- Research findings note some areas of concern in private markets in the short-term, with positive tailwinds across long-term fundamentals
- Report also highlights strong runway for growth within evergreen
CONSHOHOCKEN, PENN. – Hamilton Lane (Nasdaq: HLNE), a leading global private markets investment management firm, published its 2025 Market Overview today. This year’s report offers a nuanced picture of the global private markets landscape, backed by historical data around outperformance, downside risk and diversification benefits, as well as a burgeoning evergreen landscape, demonstrating its compelling case for a growing number of investors.
The firm’s annual Market Overview is a comprehensive, data-driven review and analysis of private markets investment activity over the prior year, as well as predictions for the year ahead. The detailed report leverages Hamilton Lane’s industry-leading database that encompasses data on more than 58,000 funds across 57 vintage years*. Among the report’s findings:
Where to Invest
- Credit, infrastructure and secondaries: Each of these sectors is set up for success.
- Venture and growth: Investors should have exposure to these areas. AI applications will likely sweep the business landscape and many of those companies will be incubated and developed in the private markets sphere.
- Equity: In particular, the co-investment side where investors can be selective.
- U.S.: The U.S. market is expected to be relatively more attractive than all other geographies over the next 4-5 years.
- Data and technology: Invest in portfolio analytics, whether for construction or analysis.
Areas to Watch
- Evergreen structures: When it comes to evergreen funds, Hamilton Lane expects the following to be true:
- Evergreen funds will grow faster than the overall rate of public markets over the next five years;
- Institutional investors will become bigger players in the evergreen space;
- Evergreen fund fees will decline over time;
- Closed-end funds in certain strategies will decline and largely disappear;
- The growth of evergreen funds will result in the largest private markets firms getting larger and smaller private markets firms struggling to get any market share.
- Short-term performance: Infrastructure and real estate have done very well, private credit has remained stable, while private equity has underperformed. But does this short-term view signal the end of private equity’s historical outperformance? While recent vintages will likely face challenges, manager and asset selection will play a crucial role, perhaps more so than in most market conditions.
Private vs. Public Performance
Private & Public Market Cumulative Returns
Cumulative Returns Q1 2022 - Q3 20224