Market Insights
Featured Research
Global M&A Report
The Q3 2026 Global M&A Report provides an overview of key factors shaping global mergers and acquisitions, breaking down the industry by region and vertical.
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
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.
Databricks Initiation Report: Built Right, Priced High
This analyst note initiates coverage of Databricks, assessing its AI business quality, financial forecasts, and valuation to determine whether its $190 billion price leaves room for investor returns.
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
PitchBook Benchmarks with preliminary Q2 2026 data
The Q1 2026 PitchBook Benchmarks (with preliminary Q2 2026 data) leverages a differentiated data collection process that results in one of the most robust fund performance datasets in the market.
Food & Beverage CPG PE First Look
The Food & Beverage CPG PE First Look is a preliminary release of top-line PE industry figures for the food & beverage CPG sector, intended as a first-to-market source of key datasets and findings.
Venture Capital
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor
The Q3 2026 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor presents a data-driven overview of the key trends defining the US venture capital landscape.
Healthcare Funds Report
The H1 2026 Healthcare Funds Report offers a comprehensive guide to healthcare and life sciences specialist managers across both private equity and venture capital.
Credit
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.
US Leveraged Loan Index Monthly Wrap
The US Leveraged Loan Index Monthly Wrap captures the dynamics of the primary and secondary leveraged loan markets. Commentary and data include detailed analysis of Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan Index returns and pricing trends. Institutional loan issuance, maturity wall breakdowns, market supply/demand dynamics, market flex data, returns by asset class and outperforming and underperforming credits are among the topics discussed.
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
Defense Tech VC First Look
The Defense Tech VC First Look is a preliminary release of top-line venture industry figures for the defense tech sector, intended as a first-to-market source of key datasets and findings.
Foodtech VC First Look
The Foodtech VC First Look is a preliminary release of top-line venture industry figures for the foodtech sector, intended as a first-to-market source of key datasets and findings.
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
Datacenter Power Needs Are Redrawing the Energy Storage Map
This analyst note examines how growing datacenter power demand and renewables adoption are driving VC interest toward long-duration, non-lithium energy storage technologies.
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.
Europe
European PE Breakdown
The Q3 2026 European PE Breakdown presents a data-driven overview of the key trends defining the European private equity landscape.
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.
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
Anthropic, OpenAI backer D.E. Shaw targets $1B for second VC fund
The $115 billion quantitative hedge fund’s latest vehicle would be double the size of its predecessor.
The return of M&A is affecting the continuation fund market
The number of vehicles to close this year is tracking well behind 2025 levels, while the M&A market is quietly making a comeback, according to new research by PitchBook.
Credit
Volta launches $5B leveraged loan package to support data center lease, GPU capital expenditures
Borrowers in the AI space have relied heavily on bond markets this year, but leveraged loan lenders are moving in.
Persistent demand underpins European leveraged loans amid signs of price divergence
The CLO bid is supporting a strong technical backdrop for the loan asset class.
Technology
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.
US VC female founders dashboard
Our interactive dashboard dives into US investment trends for women in VC since the start of 2008, using data sourced from the PitchBook Platform. Users can filter the data to isolate specific trends.
Allocators
LPs should take account of GPs’ words, not just the numbers
New research finds that negative sentiment in investor letters, particularly about macro conditions, is the strongest early warning sign of weak returns.
Fast times in private markets, but where are all the cops?
Skeleton crew at Trump’s SEC, using dead folks’ names to back 401(k) plan, and other spooky treats for the alternatives industry.
Europe
Crowded deals, peak valuations sink healthcare PE’s edge
Specialist healthcare funds that once beat the market by 12 points now lag it, even as capital floods in.
Unbuilt or stranded: investors flag twin risks in AI data center pipeline
Capital is shifting toward permitted assets, smaller inference sites and tier-two developers.
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