PlayBook 1Q 2018

Well over $1,000,000,000,000 in committed capital sits in the coffers of private equity and venture capital funds worldwide. These are unprecedented sums. How did we get here? And what’s next?

While PE firms have shied from IPOs, their need to tap outside capital has persisted. At the same time, institutional investors have sought new ways to invest in PE firms. A solution—GP stakes deals.

While much of venture investing still involves decisions based largely on “soft” qualitative factors, a growing number of investors are innovating with data-driven strategies.

Here’s a selection of the strategies GPs are deploying in the current market environment, across the fund size spectrum for each asset class. There are no hard-and-fast rules, but typical check sizes do matter in practicality.

Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners and Thoma Bravo are three tech-focused buyout shops that have followed different paths. Yet they’ve arrived at the same destination: the pinnacle of private equity.

The 1Q 2018 Private Market PlayBook is a magazine dedicated to bringing readers analysis of the PE, VC and M&A markets.