Pay and working hours in private equity vs investment banking

If you're lucky enough to get onto the bottom rung of the investment banking ladder through the analyst program of a major bank, you'll have to decide very quickly whether you want to stay in banking, or seek an exit opportunity on the buy side. Is it really worth making the switch?

A recent podcast featuring finance influencer High Yield Harry has unveiled figures for compensation in both banking and private equity/private credit, looking at pay for top quartile workers, and breaking down average weekly working hours. In banking, while hourly pay rises the longer that you're in the role, your working hours stay high all the way to VP, were top performers earn half a million dollars per year. READ MORE

Almost 90 new unicorns have been minted so far this year — here they are

With AI igniting an investor frenzy, more startups are achieving unicorn status every month. 

Using data from Crunchbase and PitchBook, TechCrunch tracked down the VC-backed startups that became unicorns in 2026. While most are AI-related, a surprising number are focused on other industries like healthcare and even a few crypto companies. This list will be updated throughout the year. READ MORE

AI Investment Boom 2026: Is This a Bubble or the Beginning of a Sustainable Growth Cycle?

The artificial intelligence investment boom of 2026 represents one of the most significant capital allocation shifts in modern financial history. With AI companies now capturing over 50% of global venture capital funding and major tech giants spending billions on AI infrastructure, investors are grappling with a fundamental question: Is this a speculative bubble reminiscent of the dot-com era, or is it the dawn of a genuine technological transformation that will reshape the global economy?

The evidence increasingly points toward a nuanced reality. While certain segments of the AI market—particularly infrastructure plays with unclear monetization paths—show bubble-like characteristics, the underlying demand for AI chips, software, and services appears structurally sound. Nvidia's confirmed order pipeline of $1 trillion through 2027, AMD's accelerating growth with 76% projected earnings increases, and real productivity gains from AI adoption suggest this boom has substance beyond mere speculation.

For investors, the key is distinguishing between companies riding the AI hype wave and those building sustainable competitive advantages in a market that could exceed $1.3 trillion by the end of 2026. READ MORE

Resolving Muddled Objectives in Corporate Venture Capital

Large companies seeking access to new technologies — as well as the high returns promised by early investments in successful startups — have been establishing corporate venture capital (CVC) units for many years. But returns on those investments can be erratic, and new technologies can be difficult for the parent company to take advantage of. Why do many companies struggle to derive adequate benefits from their CVC efforts? We think that at the heart of the issue is a persistent confusion over objectives that ultimately makes CVCs difficult to sustain. READ MORE

A Year Of Misplaced Fear (And Why It’s Time For Investors To Leave The Crowd)

We’ve spent the past 12 months navigating a relentless wall of worry: a series of macro shocks that have brought venture capital LPs into a sit-and-wait posture. When you drill down, however, the innovation economy hasn’t had a sudden collapse in fundamentals. Investors’ flight to perceived safety fundamentally misunderstands the risk profile of the moment. READ MORE

Private Equity Value Creation Starts With People

When it comes to value creation in private equity, focus often goes to financials, operational improvement, and market expansion. Yet there’s another powerful lever that remains underutilized — the people side. For all the talk about numbers, processes, and playbooks, one key to unlocking sustainable value is how private equity sponsors focus on people, culture, communications, and leadership, especially in the critical first 90 days after a portfolio company acquisition.  READ MORE

Private equity fund investors turn to debt-like deals in downturn

Investors in private equity funds are increasingly turning to creative debt-like deals to generate cash amid a dearth of payouts, as the sector’s dealmaking downturn stretches on. Backers of buyout funds agreed $9bn worth of “alternative”, structured transactions last year to bring in cash from their stakes in the vehicles, up from $6bn in 2024, investment bank Jefferies told the FT. READ MORE

We Need To Save Venture Capital From Bad Data

Investing, particularly venture capital, is 50% science and 50% art. The industry relies heavily on charisma and the founders’ “it” factor. That criteria warrants plenty of merit; one shared truth among all my investor colleagues is that the greatest founders of our generation have an unmistakable drive and dedication to their craft that is near impossible to put a finger on.

But here is how the process actually works once the charming visionaries have been identified. When an investor meets a promising founder and decides to take a closer look, they are handed a vast collection of data. READ MORE

How six venture capital giants are reshaping startup financing

The venture capital landscape is becoming increasingly concentrated, with six megafirms— Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund and General Catalyst—now raising more capital than all other U.S. venture firms combined over the past two years, Inc. reports. 

Their growth has been fueled by the enormous capital requirements of AI startups, the trend of successful companies remaining private longer and institutional investors’ preference for backing a small group of established fund managers. READ MORE

Amid rising interest in defense, IPOs are an increasingly viable exit route for investors

IPOs are an increasingly viable exit route for equity investors with defense-related businesses in their portfolios. The universe of potential trade buyers for defense assets is likely to be limited in a world where governments have a significant say in any change of ownership, and therefore flotations are a good option for sponsors seeking a liquidity event.

Defense IPOs present distinctive legal and diligence challenges that set them apart from conventional listings. Government contracts are central to defense companies’ business models but are not standard commercial agreements; while they are often long-term, defense procurement requirements give government buyers significant negotiating power as well as the right to alter commercial terms. Potential investors will therefore want to carefully diligence these agreements in order to take a view on the quality and security of the company’s order book. READ MORE

Private equity pushes insurance to get risky

Private equity’s headlong rush into the life insurance industry has misaligned incentives, inflated risky assets, and produced a crop of “zombie insurers” just waiting to blow up, according to one of the few insiders willing to say so out loud.

“We know them, we see them, we whisper about them,” Anant Bhalla said on the latest episode of Semafor’s Compound Interest. “We need to speak more openly about it.” READ MORE

The queen of private equity recruitment: “We receive between 12,000 and 15,000 CVs a month”

Gail McManus is stepping back. 30 years after founding Private Equity Recruitment (PER), the firm that’s both literally and practically synonymous with getting a private equity job in Europe, McManus is working part-time. She handed leadership of PER to long term colleagues Charlie Hunt and Rupert Bell last year in a management buyout and now has the luxury of regularly switching on her out of office. But she hasn’t disappeared entirely: McManus is the well-established queen of private equity hiring, and she still enjoys wearing that crown.  

“Jobs in this industry are all about trust and judgement and potential and whatever you do people remain gloriously diverse, difficult, charismatic, challenging, awkward and entrepreneurial,” says McManus of private capital firms and their employees. “This is why I love it.”  READ MORE

Top Venture Firms Cornered 91% of Capital Raised in Q1

In a venture market increasingly dominated by a handful of giant names, the squeeze is not just on startups chasing capital. It is also hitting the investors trying to raise it.

“It’s harder than ever to raise a fund as an emerging manager,” venture capitalist Nisha Dua said, capturing a mood that many newer firms have felt since the funding boom gave way to a more selective market. PitchBook data show experienced firms captured 91% of capital raised in the first quarter of 2026, up from 74% across 2025, the highest share in the database. READ MORE

Dual-use technologies offer attractive defense entry point for private capital firms

Dual-use technologies (i.e., items that are designed for commercial/civil use but that can also be used in battlefield, security, or weapons proliferations purposes, such as drones, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity systems, and quantum computing) are a rapidly expanding area of investment focus for private capital firms.  

The broadening definition of defense beyond traditional hardware is creating significant value creation opportunities, but it also brings legal, regulatory, and practical challenges that require careful consideration.  READ MORE

Venture debt acts as a bridge between funding stages for tech startups

A new international study has found that venture debt is reshaping how capital moves through technology startup ecosystems around the world. Analyzing data from 59 countries between 2015 and 2024, the researchers show that greater venture debt availability is associated with lower early-stage equity funding, higher late-stage equity funding, and a positive overall effect on the total capital available to startups. READ MORE

Resolving Muddled Objectives in Corporate Venture Capital

Large companies seeking access to new technologies — as well as the high returns promised by early investments in successful startups — have been establishing corporate venture capital (CVC) units for many years. But returns on those investments can be erratic, and new technologies can be difficult for the parent company to take advantage of. Why do many companies struggle to derive adequate benefits from their CVC efforts? We think that at the heart of the issue is a persistent confusion over objectives that ultimately makes CVCs difficult to sustain. READ MORE