How Private Capital Fundraising Is Shifting Across North America, Europe, and Asia

For a long time, the geography of private markets felt almost fixed: North America as the anchor, Europe a strong second, and Asia as “the next big growth engine.” PitchBook’s Q3 2025 Global Private Market Fundraising Report shows a more nuanced picture. North America still dominates, but Europe’s share of fundraising has reached record levels, and Asia’s share has slipped from its late-2010s peak. The result is not a rotation away from one region to another, but a more deliberate rebalancing of where new commitments are going.

The current split

On a trailing 12-month basis, North America continues to account for the largest share of global private capital raised. Europe’s share has climbed to a little over one-third of global fundraising, with the report citing a 34.2% share over the period. Asia and the rest of the world together make up the remaining mid-teens share, noticeably below the levels reached when Asia-focused and pan-regional funds were raising aggressively in the late 2010s.

In other words, North America remains the core market by volume, Europe has moved up to its highest share on record, and Asia’s relative contribution, while still meaningful, has moderated.

Why Europe’s share has risen

PitchBook links Europe’s higher fundraising share to several structural factors rather than a one-off spike. One is the post-Ukraine focus on energy security and the energy transition. Re-wiring power systems, storage, and related infrastructure has created a visible project and asset pipeline that suits private capital’s time horizons and return targets.

Europe also has a long-standing bench of infrastructure and real-asset managers with established track records. In an environment where many limited partners are consolidating relationships, it is easier to scale commitments with platforms they already know than to underwrite entirely new strategies. Large closings in European infrastructure and secondaries funds have amplified this effect and pushed the regional share higher.

Legal and regulatory regimes also matter. Despite domestic political debates, European markets still offer comparatively predictable legal frameworks and investor-protection standards for long-dated capital, which supports allocations to core, core-plus, and value-add infrastructure and related strategies.

North America as the core engine

None of this displaces North America as the central node of private markets. The region remains the dominant destination for global buyout, growth equity, and venture capital, and is still the main hub for private credit strategies, including direct lending and listed vehicles such as BDCs.

Most of the largest global private-markets platforms are headquartered in North America even when they invest across regions. For many European and Asian managers, North American institutions continue to be an important source of LP capital, irrespective of where their funds invest. The report’s regional fundraising breakdown is therefore primarily about where capital is currently being raised for deployment, not where all the underlying investors reside.

Asia’s moderated fundraising share

Asia’s share of global fundraising has fallen from earlier highs. PitchBook notes that Asia-based fundraising boomed in the late 2010s but has since dropped off significantly. Tariffs, geopolitics and broader macro uncertainty have influenced how capital flows into and within the region.

Several factors sit behind this moderation. Asia remains a heterogeneous set of markets with differing regulatory regimes and political risk profiles. Global LPs have also accumulated substantial exposure to Asia across earlier private-market vintages and public-market allocations, which makes them more cautious about adding further commitments until existing portfolios season and distribute.

Parts of the region, including South and Southeast Asia, Japan, and Australia, remain active, but have not yet scaled enough to fully offset slower fundraising into other Asia-focused strategies. The result is a smaller global share for Asia in the current fundraising mix, even if long-term growth potential remains intact.

What this means

European managers in infrastructure, real assets and secondaries are currently operating in a supportive fundraising environment, but one that is also drawing in more competition. As larger vehicles close and more capital targets similar themes, return expectations and deal dynamics will evolve.

Asia-focused managers face a different task: translating long-term growth narratives into risk-adjusted propositions that appeal to LPs who are more sensitive to geopolitical and policy risk. That includes clearer articulation of country and sector exposures, legal protections, and exit pathways, rather than relying solely on regional growth as a selling point.

Global platforms, meanwhile, are deciding how far to tilt their next vintages toward Europe’s current momentum, North America’s depth, or selected Asian markets where they see resilient demand and supportive policy.

North America, Europe and Asia now contribute differently across strategies: North America remains central to buyout, venture and private credit; Europe has taken a larger role in infrastructure and secondaries; Asia offers selective growth and diversification, but with more visible macro and policy variables.

The report’s data effectively nudges LPs to look through the label on the fund and ask where the underlying exposure really sits. A portfolio made up mainly of large global buyout and credit funds, even if marketed as diversified, may still be heavily concentrated in a handful of economies. Likewise, a decision to increase European exposure today is not just a regional call; it is also a view on sectors such as infrastructure that are driving much of that region’s fundraising.

Reading the geography shift

PitchBook’s Q3 2025 analysis shows that regional shares in private-markets fundraising respond to shifts in policy, geopolitics, and sectoral opportunity as much as to headline growth rates. North America remains the anchor; Europe has increased its share on the back of infrastructure; Asia’s share has moderated as capital reacts to changing conditions and earlier deployment.

The broad conclusion is less about a simple handover between regions and more about a gradual re-weighting of where new private-markets commitments are being made. For both managers and LPs, it suggests that understanding the regional mix inside portfolios and how it lines up with legal regimes, political risk, and sector exposure will matter as much as tracking the global headline fundraising totals.

Research Analyst

Simran Mehla

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is North America still the largest private-capital fundraising region?

A: Yes. PitchBook shows North America continues to attract the largest share of global private-capital commitments on a trailing 12-month basis.

Q: Why has Europe’s fundraising share reached a record level?

A: Mainly because of strong fundraising in infrastructure and secondaries, supported by energy-transition needs and established European managers in those strategies.

Q: Has Asia structurally “lost” out in private-markets fundraising?

A: Not necessarily. Asia’s share has moderated from earlier highs as Asia-based fundraising cooled, but this reflects a period of adjustment to tariffs, geopolitics and earlier deployment, rather than a definitive loss of long-term relevance.

Q: What is the takeaway from these regional shifts?

A: That geography is now a more conscious part of LP decisions. Managers need to be clear about where they deploy capital, how they manage region-specific risks, and how their strategy fits into an LP’s overall regional mix.

Sources

PitchBook, Q3 2025 Global Private Market Fundraising Report.