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| The Daily Pitch |
| PE, VC and M&A |
| Your edge on global private capital markets |
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| PE finds momentum in construction as other sectors stall |
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By James Ulan, Director of Research, Emerging Technology
PE's most improved player in 2025 was the construction industry, which has seen a steady increase in dealmaking as other segments warmed the bench.
The sector reached an estimated 453 deals and over $31 billion in funding last year—up from 2021-2024's average of 299 pacts and $25.9 billion, according to our debut US Private Equity Momentum Report.
Within construction, the construction tech segment was a huge standout at over $4 billion in PE funding in 2025, compared to $1.2 billion in 2024. Engineering reached an estimated $20.9 billion, compared to an average of $18.5 billion in 2021-2024.
Our analysts believe construction and engineering are benefiting from the delayed impact of the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, along with the data center construction boom, some reshoring and declining interest rates.
And PE buyers are gaining experience combining construction assets to improve margins and increase scale.
Where PE investors spent less time was at the doctor’s office, as deal value for physician practice management companies fell by around half relative to their 2022-2024 average.
Other parts of healthcare services, consumer staples, consumer packaged goods, and areas of aerospace and defense were other laggards. |
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Exit activity told a similar story. Construction exits surged to $92 billion in 2025, far above the $12.7 billion average from 2021 to 2024, while engineering exits rose to $9.2 billion from a $5.9 billion historical average.
By contrast, healthcare services lagged amid policy uncertainty tied to tighter Medicaid eligibility and the loss of enhanced premium tax credit subsidies for health insurance exchanges.
But we expect healthcare services exits to gain momentum in the second half of 2026. |
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• Hg agreed to acquire financial software specialist OneStream in a take-private transaction valued at $6.4 billion. The Michigan-based company has struggled to maintain its valuation since its 2024 IPO. Read more
• Lux Capital sets up for a busy 2026: The VC firm closed a $1.5 billion fund yesterday and backs a crew of high-profile IPO hopefuls, including Anduril, Databricks and Ramp. Go deeper
• With Discord filing confidentially for an IPO, as reported this week, we look back to our analyst's note from October on expectations for the gaming company and its 200 million monthly active users. Will investors support its shift from "freemium" to ads? Read the note |
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| Crypto companies cracked IPO ceiling in 2025—and 2026 could keep pace |
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| Bullish CEO Tom Farley, center, celebrates after ringing the NYSE opening bell on Aug. 13. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) |
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By Michael Bodley, Sr. Venture Capital Reporter
2025 heated up the crypto IPO market, as well as startup M&A. It was also a banner year for regulatory clarity in the US.
And investors say 2026 is primed for even more significant liquidity, while industry participants are hoping the US government settles some crucial regulatory matters.
Top of mind is a bill addressing crypto's market structure, which has been held up in Congress.
The market saw an unprecedented number of public listings of crypto-related companies, including Bullish, Circle, eToro, Figure and Gemini, while veteran operators like Grayscale Investments and Kraken filed for IPOs.
VC activity, meanwhile, ramped up as Wall Street deepened its crypto ties.
"2025 marked the professionalization of crypto, and the public markets noticed," said Mike Bellin, a PwC partner who leads the firm's US IPO division. "What we've noticed is a lot of money went into crypto, and the early 2020, 2021 market was not ready to take these companies public."
Wall Street startup investors in venture rounds have been especially enamored with stablecoins. Major public players, such as Visa, this year have struck ambitious stablecoin partnerships.
"We were as busy as ever in 2025 on the venture side, and I see no reason the momentum isn't going to continue fully in 2026," said Hoolie Tejwani, head of Coinbase Ventures.
Still, macro factors and startup valuations ballooning too much to become a problem. |
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Early-stage VC deal value held steady in 2025 over 2024, but growth venture rounds boomed, reflecting growing M&A possibilities for acquirers of mature crypto companies.
Venture growth deal value totaled $7.7 billion last year, up from $65 million in 2024—and breaking 2021's record $6.38 billion.
"We'll continue to see more M&A activity," said Matt Homer, founder and general partner of The Venture Dept., a crypto VC firm. "The question is whether at some point fatigue sets in."
There's also the matter of the mixed performance of 2025 crypto IPOs, with several losing some of their initial stock price gains.
"Based on that, as a growth-stage founder, you're weighing those options until you see post-IPO performance perform well," said Paul Hsu, founder and CEO of VC firm Decasonic. "You may skip this window, as well." |
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Smart reads that caught our eye.
• The Trump administration starts a push to keep large institutional investors from buying up single-family homes, promising a battle with the industry. [Politico]
• Wall Street expects Space X, OpenAI and Anthropic to go public this year—but is it willing to pay what will be sky-high prices? [CNBC]
• Here's a new job for AI: Sorting your trash to find valuable commodities. [The Wall Street Journal] |
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