Kirk Falconer

Expected to be a durable opportunity for the foreseeable future, DPI trades are being actively pursued by hybrid strategies.

Hybrid capital appears to be having a moment. The strategy’s knack for complex deals at a time of market disruption is juicing demand – including among liquidity-strapped GPs.

Capital raised by North America-based PE funds in H1 2026 was the highest for a first half in three years, while fund closings fell to their lowest level since pandemic-roiled H1 2020. What gives?

Buyout, growth equity, secondaries, venture capital and other PE funds had raised a total of $308bn as of June 30, up 9% from the $282bn secured a year earlier, according to PEI Group data.

The mantra 'DPI is the new IRR' has caught on across the PE industry, mostly because it describes the unique circumstances now faced by LPs and GPs alike.

Accelerating GP demand for fund capital is at odds with today’s supply crunch, caused by widespread LP overallocation.

CVs continue private equity's history of innovation and evolution and will likely become part of the asset class's long term set of options for exits, co-managing partners Jeff Rhodes told Buyouts.

Because of the supply crunch, GPs have since 2022 been keeping their funds open longer, hoping to wait out LPs with liquidity issues caused by overallocation and weak distributions.

'This is the best time ever for investing – and yet it’s hard to get capital,' said Ryan Hinkle, managing director of Insight Partners.

If 20% of expected climate investment is accounted for by private markets, TPG executive chairman Jim Coulter said, 'spending... will be bigger than the entire private equity industry is today.'