Fund closes and capital raised

• Blackstone Energy Transition Partners V closes at $8.7bn, hard cap
• Six infrastructure and energy transition funds raise $64bn in three months
• LS Power Fund VI closes oversubscribed above $6bn
• Aphias debuts at $1.05bn and Sheridan Fund IV passes $1.1bn
• Schroders Capital's Global Direct IV hits $1.3bn, its largest
• Northwind Debt Fund III doubles its target at $1bn
• Audax assembles $10bn for its largest direct lending fund
• Castle Creek, Excelsior and Niobrara reach final close
• Omni Bridgeway closes its $1bn target for Funds 4 and 5

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Fundraising pipeline and concentration

• The ten largest funds in market target $223bn
• KKR North America Fund XIV leads 2026 closes at $23bn
• KKR ranks #2 overall and #1 in PE fundraising in PEI's list
• PAI Partners targets EUR 7bn, matching its prior fund
• 70% of institutional capital goes to 10 mega cap managers
• Capital raised reaches $445bn year to date, up 5%

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Market conditions: rates, exits and the mid-market

• Exit value jumps 65% to $482bn, but exit count rises under 10%
• Buyout fundraising falls 16% to $395bn in 2025
• EQT buys Stockbridge and Two Sigma halts real estate fundraising
• Firms under $15bn without other business lines are most exposed
• New State Capital's Fund II returns 0.39x DPI against a 0.70x median
• Spain posts record first half fundraising and divestments
• Climate funds raised a record $200bn in 2025

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Co-investments, continuation vehicles and liquidity

• Co-investments more than double to a record $198bn in H1 2026
• Investors trade blind pools for lower fees and more control
• Capital not returning to LPs drives CVs and co-investments
• Mid-life co-investments emerge as a niche
• Banks pitch evergreen continuation vehicles to large PE firms
• Two thirds of CV assets are not trophies, yet top quartile CVs outperform
• DPI is increasingly produced through recaps, NAV loans and CVs

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LP and GP dynamics

• DPI displaces AUM as the number that matters
• A $25m Fund I needs about 1,000 LP names
• Emerging managers' networks prove smaller than assumed
• Family offices stop writing checks to strangers
• Deal access shifts from pitch driven to pull based
• Detailed operating track records separate credible GPs
• Independent sponsors reach 25% of lower middle market deals
• Half of PE business development teams are a single seat

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Structures, regulation and products

• A Department of Labor proposal opens 401(k)s to private equity
• QSBS treatment stays underused by independent sponsors
• ADGM's new fund rules add tailored manager routes
• NAV lender foreclosures raise conflict of interest concerns
• Blackstone launches a perpetual private markets fund
• IFC and BlueOrchard launch a $2bn evergreen debt vehicle
• GP-LP Match launches Sloan, an agentic matchmaking tool
• Invest Clearly Pro lets LPs vet sponsors directly
• GP stakes carry no legal maturity and rarely allow exits
• LP demand moves toward capital solutions strategies

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Conference signals

• Mergermarket Austin: liquidity, CVs and AI dominate
• Iberian Private Markets Meeting: GP leds are an established exit route
• CEE Summit: pension funds supply about 8% of PE fundraising
• Private Equity Insights: private wealth treats private markets as strategic
• Funds Ecosystem panel: investors want cash back before returns
• GP/LP Match New York: Midwest momentum and outdoor storage interest

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Thanks to David Foley, Kaspar Klemm, Alexander Russ, Luke Torres, Alexander Rayden, Andrew McLagan, Ran Eliasaf, Isaac T., Sundeep Rana, Ngoc Nguyen, Scott Zoellner, Jeff Newton, Frister Haveman, Reuel Kihondo, Joshua Weisenbeck, Burke Malek, Kezia Kho, Paul Stanton, Vincent Schneider, Jason Downie, Abbas Hashmi, Brad Hargreaves, David Haarmeyer, Jed Johnson, Alvaro Carcel Ribes, Anikka Villegas, Yu Sun, Nikola Vuković, Troy T. Hebert, Artjom Jalosa, Nimar Bangash, Leyla Kunimoto, Mustafa Siddiqui‍, Preston Richard, Mustafa Azhar, Thomas Hallinger, Veronika Shendo, Torge Barkholtz, Jay Goss and Alanna Wojciechowski, and everyone else who contributed insights to this edition. Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn: