Market Insights
European VC female founders dashboard
Our interactive dashboard dives into European investment trends for female-founded startups since the start of 2008, using data sourced from the PitchBook Platform.
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
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.
US High-Yield Bond Weekly Wrap
The US High-Yield Bond Weekly Wrap is the definitive report on the latest activity in the high-yield and high-grade bond markets, featuring commentary and data on the week’s headline news.
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
Climate Tech Funds Report
The 2026 Climate Tech Funds Report offers a comprehensive guide to climate tech specialist managers across venture capital.
Chips & Datacenters Report: Upon This Rock, I Will Build My Datacenter
The Q2 2026 Chips & Datacenters Report provides an analysis of recent VC activity and includes a link to our proprietary market map of leading VC-backed companies in the space.
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
Kalshi Initiation Report: A Prediction Market for Anything, Except Its Own Future
This analyst note initiates PitchBook’s coverage of Kalshi, assessing its business quality and weighing its growth potential against legal exposure, distribution risks, and regulatory uncertainty.
Anthropic: What to Look For in the S-1
This analyst note assesses Anthropic’s business quality, revenue outlook, and compute strategy ahead of its S-1 filing to evaluate whether its reported $2 trillion valuation is justified.
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
Software dealmakers turn to back-room negotiations to combat market jitters
Sellers are increasingly holding informal talks with select groups of buyers, rather than running the risk of a failed auction process, advisers say.
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.
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.
Software business Calero obtains private credit loan to support refinancing
Once the private credit industry’s darling, the software space has become a much harder sell for direct lenders.
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
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.
Tech PE’s fundraising recovery is leaving tourists behind
PSG Equity and Francisco Partners accounted for over 80% of the $31.3B raised by tech-focused funds in Q3, while fund count remained flat.
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