Market Insights


Subscribe to our newsletters for data-driven insights on global private capital markets


UK Private Capital Breakdown

The 2026 UK Private Capital Breakdown examines the region’s PE and VC markets and analyzes recent events’ impacts on these spaces.

Southern Europe Private Capital Breakdown

The 2026 Southern Europe Private Capital Breakdown examines the region’s PE and VC markets and analyzes recent events’ impacts on these spaces.

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.

Germany Market Snapshot

The Q2 2026 Germany Market Snapshot provides an overview of macroeconomic and microeconomic trends in the region spanning both private and public markets.

Australia & New Zealand Private Capital Breakdown

The 2026 Australia & New Zealand Private Capital Breakdown examines the region’s PE and VC markets and analyzes recent events’ impacts on these spaces.

LATEST RESEARCH

Global Distressed Credit Weekly Wrap

US High-Yield Bond Weekly Wrap

US Credit Markets Weekly Wrap

India Private Capital Breakdown

US Private Credit and Middle Market Weekly Wrap

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

The PE Barometer signals a strong underlying return environment, with a desmoothed return nowcasts of 6.8%. The reading is driven by gains in small-cap and value equities, falling implied equity volatility, low financial stress, and tight leveraged loan spreads.

See more: Q2 2026 Private Capital Return Barometers

DASHBOARDS & TOOLS

RESEARCH

Private Equity

US PE Middle Market Report

The Q2 2026 US PE Middle Market Report offers a data-driven review of the key trends shaping PE investment in the US middle market.

MENA Private Capital Breakdown

The H1 2026 MENA Private Capital Breakdown examines the region’s PE and VC markets and analyzes recent events’ impacts on these spaces.

Venture Capital

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.

Multistage Funds in Early-Stage VC: Bigger Checks, Fewer Winners

In 2026 YTD, $86 billion has been deployed across 4,864 early-stage VC deals. Multistage fund participation at Series A hit record highs by count and value, reshaping who gets funded in this barbell market.

Credit

Global CLO Weekly Wrap

The Global CLO Weekly Wrap combines breaking commentary with the latest CLO and loan data for the US and European markets. Data includes individual deal details as well as broad market volume and spreads, divided by coupon, deal type and ratings. All charts and underlying data are provided in a corresponding data pack.

European Private Credit Monitor

The European Private Credit Monitor provides a high-level view of private credit market activity. Topics covered include counts and estimated volume, spread distribution and leverage.

Industry Research

Construction & Engineering Report: Datacenters Take Center Stage

The Q2 2026 Construction & Engineering 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.

Aerospace & Defense Report: More Deals, Smaller Check Sizes

The Q2 2026 Aerospace & Defense 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.

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

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.

Quantitative Perspectives: US Market Insights

The Q3 2026 Quantitative Perspectives: US Market Insights report examines how private capital markets are navigating macro volatility and persistent liquidity constraints.

Analyst Notes

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.

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.

Europe

European VC Valuations Report

The Q2 2026 European VC Valuations Report delves into the sizes and valuations of European venture deals.

Europe’s IPO Window Stays Wide as Backlog Narrows

This analyst note examines Europe’s IPO recovery in 2026, noting favorable market conditions alongside a shrinking pipeline of high-quality listing candidates.

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

Goldman eyes strategic buyers with $11.7B PE haul

‘The easy part might be deploying the money. The hard part is securing an exit,’ said global co-head of private equity Michael Bruun on the close of the firm’s ninth flagship fund.

Middle-market PE firms move down market in search of value

Deals between $25 million and $100 million increased in value by 70% in Q2, while activity in every other size bucket contracted or stalled.

Credit

PANTHERx Rare launches $3B LBO loan package, replacing private credit

Warburg Pincus announced in July that it was acquiring a controlling interest in PANTHERx from Nautic Partners, General Atlantic and The Vistria Group.

Dislocation, lower recoveries ahead as private credit software loans mature – Oaktree

The firm said the main challenge for the industry currently is a lack of M&A.

Technology

The math behind Databricks’ $190B price doesn’t add up—yet

The data and AI company is one of the world’s strongest private companies, but unattractive at the current price.

Legal AI leaders like Harvey are sprinting to scale while they still can

A few startups are dominating legal tech funding as they seek a defense against frontier labs.

Allocators

Four charts: Private capital fundraising remains bleak through H1 2026

Fundraising is on pace to decline for the fifth consecutive year, with private credit the sole bright spot, PitchBook data shows.

Thoma Bravo hires new Asia head

Ken S. Park joins from HIG Capital, where he led the PE firm’s Asia fundraising operation across PE, credit, real estate and infrastructure.

Europe

Co-investment and directs to eclipse primary funds, buyers say

Survey finds 64% favor co-investment or directs as PE’s top capital raiser, versus 20% for primary funds

Climate tech VC fundraising heads for worst year in a decade

AI’s energy needs are a potential tailwind for specialist funds in the sector.

FUND BENCHMARKS

MORE FROM PITCHBOOK

RECENT WEBINARS
UPCOMING WEBINARS
VIDEOS
EVENTS