Private Markets Surge: AI-Driven Deals Redefine 2025

The private markets landscape in July 2025 is buzzing with activity, driven by an AI-fueled wave of investments across venture capital, private equity, and growth equity. Over the past two weeks, key developments signal a shift toward specialized, high-impact opportunities, reshaping dealmaking strategies.

Spotlight on AI-Powered Deals

• Ramp’s $500M Round: The enterprise banking fintech is in talks to raise a $500M round at a $22.5B valuation, led by ICONIQ, with a focus on AI-driven financial analytics. This underscores the growing appetite for tech-enabled efficiency in fintech (PR Newswire, Tech Crunch).

• OSL Group’s $300M Equity Boost: The Asia-based digital asset platform secured $300M to expand its AI-enhanced trading infrastructure, reflecting the private credit sector’s pivot to crypto infrastructure (Bloomberg).

• Buena’s $58M Series A: This proptech startup raised $58M, led by Google Ventures, to deploy AI for real estate management, highlighting growth equity’s bet on niche AI applications (Buena).

Drivers of the AI Boom

• Data-Driven Differentiation: AI startups leverage proprietary datasets—financial transaction logs, real-time property data—creating moats that generic models can’t breach, much like the vertical AI trends noted in prior deepdives.

• Policy and Market Alignment: With regulatory clarity emerging (e.g., SEC’s accredited investor expansion), AI-focused firms gain traction in compliance-heavy sectors like finance and real estate.

• Capital Efficiency: AI tools deliver rapid ROI—optimizing loan portfolios or automating property valuations—making them attractive to investors seeking quick exits in a high-interest-rate environment.

Emerging Exit Pathways

The exit horizon for AI-driven private market investments is brightening. Strategic buyers like financial giants (e.g., JPMorgan eyeing Ramp’s tech) and real estate conglomerates (e.g., CBRE for Buena) are scouting acquisitions. Secondary markets are also heating up, with continuation funds emerging as a tool to manage aging portfolios, potentially peaking in 2026-27 as AI matures, echoing the SaaS consolidation wave from earlier decades.

Key Takeaway

AI is the linchpin of private market growth in 2025, with specialized applications outpacing broad models. For founders, deep domain expertise is the new currency; for investors, success hinges on assessing technical and regulatory fit over pure valuation metrics.

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The Market Pulse

Yesterday’s Capital, Today’s Tactics:
Capital remains available—but only for the savvy and structurally creative. Exit routes are still tight, but dealmakers are deploying via nuanced tools while embracing sector-specific momentum. Continuation vehicles, regional pivots, and mega-rounds are shaping the new capital choreography.

• Continuation Funds & Secondaries Reign Supreme:
  PE sponsors are increasingly relying on continuation vehicles and GP-led secondaries—now projected to exceed $220B in volume in 2025—to extend holds amid exit uncertainty. What was once a niche strategy is now a standard playbook—an elegant workaround to frozen IPO windows and skittish acquirers.

• PE Value Versus Volume:
  Deal value is up ~50% YoY, even as deal count declines. Large transactions continue to dominate value share—and exits to strategics rose sharply, hitting ~37% of total deals in H1. The market's message: go big, go bold—or don’t go at all.

• VC Inflows Skyrocket—but Fundraising Slows:
  U.S. startup investment surged to $162.8B in H1 2025, even as new VC fund creation dipped 34%, widening the gap between capital deployment and capital raising. Funds raised in 2021–22 are still being deployed, but LPs are tightening new commitments amid uncertainty.

• Biopharma VC Continues Slide:
  For the fourth consecutive quarter, VC fundraising in biopharma dropped, highlighting a slowdown in healthcare capital—even as AI and climate tech stay resilient. The sector’s capital diet is forcing startups to shift from moonshots to milestone-driven pitches.

• India & Regional Shifts:
  PE & VC investments in India dropped 19% YoY in H1 2025, signaling a shift in focus toward North American and European markets—even amid uncertainty. Regional capital is rotating—not retreating—with a renewed appetite for regulation-light, capital-heavy ecosystems.

📌 TL;DR

• Capital: Still abundant—if you use the right tools.

• Strategy: Continuations, secondaries, and NAV lending rule the day.

• Exits: Value is climbing; volume is thinning.

• Spotlight: AI & fintech lead VC; healthcare stalls; regional flows are shifting.

Latest Fundraises from Major Firms (PE, VC, and Institutional Investors)

Venture Capital & Growth

• AN Venture Partners raised $200M for its first fund focused on Japanese biotech, bridging Tokyo and San Francisco innovation (Bizfortune).

• Verified Capital, led by ex-Coatue partner Kris Fredrickson, secured an oversubscribed $175M debut fund for eight to ten AI-focused investments (Tech Funding News).

• Mantis VC raised $100M for its third fund, continuing its support for high-potential startups (Techcrunch).

• IK Partners raised $2.2B for its fourth small-cap fund, eyeing European growth opportunities (IK Partners).

Private Equity & Credit

• Blackstone raised ~$5B for its latest infrastructure secondaries fund, doubling down on strategic asset plays (Infor Capital).

• KR Capital, led by ex-Marshall Wace PM Ravi Naresh, secured $3B from Millennium for its equity long/short fund (HedgeWeek).

• Optimas Capital Management, under Thomas Wong, raised $1.2B from Millennium for its Asian equity long/short strategy (HedgeWeek).

• Great Rock Capital locked down a $1.1B senior secured leverage facility led by Capital One, fueling private credit growth (ABL Advisor).

• Fortitude Capital raised ~$585M to invest in Portugal’s soccer stadium infrastructure, a unique PE twist (Litquidity).

• Third Point raised $400M for its first dedicated structured private credit fund for insurance companies (Connectmoney).

• Progressio raised $364M for its fourth fund, targeting Italian PE opportunities (AltAssetsPE).

• RA Capital raised $120M for a 'Planetary Health' fund, focusing on life sciences impact (PR Newswire).

• Brandon Capital raised $295M for its sixth fund, boosting Australian life sciences VC (Fierce Biotech).

• High River Resources Management raised $205M for its second O&G-focused PE fund (Businesswire).

• Elad Gil is raising a record-breaking $1.5B fund as a solo GP, the largest ever for an individual VC (Techmeme).

• Arch Capital Group is in talks to sell over $350M in BlackRock fund stakes to secondary funds like Ares (Yahoo Finance).

Top Jobs

Venture Capital roles

Senior Investment Associate at Inventure (DC)

Associate at Costanoa Ventures (SF)

Manager at Capital One Ventures (NYC)

Associate at Pathlight Ventures (NYC)

Growth Equity Roles

Analyst at Morgan Stanley Growth (NYC)

Investor at Stripes (NYC)

Growth Equity Associate at Trimer Capital (SF)

Private Equity (Buyout) Roles

Associate at Ares (Los Angeles)

Analyst at StepStone (NYC)

CoS Roles

Chief of Staff at Formant (SF)

Chief of Staff at Pax (SF)

Chief of Staff at Clarium (NYC)

Business Operations Roles

Operations Manager at Teero (Austin, TX)

Strategy & Operations Lead at Terial (NYC)

VP of Operations at Unison (Omaha, NE)

Interesting Podcasts from the past week

Podcasts:

• Open AI vs. Anthropic

• Mark Cuban’s Blueprint for Startup Success 

• AI, Learning, and Podcasting | Dwarkesh Patel

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