Our primers are educational guides covering the fundamentals of private markets. They are designed to help investors build a stronger understanding of the asset class.
The private equity secondary market has become one of the most useful tools available to institutional investors. It offers something the primary fund model cannot: the ability to buy quality assets below their reported value, in portfolios you can diligence before you commit. No blind pool, a compressed J-curve, and a shorter path to distributions.
This paper explains how the secondary market works, from LP-led portfolio sales to the growing universe of GP-led continuation vehicles, and makes the case for why secondaries belong in a serious private markets allocation.
Evergreen funds have made private markets accessible to investors who could never participate through the traditional closed-end model. No capital calls, no ten-year lock-up, and in many cases regular income. However, the liquidity that evergreen funds offer is conditional, not absolute. It is available in normal conditions when relatively few investors want to exit simultaneously. It is constrained when investor anxiety is highest.
This primer discusses the mechanics, liquidity, and other foundational aspects of evergreen funds.
Our market commentary explores the trends, events, and developments influencing private markets. Through independent analysis, we provide insight into the forces shaping the industry and their implications for investors and fund managers.
A fresh generation of Private Equity Associates who outsource all their thinking to Claude? Origination efforts replaced by an AI who can identify, screen and contact suitable target companies within seconds? Groupthink and position crowding if managers all adopt similar AI-driven screening processes?
Our thoughts on what actually matters for private equity investors in the age of AI.
A two-person team can now build in twelve months what required twenty engineers and three years five years ago. The best talent in technology is choosing early stage over established software businesses. And a meaningful proportion of 2021-vintage late stage positions were written at multiples assuming SaaS economics AI is now dismantling.
Early stage venture has rarely been better positioned. Late stage carries risks the market has not fully confronted. The dividing line between the two comes down to one question: is this company building the disruption, or absorbing it?
What the acquisition means for the private capital advisory market, for GPs, and for the LPs who rely on independent advice.
Private markets consolidation is accelerating. The industry is focused on who is buying whom. We think the more important question is what is being lost in the process.
Navigating private credit's most turbulent period in a decade, from Tricolor to MFS to Blue Owl, with clear-eyed analysis and disciplined manager selection.