The Private Equity Secondaries Market Hits a New Record in 2026

The private equity secondaries market closed 2025 at a record $226 billion in volume. H1 2026 immediately beat that record with $121 billion — the strongest first half ever recorded. At this pace, 2026 is expected to exceed $250 billion, roughly double 2022's volume.

This growth isn't coming from a single segment. LP-led volume rose 34% year-on-year to $120 billion in 2025, while GP-led volume jumped 51% to $106 billion. Secondary funds raised $95 billion in capital in 2025, now being deployed against a deal flow Preqin estimates at $250-260 billion for full-year 2026.

Why discounts are tightening — and why it doesn't apply to every segment

The discount environment has improved significantly for sellers. Buyout private equity stakes traded at 94% of net asset value in H1 2025, compared with less than 90% in 2022. On quality funds, discounts have tightened to 5-10%, far from the 15-25% seen during the 2022-2023 rate shock.

This general tightening creates a paradox for a selective investor: the more the secondaries market matures and compresses, the rarer informational advantage becomes — and the more valuable it is where it still exists. It's precisely in the pockets where the discount remains wide, despite overall market compression, that the opportunity lies for a high-conviction, limited-volume strategy.

C.CAPITAL discipline in an abundantly liquid market

A secondaries market flush with capital isn't necessarily a market favorable to every buyer. When $95 billion in secondary capital seeks deployment, competition for the most liquid, best-understood assets mechanically intensifies — further compressing discounts on those segments and shifting the real opportunity toward less contested pockets that require finer sector expertise to be properly valued.

C.CAPITAL, FINXIA Capital's late-stage and discounted secondaries division led by Lila Benhammou, is structured for exactly this configuration: an ultra-selective approach, reserved for opportunities where the fund's sector expertise confers a decisive advantage, with a deliberately sub-5% conversion rate and an average ticket of €2-10 million.

What the 2026 record signals going forward

A secondaries market that doubles in volume over four years doesn't eliminate pricing inefficiencies — it redistributes them. The most liquid segments compress, but pockets requiring specific sector expertise, like AI infrastructure secondaries, remain structurally less arbitraged. It's this dispersion, more than aggregate volume, that defines the opportunity for a conviction-based strategy.