- New Benchmarks Reveal Private Equity Long-Term Outperformance Globally and in Europe
- Communication Services, Financials and Healthcare Are Top Global Performers in Q2 2025
Boston, MA – November, 2025 – HarbourVest Partners, a global private markets investment firm with more than $146 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2025, today released its quarterly updates for its private equity benchmarks, including projections through the end of Q3 2025, and trailing 10-year, 5-year and 12-month performance returns through June 30, 2025. The firm also released data for Europe and Global ex-US benchmarks for the first time.
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. Constructed with a rigor and level of detail in data quality and transparency that we believe is difficult to find in private markets, the HV PE Benchmarks enable private markets return attribution analysis and can improve accuracy of risk modeling.
The new HV Global ex-US Buyout Benchmark is comprised of transaction-level data from companies based in Europe (76.7%), Asia (15.1%), North America ex-US (4.4%), and Emerging Markets (3.8%). The new HV Europe Buyout Benchmark consists primarily of transaction-level data from companies headquartered in the United Kingdom (30.4%), Germany (13.9%) and France (10.7%), though companies from other western European countries (40.5%), eastern Europe and elsewhere (4.5%) make up the balance.
“Our data shows that while public markets have outperformed private equity on a trailing 12-month basis, private equity continues to outperform over the long term at the global and regional levels,” Sofia Gertsberg, Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Investment Science, HarbourVest Partners. “We can see that PE-owned businesses are generally outperforming across all five benchmarks for the 5-year and 10-year time frames.”
HV PE Benchmarks Q3 2025 Projections & Q2 Sector Highlights:
- HV Global Buyout Benchmark: In Q2 2025, the Communication Services, Financials, and Healthcare sectors outperformed the broader Global Buyout market. The Materials, Industrials, and Information Technology sectors lagged the market, posting modest positive returns over the quarter, while Energy had a negative return.
- HV US Buyout Benchmark: Communication Services, Financials, Healthcare and Industrials outperformed the US Buyout market in Q2 2025, while the Information Technology, Materials and Consumer sectors underperformed for the quarter.
- HV Europe Buyout Benchmark: Consumer, Information Technology and Communications Services outperformed the broader Europe Buyout market in Q2 2025. Industrials, Health Care, Financials and Materials came up short during this time.
|
Annualized Benchmark Returns as of June 30, 2025 |
||||
| Projected Q3 2025 returns | Trailing 12 months returns | Trailing 5 years returns | Trailing 10 years returns | |
| HV Global Buyout Benchmark | 3.8% | 9.4% | 14.9% | 13.7% |
| MSCI ACWI Total Return | 7.7% (actual) | 16.7% | 14.2% | 10.5% |
| HV US Buyout Benchmark | 3.5% | 7.1% | 14.8% | 14.1% |
| Russell 2000 Total Return | 12.4% (actual) | 7.7% | 10.0% | 7.1% |
| HV Global ex-US Buyout Benchmark
MSCI ACWI ex-US Total Return |
2.8%
7.0% (actual) |
12.6%
18.4% |
15.0%
10.7% |
13.3%
6.6% |
| HV Europe Buyout Benchmark
MSCI Europe Total Return |
2.5%
3.7% (actual) |
14.6%
19.1% |
15.8%
13.1% |
14.6%
7.4% |
| HV US Venture Benchmark | 2.5% | 12.8% | 18.7% | 16.2% |
| NASDAQ Composite Total Return | 11.4% (actual) | 15.7% | 16.0% | 16.2% |
“HarbourVest provides a clear lens into transaction-level returns, helping investors understand the true drivers of performance,” said Gertsberg. “Developed through our more than 3,000 partnerships, the quality and granularity of our transaction-level data allows us to look at investment size, sector or geography, so we can model out near-term projections of PE market performance ahead of the traditional reporting cycle.”
The Q3 benchmark projections are estimates intended to provide a directional sense of private equity performance versus other asset classes on a contemporaneous basis. Final Q3 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.
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; (iii) US Venture Capital; (iv) Global ex-US Buyouts, a subset of the Global Buyouts category; and (v) Europe Buyouts, a subset of the Global Buyouts category. 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 June 30, 2025. We believe these benchmarks can provide recipients with differentiated information based on extensive private investment transaction 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 fees and expenses assumptions of 1.50% annualized fee and 15% effective carried interest. 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 $146 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 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 1,270 employees, including more than 230 investment professionals across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Across our private markets platform, our team has committed more than $64 billion to newly-formed funds, completed over $66 billion in secondary purchases, and invested over $49 billion in direct operating companies. We partner strategically and plan our offerings innovatively to provide our clients with access, insight, and global opportunities.
CONTACT
Andrew Hopkins
+1 617-348-8372
[email protected]
