Good morning, ! It's Wednesday and we're covering private equity`s investment trends in insurtech, secondaries as the new primary market, direct lending lapping the private debt field, and the PE growth in CEE.

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InsurTech’s PE Moment, Even After the Hangover

After peaking at $15.8B in 2021, InsurTech funding cooled fast, landing at $4.25B in 2024. But don’t mistake the slowdown for a dead end. Private equity still sees InsurTech as fertile ground—especially with a pivot toward B2B SaaS, now commanding 43% of VC backing, up from just 19% in 2016. The smart money is following the fundamentals: profitability, automation, and AI-driven efficiency. PE shops are hunting for companies that aren’t just disrupting, but actually earning their way into the insurance stack.

• B2B SaaS steals the spotlight, grabbing 43% of InsurTech VC funding by 2024—proof investors want scale and stickiness.

• AI is insurance’s new operating system, driving advances in underwriting, fraud detection, and claims automation.

• Selective capital rules the day, with Series B investors like Mundi Ventures doubling down on growth-stage plays.

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CEE Steals the Show in PE Growth

If you’re chasing growth, look East. According to GainPro, the CEE region is clocking a median 17.8% CAGR, leading the European pack for PE-backed assets. With a hotspot of fast-growing young businesses, CEE is proving there’s life beyond the usual suspects. 

The Nordics follow closely, powered by booming TMT and Services sectors, while DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) lags with a sluggish 9.1% median CAGR, weighed down by industrial slow-burners. Bottom line? If you want pace, the center of gravity is shifting East—and fast.

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Secondaries: The New Primary Market

Private equity exits are stuck in traffic—and secondaries are the off-ramp.
With more than $150B in secondary volume this year, LPs aren’t just dipping toes—they’re doing cannonballs into the liquidity pool. Traditional exits are lagging, and GPs are nursing an estimated $162B backlog. Secondary pricing is trending up: buyouts at 94% of NAV, up from the 2022 lows, while venture still slogs at 75%.

LPs, tired of waiting, are getting creative—structuring transactions, exploring online platforms, and pushing for clarity with GPs. The old playbook of “hold and hope” has expired. Now? It’s “sell and strategize.” And unless 2025 brings a miracle M&A thaw, secondaries could become the new default for liquidity.

Stonepeak Goes Full Gas: $5.7B Bet on U.S. LNG

Stonepeak is throwing serious weight behind America’s gas ambitions, investing $5.7 billion for a 40% stake in Woodside’s newly minted Louisiana LNG project. With this move, Stonepeak isn’t just buying into infrastructure, it’s effectively fronting 75% of the capex bill for 2025–2026, fast-tracking the project toward final investment decision.

For Woodside, which picked up the project (formerly Driftwood LNG) from a distressed Tellurian last year, this is a win-win: capital relief plus partner validation. For Stonepeak, it's a play on the surging demand for U.S. LNG exports, packaged with a tidy risk-reward profile and heavyweight contractors like Bechtel in the mix.

The deal underscores a broader trend: private equity’s growing appetite for real assets, especially those tied to energy transition volatility and security of supply narratives. LNG fits the bill.

Bottom line: Stonepeak’s aggressive move positions them squarely in the LNG fast lane, banking on geopolitics, gas, and global thirst for American molecules.

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Direct Lending Dominates Debt Fundraising Charts

In 2024, direct lending didn’t just lead—it lapped the field. The top institutional private debt funds of the year were all about size, and direct lenders scooped up the biggest wins. ICG Senior Debt Partners 5 topped the list at $17B, with Ares and HPS following closely, raising $15.3B and $14.3B, respectively.

Why it matters: In a high-rate, high-volatility environment, LPs are hungry for yield and stability—and direct lending checks both boxes. Unlike more complex credit strategies, direct lending offers predictable cash flows and senior security, making it an easy sell in uncertain times.

Notably, even Silver Point Capital’s $8.5B raise came with a hefty 4.3x fund step-up, showing LPs are leaning hard into the strategy. With real estate debt and credit special situations trailing well behind, it’s clear: 2024 belongs to the direct lenders.

Bottom line: Private credit’s future? Still direct, and anything but small.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the potential impact of Trump’s new reciprocal tariffs.

Uncle Sam's Tariff Game: The White House Always Wins

Trump’s tariff reboot is less “America First” and more “Consumers Pay First.” A sweeping new wave of levies—ranging from 24% on Japan to a whopping 46% on Vietnam—ensnares nearly all of Asia in a geopolitical gamble. The supposed targets are trade imbalances and security gaps. The actual result? The U.S. government collects more revenue while American consumers and corporates eat the cost. 

Reconfigured supply chains? Not anytime soon. Most businesses aren’t about to rip up ops over policy whiplash. This isn’t just about higher prices—it’s about Value Chain Stress. Firms lose efficiency, and the "China-plus-one" model gets torched in the crossfire. In the end, there’s only one consistent winner: the IRS.

The Marshall Plan: Keynesianism at Scale

On April 3, 1948, Truman signed the Marshall Plan into law—Keynesian economics’ moment in the geopolitical spotlight. The $13.3B postwar package wasn’t just humanitarian aid; it was a Keynes-approved, demand-side jolt to a decimated European market. George Marshall’s idea: pump American dollars into Western Europe to reboot production, restore consumption, and starve out Soviet influence. Spoiler: it worked. U.S. factories thrived, democracy took root, and the plan became a case study in Keynesian stimulus with foreign policy upside.

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William Butler Yeats