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| The Daily Pitch |
| PE, VC and M&A |
| Your edge on global private capital markets |
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| Good morning. In today’s Daily Pitch, we dig into Trump's regulatory reset, explain why the middle market is Europe's fundraising hot spot and look at VC activity in the volatile mobility-tech sector. |
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| Timeline: Breaking down Trump's moves to reshape financial regulations |
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| SEC chair Paul Atkins (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) |
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By Michael Bodley, Sr. Venture Capital Reporter
The first year of President Donald Trump's second term has ushered in the most significant regulatory reset for the private capital markets in years.
The SEC, FTC and Congress opened the floodgates for retail investors clamoring for private assets. And emerging sectors, like crypto, received approving nods from officials throughout the year.
Still, the dramatic shift has not always been clear, according to industry participants. Trump issued dozens of early executive orders reversing the Biden administration's stricter posture across financial regulation. Yet in several areas, regulators have not fully spelled out what will replace the old rules, leaving a void.
"People get really excited about this 'nothing-to-see-here' regulatory posture, but how do we build on this in the next four years?" said Holli Heiles Pandol, Carta's head of US policy and a former SEC attorney. "The only thing worse than bad regulation is uncertainty—those big swings."
The administration and lawmakers have especially focused on areas such as the role of alternative assets in retirement plans; interval funds' and mutual funds' exposure to the private markets; ETFs' experimentation with blended public-private allocations; and the cap on private-asset exposures for retirement vehicles.
The next big change could be revisions to the accredited investor definition, according to Heiles Pandol. A bill aimed at doing this recently passed the House of Representatives.
Next year, several unresolved issues will carry over from 2025, with retail access to private investments at the top of the list.
Trump also embraced crypto as soon as he took office, notably by appointing former commissioner Paul Atkins as chair of the SEC. In Congress, the Genius Act paved the way for stablecoin adoption, with Wall Street quickly taking initial steps to tap into the technology's potential. But a pending crypto market infrastructure bill, which could create clear rules, has stalled in Congress.
Experts hope next year's activity will be less of a patchwork.
"How do we put all of these together in a way that's going to make sense in the long term?" said Dan O'Connor, a former SEC trial attorney and current Ropes & Gray partner. |
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• Mobility-tech VC activity continued its uneven ride in Q3 2025, with deal value dropping sharply from Q2, when totals were inflated by one outsized acquisition. Beneath that volatility, the sector showed steadier fundamentals. Get the full report
• Evergreen real assets funds have become a key gateway for private wealth investors to access infrastructure and natural resources. Our analysts take a deep dive into the sector. See what they found
• Europe's absent workers are creating PE's latest health gold rush—as sick leave climbs, firms swarm into occupational health and tech promises a long-overdue overhaul. Find out more |
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| Europe's PE fundraising hot spot shifts to mid-market |
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By Emily Lai, Private Equity Reporter
The bright spot of European PE fundraising this year has shifted from mega-funds to mid-market vehicles, with the segment setting a new fundraising record.
According to PitchBook data, European mid-market PE funds, those raising between €1 billion ($1.2 billion) and €5 billion, have already collected €53 billion as of Dec. 17. This is 35% more than the capital raised in all of 2024. Fund count remained flat at its peak of 22 closings.
The segment now accounts for around two-thirds of total PE fundraising in Europe. |
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Some significant closes this year include CVC Capital Partners’ Strategic Opportunities III, which raised €4.6 billion in March.
The fund focuses on Europe and North America with a longer investment horizon compared to traditional PE mandates.
Oakley Capital also held a final close for Oakley Capital VI on its €4.5 billion hard cap in March, six months after the fundraise was launched.
Fund VI represents a 58% increase on Fund V with a 100% re-up rate.
LPs are gravitating toward the middle market because it provides more flexible deployment options, depends less on large syndicated financings, and offers greater room for differentiated deal sourcing, according to PitchBook's Q3 2025 European PE Breakdown.
The trend starkly contrasts with the US, where mid-market PE funds only brought in $71 billion in the first three quarters of 2025, barely half of what was raised in 2024.
Fundraising for the segment in the US has been dragged down by a relatively slower recovery in exits compared to the larger end of the market. Mid-market companies often lack the scale needed to attract enough public investor interest as the IPO market perks up in the US. |
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Smart reads that caught our eye.
• For toymakers, Christmas starts early. In January, toy companies finalize designs and deals. By summer, containers are crossing the ocean. In 2025, this process was disrupted by President Donald Trump's tariffs. [The Economist]
• Big Tech's dominance of AI infrastructure is shrinking as newcomers pile into the arena, bringing with them a new set of risks. [Bloomberg]
• Eight years after Energy Capital Partners acquired natural-gas power producer Calpine, the transaction is poised to become the most profitable PE deal of all time. [The Wall Street Journal] |
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| Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: |
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766
Deals
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2688
People
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1262
Companies
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24
Funds
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