This edition looks at standout trends in private equity in 2025, from fundraising to exits and the making of a strong secondaries ecosystem. From India, we examined how the pension sector revamp may signal increased capital flow into the alternative asset class.
Focus on fundamentals
Looking back, 2025 will likely be remembered as the year Asia’s private equity ecosystem realigned, quietly but decisively.
Against global macro uncertainty, investors across the region leaned into long-term conviction, deeper institutional strength, and a maturing secondary market. Big-name global GPs stayed active across buyouts, growth deals, and continuation vehicles, while LPs recentered their allocations around liquidity discipline and proven managers.
Selectivity was one of the themes that defined this year. LPs continued to prioritise managers who had delivered DPI, controlled their vintages, and demonstrated consistent exit pacing.
Some recent Asia-focused fundraises that stood out include ChrysCapital’s $2.2-billion fund in November, marking a big vote of confidence in India’s private markets and helping the country’s PE-VC fundraising to surpass its 2024 total.
In August, again in India, Motilal Oswal Alternates raised about $800 million in the first close of its fifth private equity vehicle, India Business Excellence Fund V (IBEF V), surpassing its initial target of $750 million. In May, private equity firm Quadria Capital, which focuses on healthcare investments across South and Southeast Asia, closed its third fund with total commitments of $1.07 billion, significantly exceeding its $800-million target in May.
Pan Asian funds, which have always commanded larger capital pools, continued to draw strong LP interest. EQT reaped more than $10 billion for its latest flagship fund dedicated to investments in Asia.
TPG had collected $402 million mid-year for its first-ever mid-cap private equity fund for Asia’s developed markets after its CEO Jon Winkelried announced in February that the fund had reached almost half of its fundraising goal in the first close.
In China, according to an insight from HarbourVest, USD-denominated fundraising remains challenging, though select venture managers, particularly in AI and deep tech, have cautiously re-entered the market with smaller, disciplined funds.
Fundraising in 2026 is expected to remain strong, led by pan-regional funds and a rebound in mid-market raises, especially in Japan and Australia.
This insight alluded to the stabilisation of investment activity across the region since 2023, with Q3 2025 year-to-date activity registering $75 billion, a 26% year-over-year gain despite continuing global macro volatility.
India leads the region, contributing 34% of total investment activity and posting 73% year-on-year growth through the third quarter, driven by large minority growth transactions and expanding mid-market buyout opportunities.
Japan also stands out, contributing 29% of total investment activity and delivering 155% year-on-year growth for Q3 2025 year-to-date. Japan led several of Asia’s largest transactions in 2025, including four of the five largest deals year-to-date, comprising two take-privates and two carve-outs. Bain Capital’s ¥810 billion ($5.5 billion) acquisition of York Holdings from Seven & i Holdings represents the largest consumer carve-out deal in Japan’s history, consolidating 29 subsidiaries from a listed conglomerate under a single platform.
According to the investment firm, both India and Japan are expected to retain their leading positions in 2026, supported by structural tailwinds and increasingly mature private equity ecosystems.
Exit activity across Asia is recovering, with year-to-date exits through September reaching $54 billion, up 28% year-on-year and already 90% of full-year 2024 levels. India and Japan accounted for around 60% of activity, with India posting $19 billion from trade sales and public market transactions, supported by a growing domestic IPO market.
Against this backdrop, Quadria Capital, one of Asia’s largest healthcare-focused private equity firms, sold a partial stake in NephroPlus following the company’s successful IPO in India. NephroPlus operates one of Asia’s largest dialysis networks, and Quadria’s exit—just 19 months after its initial investment—is the first from its Fund III.
Japan contributed $12 billion, largely through strategic exits by domestic corporates and pan-regional financial investors.
China recorded select large M&A exits, secondary stake sales, and public market sell-downs, including PAG’s exit of Yingde Gases and Bain’s partial exit of Chindata. Korea ($6.1 billion) and Australia ($5.5 billion) each contributed roughly 10% of exits, predominantly trade sales, while Southeast Asia remained subdued, according to the insight.
Secondary market deals provided an additional boost alongside trade sales and IPOs.
In a business where fundraising surges when markets are buoyant and valuations are rich, secondaries stand out as one of the few genuinely contrarian opportunities. That tension between cyclicality and contrarian capital was also a central theme at DealStreetAsia’s inaugural Leadership Roundtable: Asia Secondaries 2025, presented by LGT Capital Partners.
On the GP-led in Southeast Asia, Navis Capital Partners closed a new continuation vehicle—Navis Next Generation Fund—at $230 million to partially exit its Southeast Asian K-12 school portfolio while securing follow-on capital to remain invested in the platform.
LGT Capital Partners, a global alternative investment firm managing over $100 billion, co-led IDG Capital’s $500-million multi-assets continuation vehicle (CV) in China.
India’s Multiples Alternate Asset Management, led by former ICICI Venture veteran Renuka Ramnath, brought in HarbourVest Partners, LGT Capital Partners, TPG NewQuest, and Hamilton Lane to co-lead its $430 million multi-asset continuation fund.
Kedaara Capital roped in London-headquartered Pantheon as its lead investor for its multi-asset CV, which included its two portfolio companies—Indian eyewear firm Lenskart and Care Health Insurance.
DealStreetAsia recently reported that Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, is in the final stages of a major secondary sale of fund stakes with a net asset value of nearly $1 billion.
National University of Singapore, too, was in the process of finalising buyers for its private fund stakes.
SAFE Investment Company (SAFE IC), a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, is in the process of selecting potential buyers.
These developments reflect a shift, with liquidity increasingly driving market activity. Exits, secondaries, and structured solutions are supporting a more flexible and resilient ecosystem for GPs and LPs, shaping private markets.
In hindsight, 2025 did not deliver the dramatic turnarounds some had hoped for. Exits remained uneven, fundraising stayed competitive, and macro headwinds persisted. Yet the year was pivotal for a different reason: It forced investors to recommit to fundamentals.
2025 proved that Asia’s private equity market is evolving not through big leaps but through steady maturation. Stronger institutions, more disciplined capital, and a robust secondary ecosystem are laying the groundwork for a more resilient decade ahead.
Much-awaited pension overhaul in India
India’s pension regulator recently signaled a subtle but meaningful shift in how long-term domestic capital may participate in the country’s financial markets.
By broadening the range of assets that National Pension System (NPS) funds can invest in, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is nudging pension money towards a more diversified investment approach with greater exposure to growth-oriented assets.
Under the revised rules, NPS fund managers can allocate capital more flexibly across equities and debt, while also gaining limited exposure to commodities, real estate, and other alternative investment vehicles.
The inclusion of gold and silver exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), equity-oriented Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), and a broader equity universe such as the Nifty 250 marks a clear break from the traditionally conservative approach that has long defined Indian pension investing.
“This master circular replaces 31 earlier circulars pertaining to NPS schemes for the non-government sector, all consolidated from 2013 up to March 28, 2025,” Vivek Iyer, Partner and Financial Services Risk Advisory Leader at Grant Thornton Bharat, told DealStreetAsia, highlighting how this aligns with the ease-of-doing-business initiatives being pursued by financial services regulators.
“The circular captures all the investment limits across all asset classes, across fixed income, equity, and alternative investment asset classes, with eligible asset classes with a focus on independence and conflict of interest principles at the heart of all those,” he added.
While the immediate impact may be most visible in public markets, the bigger implications lie further down the line, particularly for PEs and VCs, where domestic institutional participation has historically been limited.
India’s PE-VC ecosystem has relied heavily on foreign capital, largely because pension and insurance funds operated under restrictive mandates prioritising capital preservation over long-term growth. The gradual relaxation of these rules signals a slow but important shift towards aligning retirement money with long-term investments, a practice common globally but still evolving in India.
“India’s regulatory direction has been progressive and forward-leaning. The next chapter, in my view, is about refinement rather than reinvention,” said Rajat Tandon, President of IVCA, the industry body representing India’s PE and VC sector.
“Banks, insurers, and pension funds are allowed to invest, and some government-backed entities have committed significant capital. Yet most large institutions are still early in their journey or investing well below their limits,” he added.
Even as the new rules now reflect a broader change in regulatory thinking, it remains to be seen how quickly pension funds will move into investing in the PE and VC asset classes. Allocation limits, governance requirements, and liquidity concerns will continue to moderate the pace of participation.
“The key aspect to understand is that the safety of investments is paramount,” said Ramesh Kannan, Partner at Somerset Indus Capital, adding that there is a “social angle” to the announcement, since “pension funds are meant to support pensioners in their times of need.”
“Another important aspect is the performance of existing government and government-supported funds, whether losses or shortfalls are within acceptable limits, and whether deployed funds have been put to productive use,” he noted.
As of FY25, the NPS manages around Rs 14.4 lakh crore, with Rs 2.91 lakh crore coming from the non-government sector, including corporate contributions. This portion forms the main pool from which investments in AIFs could be made, both under current rules and through the newly announced NPS fund-of-funds (FoF) platform, stated IVCA.
While a separate FoF corpus has not yet been created, the framework is expected to direct existing pension assets into eligible AIFs via a centralised and transparent selection process.
Nevertheless, the shift is significant. Even modest contributions from pension funds can help deepen India’s alternatives market, provide fund managers with more stable domestic capital, and gradually reduce reliance on foreign investors.
Top Developments
Warburg Pincus has signed an agreement to invest in Hong Kong-headquartered Acclime, a provider of corporate and business services across the Asia Pacific, to support its next phase of growth.
Japan saw a fresh wave of activity with the Carlyle Group set to acquire surgical kits maker Hogy Medical for about $1 billion via a tender offer, while KKR proposed a higher-priced bid for personal care products maker Mandom, topping the tender offer currently underway as part of a management buyout, Nikkei reported.
Global PE firm L Catterton announced an undisclosed investment in Haldiram’s, a leading packaged food company in India.
MoEngage, a customer analytics and cross-channel engagement platform based in San Francisco and Bengaluru, secured an additional $180 million as part of its ongoing Series F round.
In notable exits, Avendus Group said that Redpoint Investments, an affiliate of global investment firm KKR, will divest its stake in the institutional financial services firm to Japan’s Mizuho Securities.
The LP View took stock of the targeted secondary deals that drove Asia’s Private equity market in 2025.
