At a time when the industry is clearly bifurcating along performance and fundraising, our awards recognise and platform the managers and service providers delivering true value. Entries close soon.
By Aftab Bose, London
At an LP-GP workshop we hosted recently, I asked a top UK allocator to visualise himself behind his laptop, in a scenario where his firm needs to add some new managers or strategies to the investment pool.
His first port of call? Awards lists.
For more than a decade we’ve given out awards to outperformers. This spans the era of cheap money and widely positive performance, when standing out was challenging. It also spans the past half-decade, when performance in itself has been hard to come by. Recognition is always important, but in an industry as opaque as private markets, it can make all the difference.
Standing out becomes all the more important when LPs all over the world are being far more selective with their opportunities – going beyond strategic allocation and a high-level mix of risk-adjusted strategies, to a total allocation approach that combines a carefully selected set of risk-adjusted investment opportunities.
We’ve seen CalPERS make the move to TAA, and it’s produced tangible results – with the firm clocking nearly 15% for 12 months ending June 2026, with PE exposure alone delivering 17%. As the institutional world catches on, a ready list of high-performers across a range of specialisms will come at a premium.
That’s not including the rapidly expanding world of retail investors, who are currently experiencing their first taste of private markets investments. From what we hear in the industry, a strong marketing profile is at the top of the list when it comes to being listed and picked up on wealth platforms – more so than performance and discipline. Yes, the industry is growing more selective and disciplined, but the first layer of visibility remains a critical piece of the puzzle.
We’ve seen at the half-year mark of 2026 that private markets are now clearly bifurcated along the winners and losers of the past half-decade. That’s in terms of performance, with some soaring on the AI wave while others struggle with billion-dollar write-offs and zombie funds. And as a result, it’s also in terms of fundraising, with numbers soaring high but concentrating among fewer funds than ever.
Private Equity Wire® is a research-based sentiment platform, which – combined with more than a decade of experience evaluating the top managers and service providers in the industry – puts us in a strong position to identify strategies and propositions that can win out, and more importantly win out at this moment in time.
Enter for our US awards here, and put your hat in the ring to be among the winners of 2026. Entries close next week!
