The Sponsor Exit: 2026 Report
US private equity deal count and the industry's exit problem are the same fact seen twice. PitchBook recorded 9,019 US private equity deals worth $1,155.5 billion in 2025, yet add-ons were 72.9% of all buyouts and just 36.3% of buyout value. Those bolt-ons are executed by portfolio companies, so the acquirer of record is an operating company and the transaction types as strategic in every deal database. Windsor Drake calls the structure The Platform Buyer. This report names fourteen sponsor-backed serial acquirers across six industries, extracts terms from nine 2025 and 2026 sponsor take-private filings including KKR's $5.7 billion agreement for Integer Holdings, and shows why a seller who cannot name the owner of the buyer across the table is negotiating without knowing that buyer's cost of capital, hold period or mandate.
- Sector
- Fintech
- Focus
- M&A Activity
- Published
- August 24, 2026
- Length
- 25 slides
- Reading time
- 13 minutes
Slide deck
25-slide deck. Desktop readers can page through the embedded viewer below. Mobile readers can open the direct PDF link.
Open slide deck PDF Key findings
- PitchBook recorded 9,019 US private equity deals worth $1,155.5 billion in 2025, against 8,519 deals and $847.8 billion in 2024; H1 2026 value was $461 billion.
- Add-ons were 72.9% of all US buyouts in 2025, against a five-year average of 72.8%: 5,351 add-ons against 1,985 platform buyouts.
- Add-ons carried $350.7 billion, or 36.3%, of the $967.3 billion of 2025 US buyout value, so the count-weighted and value-weighted readings of the market point in opposite directions.
- PitchBook defines a platform company as a private equity backed company that completes an add-on, so the acquirer of record is an operating company and the deal types as strategic.
- Verint Systems was acquired for $20.50 per share by Calabrio, Inc., which the merger proxy filed 20 October 2025 identifies as a Thoma Bravo affiliate; 20 of the 28 parties contacted in the process were financial sponsors.
- KKR agreed to acquire Integer Holdings for $127.00 per share, an enterprise value of about $5.7 billion, announced 3 August 2026, with a $154 million company termination fee, a $307 million reverse fee and no go-shop period.
- US private equity held 13,509 unsold portfolio companies as of Q2 2026, and 39% of buyout companies were held beyond five years in 2025 against 29% in 2019.
- Global distributions ran at 14% of NAV for the twelve months to Q3 2025 and have stayed below 15% for four consecutive years; US private equity fundraising fell to $308.0 billion across 551 funds in 2025.
- Corporate acquirers took $299.3 billion of 2025 US exit value against $240.8 billion sponsor-to-sponsor and $141.8 billion via public listing, with exit counts of 587, 586 and 26.
- Direct lenders funded 60% of US LBO financing in 2025, and the broadly syndicated market took 56% back in H1 2026; the Federal Reserve puts private credit spreads near S+500 against S+400 on leveraged loans.
Methodology
Framework: The Platform Buyer. National figures are third-party and each carries a named institution and a date. Platform acquisition counts are compiled from company press releases, sponsor portfolio pages and SEC filings accessed 24 August 2026, with the counting basis stated per platform and cumulative, dated and brand or location counts labelled distinctly. Ownership is attributed to a sponsor portfolio page, a platform announcement or a filing. Transaction terms are quoted from merger proxies and current reports as filed and attributed to the filing. Two figures are computed by Windsor Drake from published components and labelled as such: the 2025 add-on share of US buyout value, and the annual LBO financing channel split.
Frequently asked questions
Has private equity stopped doing deals?
No. PitchBook counted 9,019 US private equity deals worth $1,155.5 billion in 2025, above the 8,519 deals and $847.8 billion of 2024 and the highest value since 2021. What has changed is the shape of the activity, not the amount of it.
Why does the market feel frozen if deal count is high?
Because most sponsor transactions are bolt-ons rather than new platforms. PitchBook records add-ons at 72.9% of all US buyouts in 2025 and about three-quarters in the second quarter of 2026. Add-ons are executed by portfolio companies, so they do not read as sponsor activity.
What is The Platform Buyer?
It is the structure Windsor Drake uses to describe sponsor capital that enters a deal wearing a portfolio company's name. The acquirer of record is an operating company, so the transaction types as strategic in every deal database, and the sponsor behind it never appears in the record.
Does this actually show up in a filing?
Yes. Verint Systems was acquired for $20.50 per share by Calabrio, Inc., which the merger proxy filed 20 October 2025 identifies as a Thoma Bravo affiliate. The named Parent is an operating corporation, not a fund.
How bad is the exit backlog?
PitchBook counts 13,509 US private equity backed companies still held as of Q2 2026. Bain & Company puts the global figure near 32,000 companies carrying $3.8 trillion of unrealised value, with 39% of buyout companies held longer than five years in 2025 against 29% in 2019.
Are sponsors paying up when they do buy a public company?
The premia in 2025 and 2026 merger proxies run from roughly 18% to 52% over the unaffected price, and the negotiated protections are tight. KKR agreed a $154 million company termination fee and a $307 million reverse fee on Integer Holdings, with no go-shop period at all.
What should a seller take from this?
Establish who owns the buyer across the table before pricing the process. A platform funded by a 2022 vintage fund carries a hold period, a cost of capital and a mandate that a genuine strategic does not, and none of it is visible from the acquirer's name.
Companies covered
Public and private companies referenced in this report.
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If you are evaluating a sale
Windsor Drake is a sell-side only M&A advisory firm for founder-led software, fintech, and technology companies with enterprise values between $5 million and $300 million. This research comes from the same desk that runs our sale processes. If you are weighing an exit in this market, a confidential valuation is the place to start: no obligation, senior attention, and a view grounded in the transactions this report tracks.
Windsor Drake’s fintech, payments, and financial services practice is advised by Bruce Goldstein, a FINRA registered investment banking professional with twenty-five years in financial services, formerly of KBW, Sandler O’Neill and Milestone Advisors.
Cite this report
The Sponsor Exit: 2026 Report. Windsor Drake Market Intelligence, 2026. windsordrake.com/market-intelligence/reports/the-sponsor-exit-2026-report. Windsor Drake Market Intelligence data is free to use with attribution to Windsor Drake (windsordrake.com).