|
|
   |
| The Daily Pitch |
| PE, VC and M&A |
| Your edge on global private capital markets |
| |
|
|
|
| Welcome to December. In today's Daily Pitch, we look at another record year for secondaries fundraising, what's driving resilience in M&A activity and who has the biggest share of foodtech funding. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Secondaries fundraising takes 3 quarters to rival 2024 record |
|
By Madeline Shi, Senior Private Equity Reporter
Fundraising for secondaries is headed for another record year.
Secondary funds raised $105 billion in the first three quarters of the year, already nearly matching last year's annual record, according to our Q3 2025 Global Private Market Fundraising Report.
Over the trailing four quarters, these funds amassed a collective $122.6 billion, up 21.9% from a year ago. |
|
The strong momentum stands in contrast to the broader private capital market, where fund managers across the board continue to feel the pressure to secure new commitments.
VC fundraising plunged about 42.5% over the same period, while PE declined 32.3%.
PE remains the dominant focus for secondary funds, with those targeting PE stakes raising $53.5 billion during the first three quarters of this year.
General partners are increasingly turning to the secondary market to recapitalize investments that can't yet be sold and free up liquidity for their limited partners.
Another segment gaining traction is private debt, which attracted $16.1 billion of secondary capital during the same period, compared with a meager $1.7 billion raised for the full-year 2024.
Realization pressure has also become increasingly acute in this market. Many private credit funds originated loans to sponsor-backed companies in the past few years. They are being forced to hold onto their loans for longer, as portfolios with exposure to sponsor-backed borrowers are trapped by a slowdown in PE exits. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Fundraising is back to pre-COVID levels |
|
82% of funds surveyed find the fundraising environment stable. But capital is flowing unevenly depending on fund profiles.
Read the report |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
• Startups in the restaurant technology segment collected the majority of VC funding for the overall foodtech industry in Q3, which hit $2.8 billion, according to our latest Emerging Tech Research. Read the report
• PE funding for the healthcare technology industry hit a multi-year high in 2025, a sharp contrast with investment in the healthcare services sector. Read more
• VC dealmaking in the healthtech market rebounded in Q3 as investors doubled down on AI-enabled platform providers, according to our recent report on the sector. Read it now |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Buy now, pay later: Earnouts help drive M&A activity |
|
By Emily Lai, Private Equity Reporter
Even as financial markets face greater uncertainty, M&A activity has been remarkably resilient—driven partly by increasing willingness among dealmakers to use mechanisms such as earnouts to help close transactions.
According to PitchBook data, the total value of global M&A deals reached $1.1 billion in Q3 2025, marking the best quarter since 2021. At the time of writing, M&A value for the year has already hit $3.9 billion, making it the second-highest deal total in the past 10 years, or 6% higher than all of 2024, with one month remaining—though with fewer deals than last year.
This contrasts sharply with Q2, when M&A activity slowed amid US President Donald Trump's tariff regime and growing geopolitical tension.
The greater economic uncertainty complicated the pricing of future earnings, creating a valuation gap between buyers and sellers. Consequently, earnouts—a mechanism allowing buyers to defer part of the purchase price and pay the rest only when certain milestones are reached—have been increasingly deployed by dealmakers. |
|
"Earnouts have facilitated PE and M&A transactions in the last 12 months. It is particularly helpful in bridging the valuation gap—sellers' price expectations are matched, provided they deliver the targets in the business plan. This helps buyers to get comfortable that they are only 'paying up' if the targets are met," said Shimin Lee, partner at Clifford Chance.
Recent deals include Novartis's purchase of New Jersey-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Anthos Therapeutic in April. The deal included an upfront payment of $925 million and potential additional payments of up to $2.18 billion, contingent upon achieving regulatory and commercial milestones.
In August, Blackstone agreed to buy Austin-based energy SaaS platform Enverus from Hellman & Friedman and Genstar Capital with a similar earnout structure. The deal values Enverus at more than $6 billion, and the purchase price could reach $6.5 billion if earnout provisions are met, according to a Bloomberg report.
Historically, earnouts have been seen as buyer-friendly and uncompetitive, particularly in auction processes. However, more sellers are willing to accept them, since both parties acknowledge uncontrollable contingent risks. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Smart reads that caught our eye.
• "OpenAI is a money pit." A new revenue forecast model from HSBC shows the company needs to raise over $207 billion by 2030 just to keep paying rising data center costs and likely not make a profit. [The Financial Times]
• Robinhood's CEO has built up a cult following riding the wave of risk-taking. Is Vlad Tenev democratizing investments or fostering a casino-like environment? [The Wall Street Journal] |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: |
| | | | |
