Preqin's Global Reports 2026 forecasts private markets entering the new year with cautious optimism and resilient long-term growth prospects across all major asset classes. The research firm projects private equity AUM approaching $12 trillion and private credit reaching $4.5 trillion by 2030, while infrastructure is set to nearly triple toward $3 trillion—with Europe leading that growth trajectory despite near-term deployment challenges and elevated interest rates constraini

What's New PitchBook's 2026 US Venture Capital Outlook forecasts a counterintuitive surge in early-stage deal activity despite sluggish fundraising, driven by multistage firms deploying aggressive seed strategies and AI capturing an unprecedented 65% of total deal value. First-time financing activity through Q3 2025 was just 200 deals behind 2021's record pace, defying expectations for a liquidity-constrained market. Why It Matters The fundamental structure of venture dealm

The venture capital industry faces a fundamental math problem: with $150-200 billion invested annually, the industry needs to produce 40 Figma-scale exits each year just to generate modest returns—but historically only 20 companies per decade achieve billion-dollar-plus exits.

Secondaries now drive 71% of VC exits as firms adapt to longer hold periods and seek strategic liquidity options.

Defense technology venture capital investment has surged from $1 billion in 2020 to $7 billion in 2024, creating what appears to be the industry's next major theme after AI's recent dominance. However, veteran investor Alex van Someren warns that venture capital remains "one of the hardest ways to make money" and cautions against the herd mentality that periodically drives stampedes toward fashionable sectors.

According to PitchBook's Q2 2025 European VC Valuations Report, median venture capital valuations across Europe continued climbing in the first half of 2025, with Series E+ companies reaching €1.2 billion for the first time since 2022. The value-over-volume dynamic persisted as deal counts remained flat while median deal sizes and valuations grew across most funding series, though volatility in financial markets and geopolitical tensions created uncertainty for the second hal

Jamie Rhode, Partner at Screendoor, a venture fund-of-funds that exclusively backs institutional-grade emerging managers, joined Balentic CEO Kasper Wichmann on Balentic Edge to discuss why traditional LP thinking about early-stage venture is fundamentally flawed.

Ramtin Naimi, founder of Abstract Ventures, argues that traditional seed funds are largely delusional about their deal flow advantages and that multi-stage tier-one firms consistently outperform at seed investing.

The venture capital industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation as firms abandon traditional stage-focused investing in favor of comprehensive software investment platforms that can deploy capital from Series A through full buyouts. Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners, argues this "stage agnostic" approach provides superior market intelligence and better outcomes for both entrepreneurs and investors.

The venture capital industry faces a fundamental crisis where 90% of limited partners shouldn't be investing in the asset class, according to analysis showing median returns barely exceed 8% while top-quartile funds struggle to beat public market equivalents. Miles Dieffenbach, Managing Director of Investments at Carnegie Mellon University, shared this stark assessment on Harry Stebbings' 20VC podcast, drawing from his experience overseeing a $4 billion endowment.

The private equity and venture capital industry faces a fundamental reckoning as the strategies that generated extraordinary returns over the past four decades become increasingly difficult to replicate, according to Tim Sullivan, who recently retired after overseeing Yale University's private market portfolios for 39 years. Sullivan warns that institutions must dramatically lower their return expectations as the industry has become overcrowded, overfunded, and efficiently pr

The venture capital ecosystem is grappling with fundamental questions about optimal fund sizing as emerging managers weigh the benefits of scaling operations against maintaining focused specialization strategies. The entire Screendoor team—Lisa Cawley, Layne Johnson, and Jamie Rhode—joined the Superclusters podcast to address critical questions from three emerging GPs about LP motivations, venture transparency, and scaling decisions.

Specialist VCs drive higher valuations and faster exits but fund returns converge with generalists, reshaping investment strategies.

According to PitchBook's Q1 2025 Emerging Tech Indicator, top venture capital firms deployed nearly $5 billion across just 161 deals—a 50% year-over-year drop in deal count despite robust funding levels. This marks the fewest seed and early-stage investments by elite VCs since 2020, as capital concentrates in larger rounds for AI infrastructure, health & wellness technology, and cybersecurity platforms.

Jesse Draper's VC firm raises $30M to invest in the $7.5T Future of Family market, focusing on childcare and female-founded startups.

J.P. Morgan Life Sciences Private Capital appoints Dashyant Dhanak as Venture Partner to leverage his pharma R&D expertise.

PitchBook's Q1 2025 US VC Valuations and Returns Report reveals an unprecedented concentration of capital, with AI & machine learning companies capturing 71.1% of total VC investment value while representing just one-third of all deals. This bifurcated market shows AI continuing to command premium valuations while the broader venture ecosystem faces pressure.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Corporate Finance, venture capital firms exploited a lack of regulation and investor naivety in the SPAC market to exit from lower-quality ventures, resulting in substantial underperformance compared to traditional IPO exits.

Hamilton Lane expands its $10B+ AUM Evergreen Platform with a new VC and growth fund for accredited U.S. investors.

Baltimore launches Innovation Alliance to foster biomedical startups, attract venture capital, and drive economic growth in the region.