Market Insights
Q3 First Look Dashboard
Global PE First Look
Exits, not deals, defined Q3: Realizations approached record highs globally and set an outright record in APAC, while dealmaking moved sideways and fundraising kept sliding.
Q3 FIRST LOOK DASHBOARDS
Our exclusive data shows a PE dealmaking slowdown in the US and Asia-Pacific, as heightened volatility dampened the industry’s mood in Q2. For VC, global data shows strain as broad liquidity remains a challenge. See all the details in our newly released Global VC First Look Dashboard and Global PE First Look Dashboard. PitchBook clients can access the complete, extensive data packs via the Research Center in the PitchBook Platform.
Global PE First Look
Exits, not deals, defined Q3: Realizations approached record highs globally and set an outright record in APAC, while dealmaking moved sideways and fundraising kept sliding.
Global VC First Look
Global venture markets remain in transition. The First Looks are a preliminary release of top-line venture industry figures for the global, US, European, and Asia-Pacific markets, intended as a first-to-market source of key datasets and findings.
LATE-STAGE COMPANY RESEARCH
Global Unicorn Tracker: The One-Horned Market
The Q2 2026 Global Unicorn Tracker provides a comprehensive analysis of VC-backed companies valued at $1 billion or more, covering deal activity, valuations, exits, and the PitchBook Business Quality framework and offering perspective on the biggest trends shaping the unicorn landscape.
Anthropic Is Winning on Value, Not Price
This analyst note argues that pricing AI models by completed tasks rather than token cost reveals a different competitive picture, with implications for buyers and providers.
OpenAI: Waiting for $1 Trillion
This analyst note examines OpenAI’s IPO delay as a valuation signal, and its implications for Anthropic’s IPO timing and the broader AI IPO pipeline.
TRENDSPOTTING
PE fund returns have been running below what current market conditions would historically predict, with actual one-year returns undershooting the model’s nowcast for several straight periods. While the model doesn’t capture why this is the case, the gap suggests PE performance has been softer than broader conditions would typically justify.
RESEARCH
Private Equity
US Evergreen Fund Landscape
The Q3 2026 US Evergreen Fund Landscape report covers the rapid rise of evergreen funds, providing data and insights on assets, flows, returns, and more.
Sustainable Investment Survey
The 2026 Sustainable Investment Survey illustrates survey responses from GPs, LPs, and more regarding the evolving ESG and Impact investment landscape.
Venture Capital
Startup List: 67 VC-Backed AI Companies Working to Defend Against Rogue Agents
To help guide investors, acquirers, and industry watchers, PitchBook curated a list of 67 startups targeting the problem of agentic security from several angles.
Greater China Private Capital Breakdown
The 2026 Greater China Private Capital Breakdown spans datasets covering Greater China’s VC and PE deals by sector and region, as well as exit and fundraising activity.
Credit
US Credit Markets Quarterly Wrap
The US Credit Markets Quarterly Wrap summarizes the dynamics of the US leveraged finance markets, featuring extensive commentary and data on loans, bonds and private credit.
Global Distressed Credit Weekly Wrap
The Global Distressed Credit Weekly Wrap provides a comprehensive summary of the latest news for leveraged loans and high-yield bonds, and a rundown of courtroom bankruptcy activity.
Industry Research
Oil & Gas Report: PE Retreats as Strategics Drive Consolidation Amid War Uncertainty
The Q2 2026 Oil & Gas Report provides in-depth analysis of industry trends and evolving PE investment strategies, including deals data and maps of key PE-backed companies and investors.
Machine Economy Rising: How Payments Unlock New Agent Markets
This analyst note examines how new payment infrastructure and protocols are emerging to enable AI agents to transact, and where investors should focus within this market.
Emerging Tech Research
Robotics Actuators & Motion Systems
This analyst note examines robotics actuators and motion systems, exploring how merchant suppliers can build durable, venture-scale businesses as robot production ramps up.
Climate Tech Funds Report
The 2026 Climate Tech Funds Report offers a comprehensive guide to climate tech specialist managers across venture capital.
Quantitative Research
VC Quantitative Perspectives: Is Venture’s Odyssey Epic or Myth?
The Q3 2026 Quantitative Perspectives report examines venture’s liquidity paradox, where record exit value coexists with historically low fund distributions and a growing IPO backlog.
Private Capital Return Barometers
The Private Capital Return Barometers provide a data-driven, factor-based assessment of US private market fund performance, offering timely estimates of quarterly returns and insights into market conditions across asset classes.
Analyst Notes
Anthropic: IPO Impact
This analyst note examines what Anthropic’s leaked draft IPO filing reveals about its revenue growth, cost structure, and whether the reported valuation is justified.
Polymarket Initiation Report: Build First, Ask Later
This analyst note estimates Polymarket’s enterprise value and examines the key drivers and risks shaping its path to durable profitability, including US expansion, competition, and regulatory uncertainty.
Europe
When Will Europe Have a $1 Trillion Company?
This analyst note examines why Europe has yet to produce a $1 trillion company, exploring the structural barriers to scale and forecasting when the continent’s top contenders could reach that milestone.
European VC Valuations Report
The Q2 2026 European VC Valuations Report delves into the sizes and valuations of European venture deals.
APAC
Five Years After APAC’s VC Boom, What Has Become of Its Companies?
This analyst note explores why most of the over 24,000 APAC companies funded during the 2020 to 2021 VC boom remain active and private—but stuck. We track the boom-era cohort through the market reset.
APAC Private Capital Breakdown
The H1 2026 APAC Private Capital Breakdown examines the region’s PE and VC markets in Greater China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia & New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.
NEWS
Private Equity
Gulf courts private capital with power-ready AI data centres
Sovereigns bring funding, partners and power to a cautious financing market.
SEC votes to let PE firms charge performance fees to less wealthy investors
A win for private fund managers, but the industry’s access to retail capital still faces hurdles.
Credit
Q3 US Leveraged Finance Survey: Geopolitical turmoil and software top concerns
On the bright side, more M&A is expected, albeit with tighter credit terms and higher pricing.
Goldman Sachs private credit BDC redemptions come in below 5% again in Q3
Goldman Sachs Private Credit Corp. received repurchase requests for 2% of shares outstanding in Q3, down from 3.24% in Q2.
Technology
AI is concentrating VC’s power law in a handful of winners
Investors at HumanX say capital and consensus are choosing AI’s leaders.
Q&A: Michael Psaros on PE and public policy
The co-founder of KPS Capital Partners discusses the policy reforms he would like to see, the negative impact of high rates and what industrial turnaround investing looks like today.
Allocators
The ex-CEO of Canada’s largest pension fund is now investing in ‘AI-pilled’ startups
Intrepid Growth Partners, founded by former head of CPP Investments Mark Machin, has raised a $525M fund to back businesses outside of Silicon Valley.
Private markets dealmaking is starting to mirror Greater China’s K-shaped economy
VC and tech deployments have surged, but PE-exposed consumer sectors have stalled due to slowing growth
Europe
The LSE might see its largest listing in years, but recovery is lacking fuel
Sentiment toward European listings remains cautious unless more domestic companies follow suit.
Europe can’t replicate the full AI stack, say investors and founders
At HumanX Amsterdam, VCs and startups made the case for choosing a few strategic layers rather than racing to replicate Silicon Valley.
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