[SINGAPORE] Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) fundraising has remained tough in 2025, a report by data platform Preqin shows.
About US$64.4 billion was raised for VC investments globally during the first three quarters of 2025. This sum is just under half – 48 per cent – of the total raised for 2024.
Europe and Asia-Pacific had the weakest fundraising. In the latter region, fundraising hit US$9.5 billion for the first three quarters of 2025, significantly lower than the full-year figure of US$34.2 billion for 2024. Preqin noted that there was “greater investor caution on fund commitments” in the region.
China remains a “key market for growth” for VC, but access has become more difficult for a subset of global investors and US-based VC firms, Preqin added.
Similarly, PE fundraising remains “relatively soft”, with US$507 billion raised in the first three quarters of 2025; this is about 73 per cent of the total raised in 2024.
Preqin’s projections are for a “modest decline” in the total capital raised for PE in 2025. However, interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve and investor plans to increase commitments to PE in the short term could result in fundraising exceeding forecasts.
As with the VC sector, Europe and Asia-Pacific lagged North America in PE fundraising. There was more interest from private wealth – such as family offices and wealth managers – than asset managers, public and private pension funds, foundations and endowments.
Exit environment
Preqin said that the VC exit environment “seems to be improving”, with 906 deals worth US$170.5 billion in the first three quarters of 2025. This is the highest total exit value since 2021, when there were 2,754 exits totalling US$442.5 billion.
Exits via initial public offerings (IPOs) for the first three quarters of 2025 stood at US$27.2 billion, almost reaching the full-year 2024 figure of US$31.7 billion. Trade sales in the first three quarters of this year have already exceeded 2024’s US$73 billion.
Preqin noted that the increasing total value of exits via trade sales and IPOs is a “healthy sign” for the exit environment for VCs.
On the PE front, trade sales accounted for 57 per cent of all exits in the first three quarters of 2025. Large exits were “dominated” by trade buyers in the financial services and insurance sectors, Preqin added.
Secondary buyouts and trade sales accounted for the 20 largest exits in the first three quarters of the year. Preqin said that this trend could continue into 2026, with “trade buyers pursuing strategic acquisitions… while IPO activity remains low”.
The share of exits via IPOs from PE-owned firms fell to 4 per cent in the first three quarters of 2025, from 6 per cent in 2024.
Besides IPOs and trade sales, other forms of PE fund exits include secondary buyouts, sales to management and restructurings.
Investors weigh in
Exits remain a concern for PE investors, with four in five of those surveyed by Preqin listing it as one of their top concerns.
About half of investors polled intend to allocate the same amount of capital in the short term to PE. The share of respondents intending to allocate more capital dipped to 36 per cent, from 50 per cent in 2024. The share of those planning to cut allocations, meanwhile, doubled year on year to 16 per cent.
For VC, investor appetite remains weak, with 59 per cent of VC fund managers “seeing either a slight or significant decrease in appetite from institutional investors”, Preqin noted. But the bulk of VC investors said they remain committed, with only 19 per cent expecting to cut allocations in the long term.
PE has mostly met investors’ expectations over the last 12 months, with 56 per cent remaining satisfied with returns. But dissatisfaction crept up to 33 per cent, up three percentage points year on year.
Meanwhile, 47 per cent of VC investors said investments have not met their expectations over the last 12 months. Preqin noted that with exit numbers falling since 2021, and funds returning capital more slowly, this result not surprising.
China, South-east Asia and India were cited by investors as having the “best opportunities”.
Investor interest in South-east Asia dipped to 26 per cent in November 2025, from 30 per cent a year earlier. Investors are now “more optimistic” about China; 27 per cent of respondents viewed it as one of the markets with the best opportunities, from 10 per cent in 2024.
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