2023 Market Overview

Our 2023 Market Overview draws parallels between the classic story “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and the slightly disorienting reality and unfamiliar challenges we are experiencing in today’s macroeconomic and investing environment.

Informed by our expansive database, research capabilities and industry expertise, our Market Overview offers a comprehensive and unique perspective on the investment landscape to help navigate what may lie ahead for our industry. Because if there’s one thing we’re sure of, it’s that there’s no place like home.

Explore Key Highlights

Outperformance of Public Markets

Buyout irr vs. pme
By Vintage Year

We get asked, every year, whether now is the time to invest in private equity. Every year. And this chart has provided the answer for the last 22 years. Will the next 22 prove the same? No one knows for sure, but do you really want to bet against an investment that has outperformed like this in every one of the last 22 years?

We don’t. You shouldn’t either.

The Truth About Valuations

In the private markets world, one overriding refrain was a hallmark of 2022: Valuations are bogus. The topic dominated nearly every meeting, every conversation. How can public markets be down 20% and private markets only be down something like 5%? Well, let us start with the punch line.

Valuations are pretty accurate across most private market sectors.

Turning Our Attention to Retail Investors

2021 SIZE OF THE MARKETS: PRIVATE MARKET NAV VS. HNWI

If the institutional market is not going to provide the capital the industry wants to gather, then are we really surprised when the industry turns its attention to individuals and the massive pool of available capital there?

Credit, Infrastructure, Secondaries…Oh my!

We’ve discussed the diversity of deal flow within the secondary market many times. It is the area of the private markets where the most innovation and creativity is occurring around exits and liquidity options. GP-led deals still represented the majority of deal flow last year. Remember, these deals didn’t even exist 10 years ago.

The Power of Data & Technology

managers with funds raised in the trailing 10 vintage years
12,500+ Funds | 8,600+ fund families*

We believe that superior investment performance can be driven by superior access to information; that differentiated returns are a result of differentiated thinking. In our case, we’re producing insights through technology and data that others just don’t have.

ESG as a Risk Assessment Tool

ESG is not about “woke” investing; it is about evaluating real investment risks and ensuring responsible governance structures and hiring practices in an industry where returns are built on superior governance and attracting top talent.