The US 100
Ranking the top private equity investors in the US | 2025 Edition
Ranking the top private equity investors in the US | 2025 Edition
The US 100
Ranking the largest private equity investors in the US | 2025 Edition
Table of contents
Executive Summary
Welcome to the first edition of the US 100 ranking report. In this report, we rank and analyze the largest and most active private equity (PE) investors in the US.
We take a novel approach to our ranking which is based on the total estimated managed enterprise value (EV) of portfolio companies headquartered in the US. We dive deep into an investors’ individual portfolios, analyzing each and every asset to calculate managed EV. This approach enables us to generate highly detailed and differentiated insights unavailable elsewhere.
Further, this approach helps us capture large investors who do not rely on traditional fundraising and are often overlooked by other industry rankings.
Welcome to the first edition of the US 100 ranking report. In this report, we rank and analyze the largest and most active private equity (PE) investors in the US.
We take a novel approach to our ranking which is based on the total estimated managed enterprise value (EV) of portfolio companies headquartered in the US. We dive deep into an investors’ individual portfolios, analyzing each and every asset to calculate managed EV. This approach enables us to generate highly detailed and differentiated insights unavailable elsewhere.
Further, this approach helps us capture large investors who do not rely on traditional fundraising and are often overlooked by other industry rankings.
Key takeaways from our analysis:
Blackstone has emerged as the largest private equity investor in the US, managing a total estimated EV of $156bn. Other investors in the top 5 include KKR ($100bn), Thoma Bravo ($81bn), Apollo ($77bn), and Hellman & Friedman ($65bn).
Collectively, the US 100 investors manage an EV of $2.2tn. The market is fairly concentrated at the upper end with the top 10 investors accounting for one-third of total EV. Despite its significant size, the aggregated US 100 EV is just 4% of the >$60 trillion US public equity market.
New York is the largest hub for US 100 investors, accounting for 33% of HQs, followed by San Francisco (11%), Boston (9%), Chicago (7%), and Greenwich (6%). Sponsors headquartered in the US manage 85% of the total EV.
Holding periods for US 100 investors reached record highs in 2024, with a median of 5.3 years, up from 4.2 years in 2021. Notably, 56% of assets exited in 2024 had been held for over five years, compared to 37% in 2020.
TMT and Services assets make up 53% of the US 100 portfolio. Geographically, the assets are concentrated in California (13%), Texas (12%), New York (7%), Florida (6%), and Illinois (6%), with the top 16 states representing 80% of PE assets.
Table of contents
Chapter 01: US 100 Ranking
Blackstone has emerged as the largest private equity investor in the US, managing a total estimated EV of $156bn, followed by KKR (managing an EV of $100bn,) and Thoma Bravo ($81bn).
Other investors in the top 10 include Apollo Global Management ($77bn), Hellman & Friedman ($65bn), Bain Capital ($59bn), Vista Equity Partners ($54bn), Carlyle ($48bn), TPG Capital ($45bn), and EQT ($44bn).
Collectively, the top 100 investors in the US manage an estimated EV of $2.2tn across 3,207 assets. On average, they have a portfolio EBITDA of $125m and manage 32 companies each.
Over the last 6 years, US 100 investors have invested in 2.5x as many new portfolio companies as they have exited. Specifically, there have been 2,685 new investments and 1,085 exits from these sponsors.
The table below lists all the top 100 investors in the US. Use the search bar or the arrows at the top to navigate through the ranking.
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Dominant Investor HQs
American investors dominate the US 100 ranking. Sponsors headquartered in the US manage 85% of the aggregate US 100 EV. Notable investors HQ’d outside the US include EQT (managing EV of $44bn in the US), GIC ($26bn), Permira ($24bn), Partners Group ($24bn), and CVC ($19bn).
New York is the largest hub for US 100 investors, accounting for 33% of HQs, followed by San Francisco (11%), Boston (9%), Chicago (7%), and Greenwich (6%). Secondary hubs include Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Austin. Hubs outside the US include London and Toronto.
Investor Concentration
The US 100 landscape is fairly concentrated at the upper end, with the top 10 investors managing roughly one-third of the aggregated US 100 EV. Private equity firms, like other large asset managers, benefit from inherent scale advantages, and recent fundraising trends have also favored larger investors.
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
Chapter 02: Sector Insights
Top Investors
Leading investors by enterprise value in each sector include Thoma Bravo (TMT), Blackstone (Services, Science & Health and Financial Services), Apollo Global Management (Energy & Materials and Industrials), and Roark Capital (Consumer). Thoma Bravo in TMT and Roark Capital in Consumer stand out for their strong sector focus, with 94% and 59% of their portfolios concentrated in these areas, respectively.
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Chapter 03: Holding Periods
Overall Trend
Holding periods are top of mind for both GPs and LPs as they prioritize liquidity. They are sitting at record highs in the US. The median US 100 asset that exited in 2024 spent 5.3 years in the portfolio, up from 4.2 years in 2021. 56% of assets that exited in 2024 stayed longer than 5 years in the portfolio, up from 37% in 2020.
Consumer, Science & Health, and Industrials have the highest share of longer-held assets. Over 20% of assets in those sectors haven’t had an ownership transfer in the last 6 years. More broadly, the 2021 vintage year remains the largest, comprising 23% of U.S. PE-owned assets, driven by heightened deal activity during that period.
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Chapter 04: Regional Insights
Top Investors
Blackstone stands out as the largest investor across US regions, ranking #1 in the Midwest, West, and South. In the Northeast, Bain Capital — headquartered in the region — takes the top spot, with Blackstone following at #2. Also worth highlighting is the strong and expected presence of Thoma Bravo and Silver Lake in the West, given their tech-focused investments.
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Chapter 05: Portfolio Insights
In this section, we explore the investment portfolios of the top 30 PE investors in the US, analyzing key metrics such as EBITDA range, growth rates, buy-and-build activity, holding periods, and the sector/regional makeup of their US investments.
Note: We exclude from this analysis investors who have less than 5 data points for a particular metric.
Note: We exclude from this analysis investors who have less than 5 data points for a particular metric.
By Size
Hellman & Friedman (H&F), Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), Veritas Capital, and GIC stand out for their exceptionally high median portfolio EBITDA figures. Both H&F and CD&R do larger but fewer deals. Meanwhile, GIC invests mostly in minority stakes.
The preference for minority versus majority stakes differs among the top investors. Investments for GIC, Silver Lake, GSAM, and Insight Partners lean towards minority stakes, whereas Platinum Equity, Roark Capital, and Veritas Capital typically default to majority deals.
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Glossary
AUM – Assets Under Management
DPI – Distributions to Paid-In Capital
EBITDA – Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization
EV – Enterprise Value
GP – General Partner
HQ – Headquarters
IRR – Internal Rate of Return
LP – Limited Partner
PE – Private Equity
PortCo – Portfolio Company
TMT – Technology, Media, and Telecommunications
US – United States of America
Methodology
We take a novel approach to our ranking, which is based on total managed enterprise value (EV) in the US. At Gain.pro, we track over 14,100 investor portfolios in detail.
To estimate the enterprise value (EV) of each company in an investor's portfolio, we begin with the last reported deal value, where publicly available. We then scale this figure based on full-time employee (FTE) growth to approximate the current value. We then adjust the EV for estimated ownership share.
For assets without publicly available deal values, we estimate EV by multiplying EBITDA by the estimated ownership share and a predicted exit multiple. The total EV is then aggregated at the investor level.
Where EBITDA figures are unavailable, we estimate them using the asset’s revenue, subsector margins, and educated revenue/FTE estimates.
Our ranking includes only majority buyout and minority-owned private equity (PE) assets headquartered in the US. We exclude venture capital (VC) investments and publicly listed stakes. To predict exit multiples, we consider an asset’s sector, size, growth rate, margin profile, and cash generation.
Additionally, we include only active investors in the ranking, defined as those with:
i) At least five portfolio companies in the US
ii) At least five new investments since 2019
Unless otherwise stated, all metrics and calculations are based solely on an investor’s US portfolio.
Related Research
Discover our proprietary reports on investors, assets and PE deals.
Related Research
Discover our proprietary reports on investors, assets and PE deals.
Related Research
Discover our proprietary reports on investors, assets and PE deals.
Executive Summary
Welcome to the first edition of the US 100 ranking report. In this report, we rank and analyze the largest and most active private equity (PE) investors in the US.
We take a novel approach to our ranking which is based on the total estimated managed enterprise value (EV) of portfolio companies headquartered in the US. We dive deep into an investors’ individual portfolios, analyzing each and every asset to calculate managed EV. This approach enables us to generate highly detailed and differentiated insights unavailable elsewhere.
Further, this approach helps us capture large investors who do not rely on traditional fundraising and are often overlooked by other industry rankings.
Key takeaways from our analysis:
Blackstone has emerged as the largest private equity investor in the US, managing a total estimated EV of $156bn. Other investors in the top 5 include KKR ($100bn), Thoma Bravo ($81bn), Apollo ($77bn), and Hellman & Friedman ($65bn).
Collectively, the US 100 investors manage an EV of $2.2tn. The market is fairly concentrated at the upper end with the top 10 investors accounting for one-third of total EV. Despite its significant size, the aggregated US 100 EV is just 4% of the >$60 trillion US public equity market.
New York is the largest hub for US 100 investors, accounting for 33% of HQs, followed by San Francisco (11%), Boston (9%), Chicago (7%), and Greenwich (6%). Sponsors headquartered in the US manage 85% of the total EV.
Holding periods for US 100 investors reached record highs in 2024, with a median of 5.3 years, up from 4.2 years in 2021. Notably, 56% of assets exited in 2024 had been held for over five years, compared to 37% in 2020.
TMT and Services assets make up 53% of the US 100 portfolio. Geographically, the assets are concentrated in California (13%), Texas (12%), New York (7%), Florida (6%), and Illinois (6%), with the top 16 states representing 80% of PE assets.
Table of contents
Chapter 01: US 100 Ranking
Blackstone has emerged as the largest private equity investor in the US, managing a total estimated EV of $156bn, followed by KKR (managing an EV of $100bn,) and Thoma Bravo ($81bn).
Other investors in the top 10 include Apollo Global Management ($77bn), Hellman & Friedman ($65bn), Bain Capital ($59bn), Vista Equity Partners ($54bn), Carlyle ($48bn), TPG Capital ($45bn), and EQT ($44bn).
Collectively, the top 100 investors in the US manage an estimated EV of $2.2tn across 3,207 assets. On average, they have a portfolio EBITDA of $125m and manage 32 companies each.
Over the last 6 years, US 100 investors have invested in 2.5x as many new portfolio companies as they have exited. Specifically, there have been 2,685 new investments and 1,085 exits from these sponsors.
The table below lists all the top 100 investors in the US. Use the search bar or the arrows at the top to navigate through the ranking.
See who tops the charts
Discover the largest investors in Europe
See who tops the charts
Discover the largest investors in Europe
Dominant Investor HQs
American investors dominate the US 100 ranking. Sponsors headquartered in the US manage 85% of the aggregate US 100 EV. Notable investors HQ’d outside the US include EQT (managing EV of $44bn in the US), GIC ($26bn), Permira ($24bn), Partners Group ($24bn), and CVC ($19bn).
New York is the largest hub for US 100 investors, accounting for 33% of HQs, followed by San Francisco (11%), Boston (9%), Chicago (7%), and Greenwich (6%). Secondary hubs include Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Austin. Hubs outside the US include London and Toronto.
Investor Concentration
The US 100 landscape is fairly concentrated at the upper end, with the top 10 investors managing roughly one-third of the aggregated US 100 EV. Private equity firms, like other large asset managers, benefit from inherent scale advantages, and recent fundraising trends have also favored larger investors.
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Chapter 02: Sector Insights
Top Investors
Leading investors by enterprise value in each sector include Thoma Bravo (TMT), Blackstone (Services, Science & Health and Financial Services), Apollo Global Management (Energy & Materials and Industrials), and Roark Capital (Consumer). Thoma Bravo in TMT and Roark Capital in Consumer stand out for their strong sector focus, with 94% and 59% of their portfolios concentrated in these areas, respectively.
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Chapter 04: Regional Insights
Top Investors
Blackstone stands out as the largest investor across US regions, ranking #1 in the Midwest, West, and South. In the Northeast, Bain Capital — headquartered in the region — takes the top spot, with Blackstone following at #2. Also worth highlighting is the strong and expected presence of Thoma Bravo and Silver Lake in the West, given their tech-focused investments.
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Chapter 03: Holding Periods
Overall Trend
Holding periods are top of mind for both GPs and LPs as they prioritize liquidity. They are sitting at record highs in the US. The median US 100 asset that exited in 2024 spent 5.3 years in the portfolio, up from 4.2 years in 2021. 56% of assets that exited in 2024 stayed longer than 5 years in the portfolio, up from 37% in 2020.
Consumer, Science & Health, and Industrials have the highest share of longer-held assets. Over 20% of assets in those sectors haven’t had an ownership transfer in the last 6 years. More broadly, the 2021 vintage year remains the largest, comprising 23% of U.S. PE-owned assets, driven by heightened deal activity during that period.
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Chapter 05: Portfolio Insights
In this section, we explore the investment portfolios of the top 30 PE investors in the US, analyzing key metrics such as EBITDA range, growth rates, buy-and-build activity, holding periods, and the sector/regional makeup of their US investments.
Note: We exclude from this analysis investors who have less than 5 data points for a particular metric.
By Size
Hellman & Friedman (H&F), Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), Veritas Capital, and GIC stand out for their exceptionally high median portfolio EBITDA figures. Both H&F and CD&R do larger but fewer deals. Meanwhile, GIC invests mostly in minority stakes.
The preference for minority versus majority stakes differs among the top investors. Investments for GIC, Silver Lake, GSAM, and Insight Partners lean towards minority stakes, whereas Platinum Equity, Roark Capital, and Veritas Capital typically default to majority deals.
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
See who tops the charts
Discover the leading investors in the US
Glossary
AUM – Assets Under Management
DPI – Distributions to Paid-In Capital
EBITDA – Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization
EV – Enterprise Value
GP – General Partner
HQ – Headquarters
IRR – Internal Rate of Return
LP – Limited Partner
PE – Private Equity
PortCo – Portfolio Company
TMT – Technology, Media, and Telecommunications
US – United States of America
Methodology
We take a novel approach to our ranking, which is based on total managed enterprise value (EV) in the US. At Gain.pro, we track over 14,100 investor portfolios in detail.
To estimate the enterprise value (EV) of each company in an investor's portfolio, we begin with the last reported deal value, where publicly available. We then scale this figure based on full-time employee (FTE) growth to approximate the current value. We then adjust the EV for estimated ownership share.
For assets without publicly available deal values, we estimate EV by multiplying EBITDA by the estimated ownership share and a predicted exit multiple. The total EV is then aggregated at the investor level.
Where EBITDA figures are unavailable, we estimate them using the asset’s revenue, subsector margins, and educated revenue/FTE estimates.
Our ranking includes only majority buyout and minority-owned private equity (PE) assets headquartered in the US. We exclude venture capital (VC) investments and publicly listed stakes. To predict exit multiples, we consider an asset’s sector, size, growth rate, margin profile, and cash generation.
Additionally, we include only active investors in the ranking, defined as those with:
i) At least five portfolio companies in the US
ii) At least five new investments since 2019
Unless otherwise stated, all metrics and calculations are based solely on an investor’s US portfolio.
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© 2025 Gain.pro, all rights reserved