Fundraising Market and Fund Closes

• Fundraising hit $222B through September, versus $330B last year
• Only 23 first-time PE funds closed in H1
• Monomoy closed at $589M, GEM at its $685M hard cap
• Blackstone Energy Transition V closed at $8.7B
• Savory Fund III closed at $201.5M, above target
• KKR North America XIV leads raises at $23bn
• Advent raised $30B, GTCR $14.2B
• DFIs supplied 72% of African LP capital
• Dallas Police & Fire is lifting its PE target to 11%

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Emerging Managers, GP Economics and Alignment

• Track record alone no longer carries a raise
• 53% of LPs rank value creation a top five criterion
• GP commitment is judged by share of net worth
• Fee waivers count for less than cash commitments
• Carnelian's GP team is committing over ₹100 Cr
• Independent sponsors cap out at 5 to 6 platforms
• A 2% placement fee on $750M means $15M
• Top decile $1Bn to $5Bn funds beat larger funds on IRR

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Liquidity: Secondaries, Continuation Vehicles and LP Stake Sales

• Continuation funds hit 12.4% of direct PE fundraising
• GIC is selling $1B of fund stakes to HarbourVest
• Evercore projects around $250B of secondaries volume
• CVC closed its secondaries fund at $10B
• Jefferies moved nearly 50 loans into its debut direct lending fund
• Only 12% of PE funds liquidate within 10 years
• Large-cap exits take 7.3 years against 4.8 for small-cap
• LP stake sales still run on phone calls
• Evergreen PE funds show low redemption requests

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LP Behavior, Manager Selection and Co-Investment

• Tech and data now outrank track record in selection
• 15% of LPs plan to cut manager lists
• 49% of LPs prefer managers under $500M
• KKR expects managers to beat public markets by 400 basis points
• Gulf sovereign funds are shifting toward direct co-investment
• Co-investment funds offer diversification beyond fee savings
• ADGM's new fund rules raise investor diligence questions

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AI in Private Equity

• AI delivers value in origination, operations and diligence
• Lasting advantage requires proprietary data and expertise
• Only 9% of PE firms are confident of passing an AI audit
• Only 8% of firms have highly mature data environments
• Aldaron raised $885M to pair PE with AI engineering
• Portfolio companies want AI fluent operating leaders
• AI generated fund materials make managers sound alike

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Market Data and Outlook

• Global PE investment reached $1.5 trillion through Q3
• Carve-outs added $182.2 billion in deal value
• Preqin forecasts private markets AUM above $34tn by 2031
• 87% of PE managers expect Europe's appeal to rise
• Infrastructure raised $225.7bn across 82 funds in 2025
• Direct lending has yielded 10.3% since 2016
• Physician practice PE deals are on pace to fall 46%
• Costlier debt is resetting PE strategy for 2027

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Deals, Sectors and Themes

• NATO allies agreed to lift defense spending targets to 5%
• Savvy partnered with Allocate on a private markets program
• A $63B financing was announced with Broadcom
• Ares bought MidCap Financial's BDC from Apollo
• HF Opportunities took a platform position in KEUCO
• Distribution and supply chain are heavily targeted sectors
• Ardian's portfolio is 63% European, 23% American

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Fund Operations, Governance and Structure

• A reconciled ledger can still carry a wrong NAV
• A first general counsel hire needs a defined mandate
• Anchor LPs now underwrite fund operations
• Carnelian's hybrid fund allows up to 25% in listed equities

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Thanks to Jester Schilder, Jordan Silber, JEEVAN KUMAR NAHAK, Marvin Toruno, Paul Stansik, Daniel Ebert, Jay Greyson, Niko Ludwig, Dimitri Mastrocola, Paul Press, Kamar Jaffer, Zachary (Zack) Daly, Kelvin Fu, Eric Qi, Harry Davies, Ted Seides, Ken Novak, Mustafa Siddiqui, Jin Ni, Mitchell Mansfield, Jordon Barnett, Catherine Marks, Niklas James, Aryan Singh, Mustafa Azhar, Tom Goldblatt, Scott Ratliff, Wura Kayode, Brandon Sedloff, Hugh MacArthur, Verun Pawase, Snorre Kofoed-Hansen, Romain Bégramian, Steffen Pauls, Joe Briggs, Nimisha Srivastava, Antoine Drean, Chris Witkowsky, Andrew K. Smith, David Foley, Michael Sidgmore, Benedikt Langer, Alan Butler, Dez Derry, Yannick Elhag, Michael Kaufman, Chris Thoume, Allison F. Kingsley, Eliot Kerlin, Peter Harris, Leyla Kunimoto, Calvin Creutz, Matthew Brewer, Ana Sofia Valderrama, Nicolas Keller, Philip De Vusser, Nico Zeifang, Ivan Lehon, Gavin Geminder, Chris Hodgeman, Ivan Latanision, Mark Delaney, David Haarmeyer, Michael Jerkins, Nicola Ebmeyer, Tridev Budia, Vishnu Amble, Everett Kamin, Jan Jamrich, Amy Richardson and everyone else who contributed insights to this edition.

Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-linkedin-cw-43-44-private-equity-fundraising-thomas-allgeyer-sfose/