have been ranked by Sifted. AI is transforming physical environments and science sectors, requiring 'the bravery to change the process', according to Sifted. The top junior VCs to watch in Europe have been identified by partners, according to Sifted. 7 spots to meet founders and VCs in Paris have been highlighted by Sifted. Lightspeed found their newest hire via Instagram DM, with partners Josh Machiz and Claire Zau discussing their growing social media presence and podcast, Lightwork. The Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker shows over 127,000 workers at U.S.-based tech companies were laid off in mass job cuts in 2025, with layoffs continuing into 2026. Integrating AI into a startup's product strategy can inadvertently reduce exit value, argues tech strategic adviser Itay Sagie in a guest column for Crunchbase. The language of founder praise — from 'sweaty' to 'insanely cracked' — has been decoded by Sifted.