Based on conversations with GPs, the fundraising market feels more difficult out there, especially for those not raising mega-funds with a “name brand” on the cover. Our data fully supports these sentiments. Not only did fundraising decline in 2022, but the share going to firms with more than three funds increased. In 2011, emerging managers took in 39.6% of capital, but that number dropped to 22.4% by 2021. Smaller, lesser-known funds tend to arrive in our dataset more slowly, but thus far we show that 83.3% of capital raised in 2022 went to experienced managers.

We’ve tried to help struggling GPs improve their pitches and better understand how placement agents could help in two previous analyst notes: PitchBook’s Guide to Your Pitch and The Role of Placement Agents in GP Fundraising. While the 2022 fundraising figures will rise over the next year, it does appear that it will be a down year overall for private capital fundraising. Yet, as we show in this report, the largest fund managers were able to not only close on big funds, but increase their fund sizes, once again spotlighting the trend of big funds crowding out the thousands of smaller funds marketing at any given moment.