Last updated: August 7, 2026, 2:42 PM ET
Take-Privates & Big Deals
Apollo secured a recommended cash offer for easy Jet valuing the FTSE 100 airline at approximately £5.7bn, ending a fast-moving four-week bidding contest. The deal marks a landmark European take-private and highlights the rise of 'bear hugs' in UK public market transactions. In a separate contested process, Bodycote plc confirmed receipt of two competing conditional cash offer proposals, from CVC and Veritas Capital Fund IX, in a Rule 2.4 statement issued to the London Stock Exchange on 5 August. The heat treatment and metallurgical services provider is now the subject of a £1.56bn bidding war. Meanwhile, KKR has agreed to acquire Medicover India, the Indian hospital operations of Nasdaq Stockholm-listed Medicover AB, adding a scaled multi-specialty network to its healthcare portfolio. The Clearlake co-founder Jose Feliciano is nearing a record $3.9bn MLB deal for the San Diego Padres, which would be the most expensive franchise sale in Major League Baseball history.
Fundraising & Capital Formation
TPG has nabbed the lion's share of a $17bn target for TPG X and its third healthcare fund, launched in mid-2025 as part of TPG's $94bn Capital platform. G Squared has secured $2.3bn for its seventh flagship secondaries fund, which is about twice the size of its previous vehicle and took half as long to raise. 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 opening fundraising in February, pushing the Italian platform past €3.4bn. The EQT-managed Scaleup Europe Fund made its first investment, co-leading a €450m round into Finnish satellite imaging company ICEYE at a €10bn valuation, with the €5bn fund debuting with this landmark cheque. Mega-firms are largely defying fundraising and exit headwinds, according to learnings from the latest earnings season.
Secondaries & Liquidity
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. BlackRock TCP Capital has agreed to sell a $523m slab of its private credit portfolio to funds and accounts managed by Pantheon, with the new vehicle housing over $500m of debt positions and pricing coming in at 95% of gross fair value as of 31 December 2025. Market volatility only tells part of the story of the GP-led market's domination in the first six months of the year, with fundraising and expansion into new asset classes also driving growth. Carlyle increasingly views AlpInvest as more of a corporate finance business than a standalone secondaries unit, chief executive Harvey Schwartz said on the firm's Q2 2026 earnings call, adding that cyclical tailwinds buoying secondaries will persist for the 'next several years.' The single-asset secondaries market within infrastructure is blooming, though discipline, alignment and entry valuations remain critical to ensuring buyers bag a good deal. VC investor Ryan Moore has closed on $78.5m for Revenant Ventures' debut fund, a regulatory filing shows, as venture secondaries heat up.
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Private equity firms including Accel-KKR, Bain and Knox Lane are transacting in healthcare workforce services, targeting tech-driven growth in clinical staffing. 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. Nordic Capital has inked a radiopharmaceuticals deal involving BWXT's nuclear medicine business, with the $800m take-private advancing tech-driven clinical solutions. Tortuga Growth Partners has made an investment in Advanced eClinical Training out of its Fund I, L.P., backing clinical education technology. 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, as it mulls adding more exposure.
Energy, Power & Infrastructure
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. LS Power is set to acquire the Brazos Valley gas-fired power plant from Constellation, satisfying a regulatory divestiture commitment tied to Constellation's 2025 acquisition of Calpine. Sunoco is set to acquire Court Square-backed oil transporter Offen Petroleum for $600m, with the target operating a fuel distribution network delivering approximately 2.5 billion gallons annually to approximately 7,000 customers. Veritas is set to acquire Greenbelt-backed Saber Power Services, a vertically integrated power infrastructure services platform that helps customers build, modernize and maintain critical electrical systems. Goldman Sachs Asset Management is teeing up data center contractor Divcon Controls for sale, with the company providing building management and electrical power monitoring systems to data centers and other mission-critical facilities. Arlington-backed TRP Infrastructure has closed five add-on deals to form a new highway plastics division called Gulf Highway Materials.
Technology & AI
WindBorne Systems has raised a $37 million Series B round to scale its weather balloons and AI forecasts, as AI makes weather prediction better. Legaltech Wordsmith has raised a $14m Series B extension from Index and FT Ventures, backing AI-powered legal document automation. Yann LeCun has joined a new VC firm with 244 LPs, bringing the famed AI researcher's expertise to venture investing. Njord Partners' Arvid Trolle says AI is now a 'key part' of operational improvements, with the special situations investor seeing 'resilience' in the value segment including the exit market. Thoma Bravo is selling Command Alkon to Francisco Partners, with Command Alkon providing software and platform technology for the heavy building materials industry. Verdane has made a majority investment in Factbird, a Danish IoT and recurring software company providing manufacturing intelligence services.
Consumer & Retail
Bain Capital is set to acquire Gong cha from TA Associates, with the tea beverage chain serving milk tea, fruit tea and other cold drinks globally. Partners Group is in talks to buy beauty business Aroma-Zone from Eurazeo, adding to its consumer portfolio. 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. Moove has raised $250M to become the backbone of the robotaxi industry, scaling up autonomous vehicle fleet management and planning to someday own, not just manage, Waymo robotaxis.
Financial Services & Asset Management
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. 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. 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. The firm's record realisations underscore the strength of the exit environment for top-tier buyout shops. Hamilton Lane's co-chief Erik Hirsch said some investors have been 'housing capital' in evergreens before redeeming to fund a Hamilton Lane SMA, suggesting evergreen hesitancy is only temporary.
Institutional Investors & Mandates
Italian pension fund ENPAV has released a request for proposal seeking private equity co-investment opportunities. MMAA looks to commit 300bn Korean won to domestic blind pool private equity and venture capital funds for 2026. Korea Post Insurance seeks to commit 60bn Korean won to domestic blind-pool venture capital funds. Boston Retirement Systems has issued a request for proposal for up to an $85m private equity mandate. Shoaib Khan, CIO and director of the New Jersey Division of Investment, says re-ups and new opportunities are being looked at on equal footing despite being spared liquidity concerns, as the pension sees opportunity in the slow exit market.
M&A & Corporate Deals
PE-backed ContextLogic is set to acquire chemicals manufacturer gChem from Eagle Tree for $850m, with gChem becoming Context Logic's second operating business following its early 2026 acquisition of US Salt. Broad Sky has grown Smith + Howard 4x before exiting to TPG, with the business proving durable as tax and audit advisory are needed in good and bad times. 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. Veritas is set to acquire environmental consultant Trinity Consultants from Oak Hill, which acquired the firm in 2021 from LLCP. 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 advising small and medium-sized enterprises, private individuals and private equity investors across the UK. Ridgemont has acquired remediation services firm Entact from JFLCO, a national provider of environmental remediation and geotechnical construction services. Nexa Equity-backed Facility Grid has acquired autonomous commissioning company Ping Cx, introducing a new product strategy centered on three integrated offerings — FG Construct, Validate, and Sustain.
Venture & Startup Ecosystem
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 includes 454 repeat founders who have gone through cohorts, signaling the return of the repeat founder. Robinhood is set to list a fund that lets any retail investor back Y Combinator startups, democratizing access to early-stage venture. A16z has expanded its scout network across Europe with 30+ venture scouts hunting for deals, according to partners. Fintech startup Moss has been crowned Europe's newest unicorn with a €30m Series C round. Oxylabs has hit a $3.6bn valuation after a decade of turning down VCs, citing 'right timing, right partner.' MagicSchool AI leads off a series featuring startup founders from non-technical backgrounds who have launched successful ventures, with the educator-founded edtech AI startup raising $63M from VCs. Lendable is chasing the superapp dream, with the company more constrained by capacity than ideas.
Music, Media & Special Situations
The music industry is seeing some of the biggest deals it has ever seen, 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 sector. Clearlake is partnering with OpenAI as PE firms increasingly collaborate with AI businesses across sectors. Apollo, a year after acquiring a GP, downplays manager consolidation while backing a novel first-time fund, according to Side Letter analysis. The UK has expanded its talent visa to more than 100 companies, boosting the country's ability to attract international tech talent. Pleo is facing a culture crisis amid executive exodus, unhappy staff and sale speculation, according to Sifted reporting. Europe's 50 most active equity investors in H1 2026 have been ranked by Sifted, revealing the continent's investment pulse. The 144 new funds this year reveal what they tell us about Europe's investment market, according to Sifted analysis. QMUL spinouts are looking to raise funding, with several ventures from Queen Mary University of London seeking capital. Over 127,000 workers at U.S.-based tech companies were laid off in mass job cuts in 2025, per a Crunchbase News tally, with layoffs continuing into 2026.