Private equity statistics at a glance
Private equity in 2024 was defined by a simple tension: capital was still pouring in, but the industry was also sitting on a huge backlog of unsold assets. The numbers below show a market that is rich in dry powder, heavy on unrealized value, and increasingly dependent on secondaries and exits to clear the path forward.
Table of contents
- Fast facts
- Private equity fundraising statistics
- Deal activity and exits
- Dry powder and unsold assets
- Secondaries and liquidity
- What the data says about holding periods
- Selected market signals
Fast facts
$1.2 trillion was raised by the private equity industry in 2023, and buyout funds accounted for $448 billion of that total (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
$3.9 trillion in available dry powder was sitting in the industry in mid-2024, including $1.1 trillion of committed but uncalled capital in buyout funds (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
28,000 unsold companies represented $3.2 trillion of unrealized value in 2024, showing how much capital was still tied up on the portfolio side (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
$120 billion is the approximate annual liquidity provided by secondary transactions, which looks small next to more than $20 trillion in global private capital AUM (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024; Bain Have Secondaries Reached a Tipping Point?).
Private equity fundraising statistics
Private equity fundraising remained large even as the market absorbed slower exit conditions and a growing backlog of assets. The funding base was broad, but the data shows that capital formation was still concentrated in the biggest vehicles and most established channels.
Key fundraising numbers
| Metric | Figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Industry capital raised in 2023 | $1.2 trillion | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Buyout funds raised in 2023 | $448 billion | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Global private equity fund-raising through May 15, 2024 | $422 billion | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Implied full-year 2024 fund-raising | about $1.1 trillion | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Buyout fund-raising through May 15, 2024 | $199 billion | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Projected 2024 buyout fund-raising | $531 billion | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Buyout fund-raising change vs. 2023 | 6% above 2023 | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Secondary funds capital raised in 2023 vs. 2022 | 92% more | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
A few points stand out immediately.
First, the industry is still able to mobilize enormous sums. A trillion-dollar fundraising year is not a marginal signal; it is evidence that private equity remains one of the most important capital-raising engines in private markets (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
Second, buyout funds are meaningful but not dominant inside the broader industry total. Their $448 billion raised in 2023 was large, but it was still well below the total private equity raise of $1.2 trillion, which hints at a wider ecosystem that includes other fund types and strategies (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
Third, the pace through mid-2024 suggested a year that could land close to the prior year’s scale, even if not evenly distributed across managers or vintages. The projected full-year fund-raising total of about $1.1 trillion was still massive, but it was also 15% below 2023 (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
Fundraising pressure points
The fundraising market was not short of capital, but it was more selective.
- As of January 2024, 14,500 funds were on the road seeking $3.2 trillion in capital (Bain Private Equity Outlook 2024).
- Only $1 was closed for every $2.40 targeted, which shows how much unmet demand remained in the fundraising pipeline (Bain Private Equity Outlook 2024).
- That supply-demand imbalance was described as the worst in more than a decade (Bain Private Equity Outlook 2024).
- The 10 largest buyout funds closed in 2024 took in 64% of total capital raised, showing how capital concentrated at the top of the market (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
- The largest of those funds, EQT X, accounted for 12% of total capital raised (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
That combination matters because it shows private equity fundraising is not simply a question of whether money exists. It is also a question of who can attract it, how quickly it can be deployed, and whether investors are willing to commit at scale to a narrow set of managers.
Deal activity and exits
Deal activity in 2024 did not collapse, but it also did not fully normalize. The market was active enough to keep deal counts moving, while exit volumes and holding-period pressure continued to weigh on the system.
Deal and exit snapshot
| Metric | Figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Global buyout deal count through May 15, 2024 | down 4% annualized | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Global buyout deal value projected for 2024 | $521 billion | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Projected buyout deal value vs. 2023 | 18% increase | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Average buyout deal size in 2024 | $916 million | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Average buyout deal size in 2023 | $758 million | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Global buyout-backed exit value projected for 2024 | $361 billion | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Exit value vs. 2023 | 17% above 2023 | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| 2024 exit value ranking | second-worst year since 2016 | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Total number of buyout-backed exits | flat on an annualized basis | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
The deal-value data says something important: fewer deals does not necessarily mean a weaker market if larger transactions are carrying more of the load. The average buyout deal size rose from $758 million in 2023 to $916 million in 2024, which implies more weight on fewer, larger transactions (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
That pattern also lines up with regional divergence. North America buyout deal value was on pace to increase 67% in 2024, even as North America buyout deal count was on pace to fall 4% (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024). In other words, the market was not simply expanding uniformly; it was tilting toward larger tickets.
Why exits mattered more than deal count
Exits remained a bottleneck because the system had accumulated too much inventory.
- The total number of buyout-backed exits was still basically flat on an annualized basis in mid-2024 (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
- The IPO channel had reopened enough to create notable exits, including EQT’s $2.6 billion Galderma IPO (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
- Still, 2024 was tracking as the second-worst year for exit value since 2016 (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
The headline is not that exits were absent. The headline is that exits were not strong enough to fully clear the backlog of mature holdings, which created pressure on fund lives, distribution timing, and future fundraising conversations.
Dry powder and unsold assets
This is where the private equity statistics become especially revealing. The industry was flush with committed capital, but it was also carrying an unusually large stock of assets that had not yet been sold.
$3.9 trillion of available dry powder in mid-2024 is the kind of figure that signals enormous buying capacity (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024). But the same market also had 28,000 unsold companies worth $3.2 trillion in unrealized value, which means the capital stack was not just waiting to be invested; it was also waiting to be realized (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
Dry powder vs. backlog
| Indicator | Figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Available dry powder in mid-2024 | $3.9 trillion | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Committed but uncalled capital in buyout funds | $1.1 trillion | Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024 |
| Unsold companies in 2024 | 28,000 | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Unrealized value of unsold companies | $3.2 trillion | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Unsold companies four years old or older | more than 40% | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Unsold assets held three years or less | 54% | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Companies held four years or longer | 46% of unsold assets | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
The key tension is that private equity had both a buying problem and a selling problem.
- On one side, there was enough dry powder to support continued acquisition activity.
- On the other side, the portfolio overhang was large enough that it could not be ignored by managers or investors.
That is why the market’s liquidity discussion became so central. Capital deployment was still possible, but realization timing had become an equally important variable.
Big number
70% of companies four years old or older were doing just OK or worse (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
That single figure explains why the backlog matters. Once a substantial share of aging portfolio companies is no longer clearly compounding at a premium pace, the urgency to sell, recapitalize, or otherwise unlock value rises quickly.
Secondaries and liquidity
Secondaries were one of the few structural pressure valves in the data.
Secondary funds raised 92% more capital in 2023 than in 2022 (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024), and secondary transactions provide about $120 billion in annual liquidity (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
That is meaningful growth, but it is still modest relative to the size of the market.
Liquidity indicators
- Secondary transactions provide about $120 billion in annual liquidity (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
- The private capital industry has over $20 trillion in assets under management globally (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
- Buyout funds were sitting on a record $3.2 trillion of unsold companies in 2024 (Bain Cash Became King Again 2024).
- The $3.2 trillion backlog was four times the level by value seen during the global financial crisis (Bain Have Secondaries Reached a Tipping Point?).
- Secondary funds were growing faster than any other asset class in 2023 (Bain Have Secondaries Reached a Tipping Point?).
That combination is why secondary markets keep showing up in private equity discussions. They are not a side note. They are one of the only scalable mechanisms available for portfolio restructuring, liquidity creation, and timeline management when the exit market is slow.
Why it matters
The gap between the $120 billion of annual secondary liquidity and the $3.2 trillion backlog is the real signal here (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024; Bain Have Secondaries Reached a Tipping Point?). It suggests secondaries can help at the margin, but they are not large enough on their own to eliminate the broader portfolio inventory problem.
What the data says about holding periods
Holding period data is where private equity’s operational strain becomes visible.
Aging portfolio pressure
| Holding-period statistic | Figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Companies held five years or longer, year over year | up 18% in 2023 | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Companies held four years or longer | 46% of unsold assets | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Companies six years old or more at breakeven or below | 36% | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Companies six years old or more at 1.0x to 2.5x MOIC | 34% | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Companies four years old or older doing just OK or worse | 70% | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Companies four years or longer at or below 1.0x MOIC | 29% | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
| Companies four years or longer above 1.0x but below 2.5x MOIC | 41% | Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 |
These figures point to a broad aging of the portfolio base.
The most striking benchmark is that companies held four years or longer made up 46% of unsold assets, the highest level since 2012 (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024). That means the backlog is not just large; it is also old.
A second notable signal is the distribution of outcomes among older companies. Among assets held six years or more, 36% were at breakeven or below, while another 34% were at 1.0x to 2.5x MOIC (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024). That leaves a sizable share of older assets that are not obviously ready for a clean, premium exit.
Fast facts on maturity
- 40%+ of unsold companies were four years old or older (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
- 54% of unsold assets had been held for three years or less, so the portfolio is split between young and aging vintages rather than being uniformly stale (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
- Companies held for five years or longer grew 18% year over year in 2023 (Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024).
- The 2006 vintage of buyout funds was singled out as a benchmark cohort in the liquidity discussion (Bain Cash Became King Again 2024).
That last point matters because it anchors the current discussion in a longer cycle. Private equity is not only dealing with current market conditions; it is also dealing with vintage-specific outcomes that have been building for years.
Selected market signals
A few additional statistics help round out the picture of the industry as it stood in 2024.
- Global buyout deal value was on pace to finish 2024 at $521 billion, which would be an 18% increase over 2023 (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
- Buyout-backed exit value was on pace to reach $361 billion, or 17% above the 2023 total (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
- The 25 largest buyout firms doubled the number of portfolio companies they held over the last decade (Bain Private Equity Midyear Report 2024).
- U.S. private equity markets invested $516 billion in 2024 (NB Crossroads Private Markets Fund IV Holdings LLC N-CSR filing).
- Public-to-private deal value in the U.S. fell to $147 billion in 2024 from $154 billion in 2023 (NB Crossroads Private Markets Fund IV Holdings LLC N-CSR filing).
- TPG Capital reported $43.5 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2024 (TPG 2024 annual filing).
These figures do not tell one clean story. Instead, they show a market with huge scale, uneven momentum, and a growing dependence on careful portfolio management. Private equity in 2024 was not short on capital or opportunity; it was short on clean resolution.