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| The Daily Pitch: Europe |
| Your edge on global private capital markets |
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Good afternoon. New PitchBook data shows VC deal activity reached $512.6 billion globally in 2025, behind only 2021 and 2022, and showed increased concentration in AI and in the US.
See our First Look global data. |
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| 3 charts setting the stage for Europe’s PE fundraising in 2026 |
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By Emily Lai, Private Equity Reporter
While 2025 was a challenging year for PE fundraising in Europe, the market is expected to recover in the new year as M&A and exit activity start to ramp up. However, the pace of the recovery remains uncertain.
PE fundraising in Europe last year was the lowest since 2015, with just €80.8 billion raised. This accounted for only 55% of the total capital raised in 2024. Fund count was also the lowest in the last decade, with only 124 funds closing in the year.
Here are the three main fundraising themes market participants are watching closely: |
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The main obstacle to fundraising remains the lack of liquidity from LPs. PE exit values in Europe remained largely unchanged in 2025, but the exit count showed a second consecutive year of increase. The lack of distributions, along with higher public market valuations, led to the denominator effect for some LPs, who reached their maximum allocation to private markets.
However, there is some cause for optimism now that M&A activity is gaining momentum and the flow of capital is picking up again.
“We already started working [in December] on deals for 2026, so the things that normally would have only kicked off in January or February, those processes have already started in the last couple of weeks,” said Thiha Tun, partner at law firm Goodwin.
Brendan Gallen, partner at Reed Smith, also anticipates that European fundraising will rebound.
“We have become incredibly busy over the last three to six months, [and] the amount of managers looking to raise funds has shot up. It’s been a tough two years or so, but we are on the way back up,” he said.
The private wealth channel, including high-net-worth individuals and family offices, is also becoming more structured as a source of capital.
Looking into the new year, the growth rate of PE fundraising will help confirm the trend.
“The expectation of 2026 [is that] we will eclipse the amount of capital raised compared to 2025,” said Sam Kay, a London-based partner at law firm Dechert who specializes in fund formation. “How quickly we achieve that will be interesting.” |
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• Our industry and tech analysts' latest First Look datasets are in for Q4, starting with the mobility tech and agrifood sectors. The latter spans the agtech, foodtech and consumer packaged foods markets.
• Elon Musk's xAI has raised a $20 billion Series E, intensifying the fundraising competition between the three largest US-based language model makers. See the chart
• The trucking industry is gearing up for a wave of M&A deals as technology, tariffs and labor shifts continue to reshape the sector. Read the analyst note
• Yup Kim, chief investment officer of the $44 billion Texas Municipal Retirement System for the past two years, has resigned. Read more |
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| Hg takes OneStream private in $6.4B deal less than two years after IPO |
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| (Karl Hendon/Getty Images) |
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By Andrea Gaini, Private Equity Reporter
London-based Hg Capital has agreed to acquire financial software maker OneStream in a take-private transaction valued at $6.4 billion as the Michigan-based company struggled to maintain its valuation. The deal comes less than two years after OneStream went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Reports in November said the company was exploring a sale after its share price had fallen 45% from its peak valuation.
Under the terms of the deal, shareholders will receive $24 per share in cash. The per-share purchase price represents a 31% premium to OneStream’s closing share price on Jan. 5 when the offer period began, and a 27% premium to its average price over the previous 30 trading days.
OneStream went public in July 2024 under KKR‘s ownership, during a wave of technology listings on US exchanges. It raised $490 million in its IPO and an additional $465 million in its second public offering the following November.
Hg—which made its investment through its Saturn 4 buyout fund—will now be the majority shareholder, while General Atlantic will also be a significant minority investor alongside tech investment firm Tidemark. The consortium will purchase all shares, including those held by KKR.
This is Hg’s second deal via its Saturn fund family this year. Earlier this month, Hg-backed UK insurance broker Howden made an add-on acquisition of New York-based insurance brokers Atlantic Group. |
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Smart reads that caught our eye.
• A rebellion against the rapid growth and power demands of data centers is reshaping the political landscape across traditional lines. [The Washington Post]
• In Silicon Valley, a group of tech executives, app developers and philosophers work to streamline the messy matters of the heart and optimize for love. [The New York Times]
• Kevin O'Leary, who helped "Shark Tank" change elevator pitches forever, takes his act to the big screen. [Variety] |
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| Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: |
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1062
Deals
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2863
People
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1415
Companies
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57
Funds
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