Private Equity 3 Days

Last updated: August 13, 2026, 8:44 AM ET

Mega Deals & Exits

Thoma Bravo is taking specialty insurance risk exchange platform Accelerant private for more than $4bn. Altamont Capital Partners and the founders will retain equity. Apax is selling food supply chain logistics provider Tosca to Goldman Sachs Alternatives, after acquiring it in 2017. Bank of America will take up to 49.9% of Jio Credit in a $1.9bn lending bet via Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Financial Services. Bernhard Capital is taking Bowman Consulting Group private for $1bn, with a 35-day go-shop period. Goldman Sachs will acquire ETFs provider Neos Investments for $2.25bn; Neos manages $30bn in assets. Apollo Sports Capital has infused $2.6bn into Yankee Global Enterprises, the parent of the New York Yankees. KKR has taken a strategic stake in Crowe’s advisory business. New Mountain is acquiring fire safety provider Jensen Hughes from Gryphon.

Fundraising & Fund Activity

Accel has raised $800m for its ninth early-stage Europe fund. The same firm also closed an oversubscribed $550m India fund within weeks, with over 55% of its previous $650m India fund still available. StepStone surpassed $20bn in private wealth AUM; its SPRING vehicle attracted nearly $1.7bn in subscriptions. Thrive Holdings, backed by OpenAI, raised $2bn at a $12bn valuation from SoftBank, D1 Capital and Altimeter. Lovable raised $400m backed by the EU’s Scaleup Fund. Anthropic’s early backers eye a windfall as the AI developer targets a $2tn IPO — the largest on record. Shein targets a $30bn–$40bn Hong Kong IPO, well below its $100bn peak. Legora is in talks to raise at a $10bn valuation.

AI & Technology

Apollo, Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR are lining up behind NVIDIA in a $500bn move to make compute an asset class. Index Ventures is in talks to lead a $500m round for a new AI lab founded by a Deep Mind researcher. ClearJet raised a $25m Series B to build the “Uber of Cargo,” an AI-enabled logistics platform. Trunk Tools, an AI construction startup founded by a former teenage carpenter, is featured in Crunchbase’s non-tech founder series. Multiverse Computing, a Spanish startup, is vying to be Europe’s next AI champion. Uforce, a drone startup, is targeting upwards of a $4bn valuation in a new raise. Accel’s Europe fund will back early-stage AI and deeptech. Deeptech founders are dictating term sheets in 2026. Scaleup Europe, a $5.7bn public-private fund, made its first investment in Finnish satellite company ICEYE.

Secondaries & Credit

Korea’s NPS added another $1bn of secondaries exposure; secondary funds and co-investments grew 36% to ~$3.7bn. HarbourVest revealed deployment strategy for its $4.75bn flagship co-investment fund, targeting AI and healthcare. Exponent tapped Apollo, Pantheon and SQ Capital for an $867m continuation vehicle for H&MV Engineering. Monogram completed a continuation fund for beverage company Mountaintop with Apollo S3 as lead. Blue Owl acquired a passive 25% stake in tail-end specialist Hollyport, which remains independent. CVC Credit priced Apidos LVIII, a $550m CLO, the fourth new issue of 2026. US investors are raising questions over credit secondaries valuations. Ardian co-CEO Mark Benedetti sees most mispricing opportunities in European assets and secondaries.

Sector Deals: Healthcare, Food, Energy & Industrials

WestBridge is acquiring a majority stake in Beckett Investment Management from Foresight; Beckett’s AUM grew from £800m to £2.1bn since 2021. Astorg completed the buyout of Thermo Fisher’s microbiology business. CHG Healthcare acquired medical staffing firm Krewe Anesthesia. Marlin’s Radar Healthcare completed the add-on acquisition of patient experience platform Cemplicity. Mountaingate exited healthcare commercialization platform Relevate. Gridiron is investing in life sciences back-office solutions provider van den Boom & Associates. Medical education presents an opportunity for private equity amid a widening healthcare workforce gap.

One Rock is selling environmental services firm Enviro Serve to Clean Harbors for $470m. Baymark acquired healthy meal prep company Meal Prep Sunday, its 66th acquisition. Riverside-backed Western Botanicals invested in dietary supplement developer Yellow Emperor. Alro Steel landed a majority investment from Lindsay Goldberg; the Glick family retains a significant stake. Quad-C invested in occupational safety platform Paradigm, formed from Code Red Safety, Concept Controls and Haz Tek. THL Partners invested in pavement maintenance firm Pave Masters; Northern Lakes Capital sold its stake. HIG Capital completed the acquisition of UK engineering firm Phoenix ME. Vance Street-backed Keltec snapped up AJF Filtration. CPP Investments teamed up with HSI in a $143m Brazilian hotels deal for a 49.5% interest in two Hilton properties. Provectus Capital made its Romanian debut with the buyout of Seatbelt Consulting.

Regulation & LP Strategy

The SEC is zeroing in on private funds valuations; examiners ask about funds by name and enforcement has picked up the scent. LA Fire and Police Pension reaffirmed conviction in lower mid-market and emerging managers. Ex-APG PE veteran John Renkema explains how pensions can better assess performance using internal evaluations. Plymouth County Retirement Association issued an RFP for a North American private equity manager. Side Letter notes valuations are under scrutiny on multiple fronts. Another Side Letter highlights divergence: continuation fund activity outstrips traditional secondaries. Korea’s NPS posted a 12% rise in PE AUM, but growth slowed; PE now represents 7.2% of total portfolio, down from 7.8%.

Trends & Market Snapshots

Private equity dealflow had its worst Q2 since 2020, with the TMT sector seeing the biggest drop. South Summit 2026 identified three trends shaping European tech. Fitness startup funding is rebounding, but investors want AI and data, not treadmills; H1 2026 saw over $3.6bn invested. 16 energy startups to watch in Europe, according to investors. 17 physical AI startups to watch, per VCs. Monashees, a top Latin American VC firm, is expanding into Silicon Valley. Ex-LocalGlobe trio is plotting a new VC firm. First Momentum cofounder highlights the most underrated areas in deeptech. Lessons from Ukraine on keeping morale among tech workers. The London Docklands venture lab is building deeptechs to save the planet. AI is a business change, not a technology change, argues Bob Morse. Top private equity news of the week includes Apollo’s £5.7bn recommended offer for easy Jet.

Add-on Deals & Smaller Transactions

Altamont-backed Big Top Manufacturing scooped up Coast to Coast Contracting. Amberjack Capital closed the carve-out of Flowserve’s PMV Automation group. Clearlake-backed PrimeSource Brands acquired Starborn Industries. Clearview-backed Capitol Services acquired corporate services provider Wolz. CCMP Growth-backed Airo acquired specialty plumbing and HVAC firm Legrande’s Enterprises. DuneGlass-backed Phase 1 Equity snapped up a North Dakota orthodontic practice. Godspeed-backed BNP Group acquired cost management firm US Cost Inc. from Schneider S.E. New Heritage invested in manufacturer Power Rail, serving the global rail industry. Thoma Bravo completed its $466m take-private of validation software firm Kneat. Trinity Hunt backed management consulting firm Fisher Management Partners. Providence agreed to sell live entertainment business ATG to Mari in a PE deal. Reverence Capital-backed Sunstar picked up insurance agency RJR Faribo. VSS took a minority stake in Cordoba amid a generational reinvestment in infrastructure. WestBridge also bought a stake in financial planner Beckett from Foresight. Private equity is playing in the growing European HVAC market. Solar energy draws private equity interest.