Current Trends in Capital Raising Across Asset Classes
As we often receive inquiries about the current state of the capital raising landscape, we’d like to use this platform to share some top-level trends and developments we’re observing.
We certainly do not claim to have all the answers, but hope that sharing what we are seeing from the market can provide some useful perspective.
—
Private Equity
It is no secret that capital continues to pool in mega-funds: the ten largest global closes in Q1 2026 captured more than half of all capital raised, versus a long-term average of around a quarter (PitchBook). The number of funds closing continues to fall while average fund sizes rise, with scale, brand and track record increasingly driving allocations.
However, concentration is only half the picture. In our experience, many of the investors crowding into mega-funds are also looking for what those platforms cannot offer: differentiated strategies, genuine diversification and access to parts of the market too small for a €20bn vehicle. Much of the real rotation is happening in the €1–5bn bracket, with LPs increasingly viewing specialist and lower-mid-market managers as a complement to large-platform commitments. With exits slow, investors have become more selective, favouring established managers they know, while smaller and first-time funds must work much harder to raise capital. Ultimately, value creation matters – but above all, investors want to see realised distributions.
From what we are seeing across Europe, demand for mid-market strategies has been anything but uniform. Switzerland and Germany have been notably quieter, with DACH among the weaker fundraising markets, while Benelux and Spain have been more active – Spain, in particular, had one of its strongest fundraising years on record. In our experience, where you raise has become almost as important as what you raise.
—
Secondaries: From Release Valve to Core Plumbing
The most consequential structural shift we have seen in recent years is the institutionali-sation of the secondary market. Global volumes reached record levels last year, with a growing pool of capital dedicated to secondaries (Evercore, Jefferies), a trend we clearly see playing out in Europe as well.
LPs have become more proactive, increasingly willing to accept discounts to NAV to accelerate distributions and rebalance portfolios. With traditional exits remaining slow, secondaries have become an important source of liquidity: LP-led transactions allow investors to manage their own liquidity, while continuation vehicles enable managers to return capital to investors while retaining high-conviction assets. We are also seeing this model spread increasingly into European private credit.
—
Venture Capital
We find that European venture tells a more divided story than the US, with start-ups raising money without the same AI-driven exuberance seen across the Atlantic. AI and deep tech captures a significant but smaller share of funding than in the US, while defence emerges as one of Europe’s fastest-growing investment themes.
Also, much of the money reaching start-ups is arriving via record levels of venture debt, bridge rounds and non-European investors rather than fresh fund formation. At the same time, capital is concentrating in VC, too, with a handful of ecosystem leaders dominating, leaving many founders outside the favoured themes dependent on extensions and facing a higher bar.
—
Infrastructure
Long under-penetrated among large institutions, infrastructure has become one of the industry’s growth engines. From our perspective, deployment is being driven by three major themes: digital/AI compute, the energy transition and energy security following the end of Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.
We have also seen capital move further up the risk curve, with growing interest in Core+ and Value-add strategies, while appetite for traditional Core has softened. Construction risk remains a dividing line, with many European institutions favouring operating brownfield assets with embedded growth over pure development exposure.
Fundraising has surged and European infrastructure is attracting increasing global capital, but, as in private equity, most of it is flowing to the largest platforms. Mid-sized managers therefore cannot rely on the tide lifting all boats; in our experience, raising capital still comes down to good old-fashioned sales: getting attention, creating interest, building trust and ultimately working towards an allocation.
—
Private Debt
Private debt is where there has been most momentum in Europe. European private credit enjoyed a standout stretch, drawing a record €56bn in just the first nine months of 2025 (S&P Global) and pushing Europe’s share of global private-debt fundraising to 35% as capital rotated away from a cooling North American market. Here too, capital is concentrating in the biggest funds. Banks continue to pull back under Basel capital rules; and insurance capital is increasingly a natural, long-dated match for an asset class prized for the same steady, inflation-resilient income that draws investors to infrastructure. Another large investor group are pension funds.
There are some clouds on the horizon though, with private credit is heading into its first full credit-cycle test. Strains such as an increase in default rates private-credit loans and redemption gates at some evergreen vehicles, are many a US story, but have caught the attention of European investors.
—
Real Estate: The Case for Debt
Real-estate debt is, in our view, among the more attractive risk-adjusted opportunities in the asset class today, and in Europe the demand behind it is concrete. Over €185bn of European commercial real-estate debt falls due in 2026, and there is an enormous “debt-funding gap”. Basel III capital rules, fully applied since January 2025, are steering banks away from higher-leverage and transitional lending, and non-bank lenders have stepped into the gap.
The structural appeal is straightforward. Debt sits ahead of equity in the capital stack – repaid first, and taking losses only once the equity cushion beneath it is exhausted – which provides a genuine buffer while values are still finding their level, so long as the loan is written at a conservative attachment point. Terms favour disciplined lenders and unlike the US, where floating-rate income would compress if the central bank resumed cutting, European base rates are stable-to-rising, which underpins current income.
—
Digital Assets: From Uncertainty to Framework
From what we have seen, digital assets have attracted plenty of interest for years, but institutional adoption has remained limited, initially largely because of regulatory uncertainty. In Europe, MiCA coming fully into force last year has provided a much clearer and more harmonised framework, but in our experience regulation alone has not been enough to unlock broad institutional allocations.
Three topics still come up regularly in our conversations with investors: volatility, which makes sizing difficult; trust, particularly around custody and counterparties; and knowledge, as many institutions are still building the internal expertise and governance frameworks to invest confidently. When raising assets from institutional investors, these questions around volatility, trust and familiarity therefore remain central to the discussion.
—
Hedge Funds: Renewed Demand for Diversification and Liquidity
Investor interest in hedge funds is back since quite some time and, on the back of strong, largely uncorrelated recent returns, investor demand has become even more solid. Their appeal lies precisely in their diversification from the private-markets book. In a period when private portfolios have been illiquid and slow to distribute, liquid absolute-return strategies have become more valuable, not less, and we have seen appetite grow both from institutional and family office investors. High in demand are multi-strategy funds, macro, event driven strategies as well as long-short equity and long-short credit.
—
Observations Across Asset Classes: AI and Evergreens
AI has moved from reshaping deal sourcing and due diligence to becoming standard infrastructure. Its growing importance is reflected in allocators’ scrutiny: Private Equity International’s survey mentioned that almost half of investors closely track how managers adopt AI, and we too have noticed how the topic is increasingly being brought into due diligence conversations.
Evergreen structures have clearly gained favour, particularly as a way of bringing private markets to the wealth channel. We are seeing this most clearly in private credit and ELTIFs, where lower entry points and periodic liquidity make the format much easier to distribute. Institutional interest is also building, although the more recent redemption experience suggests that investors are becoming increasingly discerning about the liquidity offered by these vehicles.
—
Closing Thoughts
What continues to temper the market is uncertainty, which is slowing down many allocation decisions. The conflict in the Middle East and resulting energy-price shock have added to inflation and market volatility. At the same time, with mega-funds capturing much of the easy capital, our experience is that raising assets for mid- and smaller-sized funds still comes down to hands-on, relationship-driven fundraising – getting the attention of increasingly selective, career-risk-conscious investors and building the trust needed to turn interest into an allocation.