Benchmarks utilize 45 years of proprietary private equity deal-level data and analytics across 64,000 investments and 3,000 partnerships for real-time private equity market forecasting 

• Global private equity (PE) projections show steady performance during volatile second quarter 2025
• In Q1 2025, Financials were the top-performing sector, followed by Industrials, with both outperforming the broader Global Buyout market

HarbourVest Partners, a global private markets investment firm with more than $147 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2025, today released its latest quarterly private equity benchmark performance, including projections through the end of Q2 2025.

HarbourVest Private Equity Benchmarks (“HV PE Benchmarks”) are based on granular, transaction-level analysis of more than 64,000 deals with more than $3.7 trillion of private capital invested across 3,000 partnerships going back 45 years. The firm believes the rigor and level of detail in benchmark construction results in data quality and transparency that is generally difficult to find in the private markets industry. Historically, investment-level benchmarks enable private markets return attribution analysis and improve accuracy of risk modeling.

Highlights of HV PE Benchmarks Q2 2025 Quarterly Projections:

• PE continues to deliver steady returns in a volatile quarter. Our projected Q2 2025 benchmark performance indicates relative stability in the valuation of PE-owned businesses across Global Buyout, US Buyout, and US Venture Capital markets.

HarbourVest PE Benchmarks indicate Q2 2025 projected performance of:

• Global Buyout returned 6.1%, relative to 11.7% (actual) for the MSCI ACWI Total Return benchmark.
• US Buyout returned 3.4%, relative to 8.1% (actual) for the Russell 2000 Total Return benchmark.
• US Venture Capital returned 7%, relative to 18% (actual) for the NASDAQ Composite Total Return benchmark.
  
  

• For the HarbourVest Global Buyout Benchmark: In Q1 2025, Financials were the top-performing sector, followed by Industrials, with both outperforming the broader Global Buyout market. Healthcare, Consumer, Communications Services, Materials, IT, and Energy lagged the market, posting modest positive returns over the quarter.
  
  

• PE valuations are projected to remain steady in Q2 2025. While public markets are continuing to recover from 2022 volatility to outperform over a trailing 1-year horizon, private markets have consistently outperformed over 5- and 10-year periods.

“Despite a volatile quarter that witnessed a public market frenzy in the aftermath of the tariffs announced on April 2, private equity continued to provide steady performance for investors,” said Scott Voss, Managing Director and Senior Market Strategist, HarbourVest Partners. “For investors with a longer-term investment horizon, the stability and long-term performance of private equity continues to be evident given long-term outperformance.”

The Q2 benchmark projections are estimates intended to provide a directional sense of private equity performance versus other asset classes. Final Q2 private equity performance numbers will not be available until the underlying firms issue their own quarterly reports, typically 60-90 days after the close of each quarter.

“HarbourVest's depth of experience and data allow us to model out near-term projections of PE market performance in advance of the traditional reporting cycle,” said Sofia Gertsberg, Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Investment Science, HarbourVest Partners. “We dive deeper into deal level returns to seek to get a transparent view into the true drivers of investment performance, whether it be size, sector or geography—detail that’s unaccounted for in fund level performance, which misses the underlying drivers of that performance.”

About the HarbourVest Private Equity Benchmarks (“HV PE Benchmarks”)

HarbourVest’s proprietary benchmarks, created by the firm’s Quantitative Investment Science group, track the performance of PE and venture-owned companies. HarbourVest releases benchmark performance for companies in the following categories (i) Global Buyouts; (ii) US Buyouts, a subset of the Global Buyouts category; and (iii) US Venture Capital. An investment benchmark is similar to a scorecard, used to measure how well an investment is performing compared to a relevant counterpart. The HarbourVest benchmarks are based on HarbourVest’s proprietary dataset of over 64,000 investments that have been held in PE funds, representing more than $3.7 trillion of capital invested collectively as of March 31, 2025. We believe these benchmarks can provide recipients with differentiated information based on extensive private deal data and cash flow history, enabling transparency into performance drivers to provide more granular insights than is available with traditional PE benchmarks.

Disclosures:

HarbourVest Private Equity Benchmarks (“HV PE Benchmarks”). Market analysis is not representative of any HarbourVest product. The HV PE Benchmarks reflect a compilation of PE partnership and transactional data drawn from internal and external sources and related estimated valuations of such companies by HarbourVest for the illustrated period (which in turn are based on HarbourVest’s subjective assumptions). The HV PE Benchmarks represent net performance based on an all-in fees and expenses assumption of 500 basis points. The actual fees and expenses applicable to the underlying investments included in the HV PE Benchmarks may be materially higher than the assumed fees and expenses, which would lower the returns. The HV PE Benchmarks data universe information has been developed internally based on information obtained from sources believed to be reliable; however, HarbourVest does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of such information or HarbourVest’s related valuation estimates or assumptions, which may be materially inaccurate. The HV PE Benchmarks are intended to be representative of the broader PE market and do not reflect any views, analysis, or recommendation by HarbourVest with respect to any particular investment and are not representative of the investment performance of any HarbourVest investment or the experience of any investor in any HarbourVest product. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

HarbourVest Partners, LLC (“HarbourVest”) is a registered investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. This material is solely for informational purposes and should not be viewed as a current or past recommendation or an offer to sell or the solicitation to buy securities or adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed herein represent the current, good faith views of the author(s) at the time of publication, are not definitive investment advice, and should not be relied upon as such. This material has been developed internally and/or obtained from sources believed to be reliable; however, HarbourVest does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of such information. The information is subject to change without notice and HarbourVest has no obligation to update you. There is no assurance that any events or projections will occur, and outcomes may be significantly different than the opinions shown here. This information, including any projections concerning financial market performance, is based on current market conditions, which will fluctuate and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons.

ABOUT HARBOURVEST

HarbourVest is an independent, global private markets firm with over 43 years of experience and more than $147 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2025. Our interwoven platform provides clients access to global primary funds, secondary transactions, direct co-investments, real assets and infrastructure, and private credit. Our strengths extend across strategies, enabled by our team of more than 1,250 employees, including more than 235 investment professionals across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Across our private markets platform, our team has committed more than $63 billion to newly-formed funds, completed over $64 billion in secondary purchases, and invested over $47 billion in direct operating companies. We partner strategically and plan our offerings innovatively to provide our clients with access, insight, and global opportunities.

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PE continues to deliver steady returns in a volatile quarter. Our projected Q2 2025 benchmark performance indicates relative stability in the valuation of PE-owned businesses across Global Buyout, US Buyout, and US Venture Capital markets.