PitchBook

VCs may be chasing AI startups and giving them astronomical sums of funding, but #AI pioneer Andrew Ng doesn't think that's serving innovation well. According to the Google Brain co-founder, the feverish battle over deals is sending the wrong messages to #founders. His firm, AI Fund, recently raised $190 million for its second flagship vehicle to finance startups it helps hatch. 🗞 Learn more in this edition of The Weekly Pitch, along with the week’s top news and research from our team of industry-leading sources for info on the worlds of #VentureCapital, PE and M&A.

My latest PitchBook analyst note, US VC-Backed M&A Outlook, has gone live. Key takeaways ➡️ Large M&A continues to be rare because of elevated interest rates, uncertain economic growth, increased regulatory scrutiny, and stock market volatility. Public companies have significantly pulled back from large acquisitions, with the number of active public acquirers dropping from a peak of 1,423 in 2021 to 815 in 2024. ➡️ While big-ticket deals remain limited, smaller acquisitions are experiencing relative growth. A confluence of factors—lower startup valuations, need for liquidity, and prolonged funding drought—have created favorable conditions for smaller-scale M&A. These deals are poised to maintain or slightly grow in the coming quarters. ➡️ With the number of private companies rising sharply and public market exit channels severely limited, M&A has become a critical path for exits. The median time since last funding round hit a record 2.4 years in Q1 2025, reflecting mounting pressure for liquidity. Founders and GPs are increasingly turning to M&A as a quicker, more viable liquidity solution compared to IPOs. ➡️ Antitrust concerns continue to be a hurdle, especially for Big Tech, under the Trump administration. Despite this, large deals such as Google’s $32 billion offer for Wiz signal hope that high-profile acquisitions are still possible. ➡️ Sectoral trends show divergence in M&A resilience. Software remains the dominant sector, comprising more than 40% of deal volume since 2015 and peaking at 51.2% in Q1 2025. Areas such as digital health and supply chain tech are more insulated from trade policy risks. ➡️ Buyouts, although traditionally a smaller share of VC exits, now outpace public listings. Interest is growing among PE firms seeking bolt-ons, especially in software, healthcare services, and commercial products. Check out the full note via link in comments. 🔗

💡 At roughly $50 billion, #VC secondaries represent only 2% of unicorn valuations, compared with nearly $3 trillion in the primary markets. 📈 While #secondaries are viewed as a niche play, our analysts predict these transactions will experience increased activity in the next few years. 💻 Join our upcoming webinar to hear a panel of industry experts present relevant data and outlooks from our recent report, Analyst Note: Sizing the US VC Secondaries Market. 💼 Get the clarity you need to evaluate opportunities in this opaque yet growing space. Reserve your spot now: https://pitchb.co/HIWClD

📈 Spain just had its biggest year ever for private equity fundraising—and it wasn’t a fluke. In my latest for PitchBook, I look at how targeted policy reforms, expanded state-backed investment vehicles, and renewed international LP interest helped fuel a record-breaking €2.9B raised across 11 funds in 2024. From Fond-ICO Global’s expansion to streamlined fund passporting, Spain’s PE ecosystem is finally catching up with its European peers—and might even be showing the way forward. 🧵Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/eHxtmnYE #PrivateEquity #Spain #Fundraising #EuropeanMarkets #PitchBook #InvestEurope #FondICO #ProACapital #MiuraPartners #InstitutionalCapital

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to tell the @PitchBook story at @Morningstar’s 2025 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting...a story of long-term, consistent growth, and future plans shaped by powerful market tailwinds.    During my session, I highlighted three key themes:    1. Emerging market trends and expanding opportunities.     As private capital markets continue to grow in AUM, investor demand is accelerating, and so are the challenges. PitchBook is uniquely positioned to help our customers navigate this complexity and unlock new value.    2. The PitchBook difference and why our customers love us.     Our customers choose us and stay with us because of our market-leading data, in-depth research, easy to use software and differentiated IP. Our ongoing investment in these areas is how we’ve earned our place as a leader in the private capital markets.     3. Our growth strategy with the customer at the center.     Our roadmap is designed to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving private markets landscape. We’re expanding data and research coverage, building new capabilities to expand into core workflows, and developing differentiated IP to measure performance. All of this comes with a continuous focus on delivering value to our customers.   Thank you to the Morningstar team for the opportunity to share PitchBook’s vision and momentum. We see a bright future, and we’re just getting started.   

A perfect day on the green at the Sleepy Hollow Country Club! 🏌️♂️ We'd like to thank our clients for attending the #PitchBookGolf2025 New York Invitational. There's nothing like some friendly competition to strengthen great partnerships We had fun and look forward to helping you win what’s next!

New York City's pension system finalized a $5 billion sale of a chunk of its PE portfolio to #Blackstone on Tuesday, marking one of the largest LP-led secondary sales to a single buyer on record. Initiated in December 2024, the transaction involved around 75 PE managers across 125 funds and 450 individual commitments, according to a statement from the Office of the #NewYorkCity Comptroller. Buyouts initially reported the buyer in March. Read Jessica Hamlin's coverage of the sale here: https://pitchb.co/L86eOK

VC secondaries surge to $60 billion, but volatility dampens growth Excited to share the launch of PitchBook's newest quarterly report, US VC Secondary Market Watch, which covers key topics like dealmaking, market size, fundraising, and overall trends. 📈 The US VC direct secondary market is expanding, with an estimated size of $60 billion, up from $50 billion in 2024. However, this growth was primarily driven by soaring #unicorn valuations. 🦄 #Secondaries remain a relatively small piece of the broader venture ecosystem, accounting for just 1.9% of total unicorn value. 🔝 Transaction volume remains heavily concentrated among a small group of the most highly valued #startups, reflecting cautious buyer behavior given trade war uncertainty and public market volatility. 💸 #Liquidity pressure continues to build amid a lack of exits. Intel Capital’s plan to shed legacy VC stakes may signal the start of a wider rebalancing trend among nontraditional investors, and more startups are using #tenderoffers to give early investors and employees access to liquidity while controlling their valuations. Read the full report here (free access): https://lnkd.in/gbDPrzTa #data #preIPO #secondarymarket #venturecapital #VC #IPO

PE investment in Europe’s #aerospace and #defense sector is gathering momentum this year, with deal activity on pace to match or even exceed that seen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sector has attracted around €620 million (around $703.7 million) across 12 deals, representing more than half of 2023’s €1.2 billion total. Deal activity in the sector is projected to stay strong as increased government spending boosts manufacturing and further investment. Read Emily Lai's full coverage here: https://pitchb.co/ZPhhNY

Nearly one in four unicorns became unicorns with backing from US government branches, according to a new Commonweal Ventures study. From 2003 to 2023, the federal government spent $100 billion a year on startups. Public funding played a key role in the early growth of companies including Tesla, OpenAI and Palantir Technologies. Now, one of Washington's favorite debates is the role of government in private markets. There may be a new opportunity set. Via PitchBook. https://lnkd.in/eqF5Z39y