Our Market Overview offers a comprehensive and unique perspective on the private markets investment landscape, leveraging our firm’s industry expertise, research capabilities and expansive database to help navigate what may lie ahead for the industry.

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2024 Market Overview

Just as the Danish prince was beset by doubt and confusion and forced to parse reality from madness, we set out to take stock of the dynamics at play, expose pockets of investor indecision and identify what is fact…and what is only masquerading as such.

Spoiler alert: There’s a great deal of the latter.

This year’s overview draws parallels between Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and today’s macroeconomic and investing environment.

Explore Key Highlights 

Listen Now: To Invest or Not to Invest

In this Private Markets Made Human podcast episode, hear from Executive Co-Chairman Mario Giannini as he dives into the hot topics coming out of this year’s Market Overview.

Definitions and Disclosures

Managers with Funds Raised in the Trailing 10 Vintage Years

18,500+ Funds | 11,500+ Fund Families*

How to navigate the sea of choice:

Our investors know that intuition is no longer going to cut it; the private sector has become too complex. We offer comprehensive, high-quality and credible data at your fingertips and the technology to help make sense of it. 

Data & Information

Buyout Deals % Equity Contributed
Median by Deal Year

Investment Activity

This chart, dear readers, tells you why we are unlikely to see a repeat of the 2002 or 2007 era of buyout returns. But, why?

Secondaries

The secondary market is the home of three popular views today:

  • You only invest in secondaries to mitigate the J-curve and get access to prior vintage years.

  • GP-led secondaries are terrible, because GPs are selling their crappy assets.

  • GP-led secondaries, particularly single-asset deals, are just like co-investments.

But are any of them true?

How long have we heard the refrain that private equity valuations couldn't possibly be accurate? Let’s consider some facts around this developing mythology, shall we?

Valuations

Source: Hamilton Lane Data, Pitchbook, Cobalt (January 2023) 2023 Fundraising estimates annualized from Q3 Excludes Fund-of-funds, secondary fund-of-funds, co-investment funds and core real estate 

Source: Hamilton Lane Private Wealth Survey 2023 (December 2023)

Compared to 2023, our Private Wealth Survey respondents anticipate their clients' portfolio allocation to the private markets to be a:

Something Is Rotten in the State of the Private Markets… 

Fundraising remains challenged, however, the overall picture is more nuanced, with 2023 figures shaping up to be the seventh-largest fundraising year in history.

Fundraising

When Should You Invest in Private Equity?

The answer, for nearly the last 25 years, is that now is the time. There are very few 10-year periods where private equity didn’t outperform handily. Isn’t that what everyone wants from their investments?

All Private Equity 10-Year Rolling TWRs

Performance

A Glimpse Inside the Report

Our proprietary software, Cobalt LP™, provides investors with the same insights and tools leveraged by Hamilton Lane’s experts around the world (including in the making of our annual Market Overview). Unlock the private markets and power your market research, investment due diligence, portfolio construction and analytics.

Transforming data into insight & action. 

hamilton lane logo

2024 Market Overview

Our Market Overview offers a comprehensive and unique perspective on the private markets investment landscape, leveraging our firm’s industry expertise, research capabilities and expansive database to help navigate what may lie ahead for the industry.

This year’s overview draws parallels between Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and today’s macroeconomic and investing environment.

Just as the Danish prince was beset by doubt and confusion and forced to parse reality from madness, we set out to take stock of the dynamics at play, expose pockets of investor indecision and identify what is fact…and what is only masquerading as such.

Spoiler alert: There’s a great deal of the latter.

Explore Key Highlights 

Listen Now: To Invest or Not to Invest

In this Private Markets Made Human podcast episode, hear from Executive Co-Chairman Mario Giannini as he dives into the hot topics coming out of this year’s Market Overview.

Our proprietary software, Cobalt LP™, provides investors with the same insights and tools leveraged by Hamilton Lane’s experts around the world (including in the making of our annual Market Overview). Unlock the private markets and power your market research, investment due diligence, portfolio construction and analytics.

Transforming data into insight & action.