Analysis reveals record growth in private equity funds
- Global value of private equity funds reaches an all-time high of $9.9 trillion
- Ocorian’s Global Asset Monitor forecasts private equity market will hit $17.41 trillion within five years
New analysis from Ocorian*, a market leader in asset servicing for private markets and corporate and fiduciary administration shows that assets in private equity funds have surged to a record high of $9.917 trillion.
They have risen by over 570% between 2010 and 2025 from $1.481 trillion and have gained 10.8% since December 2024, Ocorian’s latest Global Asset Monitor found.
Ocorian is predicting further growth of 75.5% between now and 2030, taking total assets in global private equity funds to $17.41 trillion.
Ocorian’s analysis shows 2025’s growth in private equity global assets to $9.917 trillion has been driven in particular by Asian markets which hit a record $2.1 trillion, up 15.8% in the first eight months of the year. They accounted for 30% of 2025’s growth despite only accounting for a fifth of assets.
Private equity assets in North America still dominate fund holdings, with a 57% share of the total asset pool. Ocorian’s modelling shows that while North America’s private equity assets lagged behind Asia’s growth, total underlying assets in North America reached a new record of $5.64 trillion by early September, up 9.6% year-to-date.
Private equity funds domiciled in North America are now worth $5.06 trillion, accounting for 51% of the total private equity funds under management globally. This compares to those in Asia managing 31% and those in Europe managing 15% of the total.
Yegor Lanovenko, Global Co-Head of Fund Services at Ocorian said: “As private equity matures into a $17 trillion market by 2030 and aims to solidify its place as part of the whole model portfolio, with the realignment of interest rates, the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, the advantage for managers is shifting back to operating discipline and value creation.
“LPs are rewarding managers who pair proven operating performance with governance and internal operational efficiency infrastructure that can stand up to institutional scrutiny and changing investor reporting expectations.
“At Ocorian, we help alternative asset managers handle operational and regulatory complexity across the full investment lifecycle, especially when operating scale is a differentiator and investor needs and profiles are evolving fast across asset classes."
The view of private equity fund managers
An Ocorian survey** of U.S. based private equity professionals who collectively manage $335.25 billion in assets, reveals they expect capital from all major LP sources to rise, with family offices and pension funds leading the charge. Notably, HNW and UHNW are not expected to increase their capital subscriptions significantly (only 9.4% over the next two years) compared to 20.2% from pension funds and 17.8% from family offices.
However, as the market grows, fear of regulatory creep is nearly universal - 85% of those surveyed expect more regulation, 88% expect more industry restrictions and fines, and 80% anticipate more time spent on compliance failures.
The ambition to use more third-party providers is partly driven by this complexity. 47% are already outsourcing more over the latest lifecycle, compared to 44% who have not made changes and just 9% who have brought more in-house.
More than four out of five (81%) expect to expand their reliance on third parties in the next two years, in particular, investor services and fund administration are the functions most likely to be outsourced, though reporting is also high up the list.
** In May 2025 Ocorian commissioned independent research company PureProfile to interview 100 senior venture capital and mid-market private equity professionals in the US and Canada working for firms with $335.25 billion assets under management
About Ocorian
Ocorian is a global leader in fund services, corporate and trust services, capital markets, and regulatory and compliance support.
Unlocking new value for its clients across jurisdictions and service lines is Ocorian’s priority; it manages over 20,000 structures on behalf of 9,000+ clients including financial institutions, large-scale international organisations, and high-net-worth individuals.
Ocorian provides fully compliant, tailored solutions that are individual to clients’ needs, no matter where in the world they hold financial interests, or however they are structured.
The group offers a full suite of corporate, fund and private client services across a network of offices spanning all the world’s financial hubs. Locations include Bermuda, BVI, Cayman, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, UAE, the UK, and the U.S.
To find out more about Ocorian and its services, including regulatory information, visit www.ocorian.com
Methodology
Ocorian commissioned 5iresearch to produce the Global Asset Monitor which considers eight main asset classes that make up the vast bulk of the world’s assets. Four of these are in public markets, namely listed equities and three categories of listed bonds (corporate, sovereign, and other which include municipal and agency bonds). The other four are in private markets, namely private equity, private debt, infrastructure and real estate. We recognise there are other kinds of assets out there in the world, such as residential and commercial property, commodities, art and so on. But we have chosen ours to represent the easily investable universe: investors can buy public assets on exchanges and they can participate in private markets, for example via funds.
Private market data is sourced from Preqin unless otherwise stated, but since this data is only available infrequently and with considerable time lags, we have ‘nowcast’ it by looking at the change in value of relevant public markets since the last Preqin update was released and adjusting the values accordingly. These ‘nowcasts’ are intended only to provide a guide to recent developments.
Public market data is sourced mainly from Factset. Data was captured at market close on September 1st 2025. The equities time series looks at the largest 2,250 companies in the world today and how their market capitalisations have evolved over time. These companies represent 85% of global market capitalisation so we have scaled up by the remaining 15% to show the full global equity market value in each year. To measure the size of the bond markets we have considered both the market value and the face value in each country (and sector in the case of corporate bonds) each year – sourced from Factset. Where data limitations impact the sovereign results, we have derived our figures by using general government debt levels as a proxy for the bond market.
All data is converted to USD at prevailing spot rates. Currency fluctuations may therefore make an impact in the short term, but over the long-term the effect of exchange rates tends to even out almost entirely at the global level. No account has been taken of inflation.