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The Research Pitch |
December 28, 2024
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We have a lot of great research we're excited to reshare below, but first, we want to thank you—our readers—for helping us achieve another record year.
In 2024, we will set new highs for research downloads and output, in addition to expanding our breadth of coverage.
We've got a lot more we can't wait to bring you in 2025, but until then, here's a recap of our analysts' picks for the best research we published this year.
Please enjoy and have a happy new year! |
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Private Wealth Unlocks New Growth for VC
There is a silver lining hiding in plain sight from venture capital's extended stalemate.
High-net-worth individuals have about $450 trillion at their disposal and are expected to plow more than $7 trillion into private markets by 2033.
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VCs need a new source of funding to continue propelling their growth, so there is no better time for venture to capitalize on this untapped market.
Learn more about how VCs are pivoting to address the needs of this new investor base:
Read the free research
(Bonus research: For more on the growing playbook for VC exit alternatives, including secondaries, continuation funds, and NAV loans, click here.) |
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Quant Perspectives: A New Regime Begins
How would rate cuts impact venture capital?
That was the focus of the Q3 edition of our quantitative research series that connect macroeconomic development with private markets.
Designed in a reader-friendly, 34-page chartbook, our report explores the impact of interest rates on the IPO window, VC fund returns, and loss ratios by deal stage:
Read the free report
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2024 Sustainable Investment Survey
Things are not as they may seem in the sustainable investment landscape.
Negativity may pervade the headlines, but the feedback we got directly from GPs and LPs tells a more nuanced story.
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| Click to access the full 39-page report. |
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We always put immense effort into this annual report to ensure our question set will lead to actionable insights.
Our survey data shows that the outside noise is masking sustained intent among investors:
Read the free report
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Identifying 20 VC-backed IPO Candidates
As private markets' attention is always focused on the IPO exit route, our tech analysts hand-picked 20 companies most ready to list publicly.
The fortunes of some of these candidates have evolved since this early March 2024 publish—Northvolt, ahem—but many eyes will be on this group as VCs and LPs look to unlock liquidity in the coming year:
Read the free research
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The Evergreen Evolution
A structural shift is underway, reshaping how investors access private markets and fund managers operate.
The traditional closed-end fund has driven the private asset management industry's growth for decades, but the oft-advertised 10-year model is increasingly rare and many institutional LPs are slowing their commitment pace.
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| These funds play a crucial role in the evergreen evolution. |
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As fund managers look for fresh sources of capital, their investment products are often more evergreen and semi-liquid in nature—features attractive to the under-tapped, private wealth channel.
Our research unpacks what you need to know about these funds and their key differences in structure, fees, investment strategies, liquidity profiles, and more:
Read the free research
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Launch Report: Aerospace & Defense
Perhaps the biggest expansion of our industry research this year was into the world of aerospace and defense, along with airlines and airline-related services.
This initial effort focused on PE deals and exits, analyzing over 4,000 deals in 43 categories and subcategories.
We also created a new taxonomy for the space and our data shows where activity has been the strongest.
Lastly, our commentary examines the reasons for strength with a viewpoint on what might take place next year:
Read a free preview
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Taking the Private Out of Private Equity
PE buyout strategies—and private markets, more generally—are often touted as "alternative" investments.
Despite the label, buyout funds share many fundamental investment characteristics with traditional public equities strategies. And by extension, managing a portfolio of private companies has key similarities with managing a benchmark-agnostic equity portfolio of public companies.
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| Click to read more on our buyout replication portfolio. |
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How different then is PE buyout as an asset class?
Learn more about how we built a buyout replication portfolio—the PitchBook BRP—as well as how the BRP performs against other indexes and benchmarks:
Read the free research
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Top PE-Backed IPO Candidates and Outlook
After years of softness, the IPO market is showing signs of recovery, sparking renewed optimism among PE investors.
Improved financing conditions, narrower credit spreads, and robust equity markets have fostered an environment favorable for public offerings.
Historical trends also indicate that once IPO activity revives, it often maintains momentum for several years.
Our research highlights 50 US PE-backed companies positioned to go public in the next 12 months and explores the historical interplay between M&A and IPO activity:
Read the free research
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Infrastructure Investors Capitalize on the Digital Revolution
Digital infrastructure has been a huge topic this year, with the proliferation of AI creating a tremendous need for compute, and thus, more AI-compatible datacenters.
To illustrate private markets' involvement, we developed a dataset of funds investing in datacenters and telecom infrastructure, analyzing not only emerging fundraising trends but also the key drivers of its robust performance.
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Additionally, we provide our outlook and discuss the sector's challenges around energy needs, water efficiency improvements, and more.
Finally, the research contains a market map of the major GPs, REITs, and companies playing in the space:
Read the free research
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A High-Stakes Foundation Model Horse Race
To address whether or not we're in an AI bubble, we set out to highlight the latent potential for models capable of reasoning trained in next-generation datacenters.
This note shows how the AI model competition affects company valuations on a continuous basis, anticipating the changes that unfolded in the second half of the year.
Since we published this research, a variety of megadeals have been justified by model progress including OpenAI's o1 series launch, Anthropic's Sonnet 3.5 popularity, and xAI's datacenter engineering excellence.
Learn more about the range of model characteristics and benchmarks that will encourage further innovation:
Read the free research
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Corporate Buyers Maintain an Advantage in Upcoming M&A Recovery
After two consecutive down years, global M&A activity appears to be in a solid rebound mode.
PE-led activity, which lagged corporate-led M&A and held back broad recovery, has now bounced back but is likely to face additional headwinds—like a shrinking supply of dry powder compared to corporate cash reserves.
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With exits low and fundraising slowing, we explore factors that may further constrain PE's relative buying power:
Read the free research
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Launch Report: Consumer Retail & Services
Many brands we know and interact with daily are in retail.
This report marks another expansion of our sector-specific PE coverage, as we dive further into the middle market.
The retail industry, in particular, is still grappling with many challenges, but we explore the scenarios that could help foster a turnaround:
Read the free report
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Diagnostics in the Next Decade
The innovation landscape in diagnostics is evolving rapidly, and startups in the sector have raised over $24 billion in VC funding in the last five years.
Diagnostic tech is increasingly shifting to nontraditional settings such as point-of-care, creating opportunities for startups focused on testing accessibility.
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| Click to access a larger view of this market map. |
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Emerging technologies in cancer testing, precision medicine, and liquid biopsies are poised to stand out, though reimbursement challenges may hinder the rapid adoption of cutting-edge methods.
Our note offers an analysis of VC activity and a forward-looking outlook:
Read the free research
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Emerging Space Brief: AGI Research
Artificial general intelligence that can autonomously reason and problem-solve without task-specific programming?
AGI as a concept often feels like science fiction.
Our research, in an attempt to make the emerging industry more accessible, breaks down the landscape into familiar technical components.
Find out more on how this futuristic technology is being applied across various industries:
Read the free research
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European Unicorns: Modeling Myth or Magic?
Unicorns are vital to VC ecosystems. They represent the largest part of the market and act as valuation barometers.
However, 54% of European unicorns were last priced in 2021 or 2022, posing questions on whether there could be shrinkage when players come back to the cap table.
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Our analysis maps out bull-to-bear scenarios on how much downside could occur, with the market losing nearly €100 billion of value in the worst case:
Read the free research
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The State of Enterprise SaaS M&A
Our coverage scope of the massive enterprise SaaS VC landscape features more than 13,000 startups globally.
This research note dives into the primary drivers of M&A's recovery in the space, with PE leading the way.
Learn about the segments primed for more activity:
Read the free research
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Token Incentives for Decentralized AI
While it seems like an amalgamation of buzzwords, decentralized AI, powered by crypto incentives, addresses key challenges in centralized AI—such as high costs, restricted access, and data privacy concerns.
By distributing computation, data, and decision-making across global networks, decentralized AI fosters collaboration, verifiable contributions, and trust.
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Our note provides an understanding of how blockchain enables verifiable inference, data provenance, and privacy-preserving techniques, despite early-stage hurdles.
While the research is limited to PitchBook clients only, you can access a free webinar on this topic here.
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The Rise of European Megafunds
Our two-part series looks into the factors that have driven growth in European PE megafund activity, including the impact of North American LPs.
We explore data that debunks the myth that megafunds underperform. In fact, we observe benefits like more stable and predictable outcomes, as well as lower fees.
There's a lot to revisit as 2024 is on track for another year of record European PE fundraising, thanks to megafunds:
Read part one and part two
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