A strong start to the year

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Fourth quarter deal momentum spilled into 2021, resulting in record Q1 numbers for the US PE market. PitchBook’s latest US PE Breakdown Report calculates a $203 billion quarter on 1,763 deals across the country. That’s only the fourth time that a quarter has breached the $200 billion mark. The most recent, of course, was Q4 2020, which we’re estimating at $293.7 billion. Added up, the past six months have recorded almost half a trillion dollars ($496.7 billion) in investments in the US alone.

Predictions are a dangerous game these days, but this past quarter puts 2021 on a very strong pace. If investors continue at this rate, we’d be looking at over 7,000 deals for the first time and a record dollar amount to boot. Extrapolating Q1 numbers usually isn’t worth the time, but the PE market is facing a unique year ahead, with market dislocations and consolidation opportunities popping up throughout the American economy. Consider the PE growth market, which hit $73.1 billion last year, leapfrogging the old record (2018) by 26%. That was an accurate reflection of where PE priorities were in an unprecedented year. But this year is also shaping up to be unprecedented, and investors are no longer limiting themselves to growth capital injections and add-ons.

(Past performance is no guarantee of future results.)

Contact: Alex Lykken
alex.lykken@pitchbook.com