Good morning, ! It's Wednesday and we're covering private equity`s golden opportunity in the $4.9T Biotech world. Sanofi moves the market with a $11.4B exit in its consumer health unit Opella, Nearly 60% of LPs plan to increase their private equity allocations in 2025.

First time reading? Join 170,000+ investors and executives. Subscribe here.

Want to advertise in PE 150? Fill out this form. 

DATA DIVE

Data Dive: Biotech Dealmaking, From Euphoria to Evolution

Biotech is booming, but private capital is getting more selective. After hitting $48.3B across 1,144 deals in 2021, PE/VC investment in biotechnology dropped to $18.1B in 2023. That’s a 62% decline in value from peak levels, driven by macro headwinds and a shift toward de-risked, later-stage bets.

Yet beneath the headline slowdown, the market remains structurally strong. Biotech’s projected growth, $1.51T to $4.91T by 2033, is pulling capital toward high-impact innovations like gene editing, mRNA, and AI-driven discovery. Series C+ deal sizes stayed elevated at $74M in 2023, showing that investors are still backing scale-ready platforms.

What’s changed is not the “why” but the “when.” Early-stage enthusiasm has cooled, while capital concentrates in growth-stage winners and strategic partnerships. The U.S. still dominates, but APAC and Europe are gaining ground, and underfunded regions like LATAM and the Middle East may hold long-term upside. (Read or Listen to Full Report)

PRESENTED BY INSURANCE 150

Cyber Insurance 2025: Covering the Cost of Clicks Gone Wrong

From $15B in 2024 to $29.9B by 2030, cyber insurance is sprinting toward ubiquity. Why? Because cybercrime is expected to hit $15.6T by 2029—yes, trillion. SMEs remain exposed, allocating just 10% of IT budgets to cyber, while hackers armed with AI and zero-days don’t care about budget cycles. The manufacturing sector, the most attacked (25.7%), still underfunds defenses—leaving insurers with both risk and opportunity. Meanwhile, coverage demand is spiking in hot zones like the UK (4,783 victims per million users). As threats evolve and regulators tighten up, expect cyber insurance to shift from “optional line item” to “line of defense.” (Read or Listen to Full Report)

TREND OF THE WEEK

From Blitzscale to Budget Mode

U.S. FinTech dealmaking just got a wake-up call. Q1 2025 investment totaled $9.6B, down 54% YoY, and average deal size shrank to $27.3M. The message? Growth-at-all-costs is out, and strategic, capital-efficient bets are in. Rokt's $335M raise and $300M buy of mParticle show the bar is high—but capital is still flowing to category winners. For everyone else: smaller checks, longer due diligence, and fewer mulligans. This isn’t a pullback. It’s a pivot. (More)

PRESENTED BY BUILD WEALTH

WSJ Bestselling Author Walker Deibel’s BuildEnergy Fund Leverages 4-Decade Track Record (Over 80% Subscribed!)

​B​uildEnergy Fund I is officially open to accredited investors​! This $100 million cashflowing fund offers family office terms and 30%+ IRR to its investors. 

Why ​i​nvest? ​Walker Deibel, the serial entrepreneur, WSJ bestselling author, and founder of Build Wealth sees this fund as hitting all facets of his Growth Predictor Framework:

• Experienced Operating Team – A 4-decade / 6-fund track record of strong returns, including IRRs averaging 50%

• Attractive Returns – Prior fund is already cash flowing 15% cash-on-cash, and estimated 35% IRR only 18 months in.

• Institutional-Level Terms – Direct access to a $5M family office buy-in structure, reflecting a 7% immediate paper gain on a minimum $50,000 investment.

• Focused Sector Approach – A strategic, supply / demand imbalance play, acquiring $100 million roll-up of oil wells during a buyer’s market.

​If you’re an accredited investor, you can get access to the data room here:

Discover the deal 

For questions, reach out to Mike Brown, Head of Investor Relations: [email protected]

LIQUIDITY CORNER

Liquidity Watch: LPs Lean In, But Valuation Anxiety Persists

Nearly 60% of LPs plan to increase their private equity allocations in 2025, per S&P Global's latest outlook. It’s a bullish signal—especially as 52% of respondents expect PE to deliver the best returns across asset classes next year. But here's the kicker: a majority also believe portfolio company valuations are inflated. That means new capital may be chasing markdowns, not momentum. Add to that the survey’s pre-February stock market drop timing, and you’ve got optimism skating on thin ice. Expect LPs to write bigger checks—but with sharper pencils. (More)

DEAL OF THE WEEK

Sanofi’s $11B OTC Exit Sets Stage for Targeted M&A Surge

Sanofi just inked a €10 billion ($11.4B) deal to sell a 50% controlling stake in its consumer health unit Opella to private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, one of the largest European pharma carve-outs in recent memory.

Why now? Sanofi is sharpening its focus as a “pure-play biopharma, joining a long line of drugmakers slimming down to double down on prescription innovation. With the cash infusion, the French giant plans to pursue bolt-on acquisitions, bolster its dividend, and expand its share buyback program. Recent deals, like its $600M upfront investment in Dren Bio’s bispecific antibody, hint at the M&A playbook going forward: clinical-stage, high-potential, and tightly aligned with R&D goals.

For investors, this isn’t just about portfolio cleanup, it’s a signal. Expect Sanofi to move fast on smaller, strategic assets while keeping its sights off mega-mergers. In a market that rewards focus and firepower, Sanofi just boosted both. (More)

TOGETHER WITH REPUBLIC

Private Markets Aren’t Just for the 1% Anymore.

Institutions invest billions into private markets because they may provide superior market positions and steady cash flow, even in a shaky market–now you can too.

For the first time ever, elite private assets are available to all investors for as little as $500 with Hamilton Lane Private Infrastructure Fund.

Learn How You Can Invest Today.

_{*Source: Hamilton Lane data, Bloomberg as of January 2024. Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.
All securities come with specific risks not limited to a total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Please review the risks specific to this investment on the HLPIF deal page hosted on Republic.com/hlpif}

PRIVATE CREDIT

Private Credit: Leverage Is High, And Sticky

Private credit’s reach across sectors is clear, and so is the risk. Median leverage across all sectors remains elevated at 6.39x in Q1 2025, nearly unchanged from 2023 levels (6.44x). Despite a tougher rate environment and tightening terms, leverage isn’t meaningfully resetting.

Software leads the pack at 8.01x, followed by healthcare services (6.89x) and diversified consumer services (7.16x). Even with higher capital costs, borrowers in sponsor-heavy sectors are still stretching the debt stack, likely aided by private credit’s flexibility compared to banks.

Why it matters: For credit investors, this stickiness in leverage suggests underwriting discipline will be tested in 2025. With 846 obligors in the dataset, managers will need to sharpen risk filters as refinancing risk builds. The appetite to lend may still be there—but the margin for error is shrinking. (More)

MICROSURVEY

The path of interest rates remains one of the biggest variables for investors this year. We're curious where you think things are headed.

MACROVIEW

Growth on Mute: The GDP Chill in 2025

The U.S. economy is cooling faster than a pre-deal NDA, with 2025 GDP growth forecast at 1.2%—down from 2.8% in 2024. The bounce seen in Q1 was more tariff panic than real momentum, as industrial production now heads for a 1.5% contraction. Core drags? Higher tariffs, vanishing fiscal tailwinds, and the kind of policy uncertainty that spooks even the boldest CapEx committee. Despite resilient private balance sheets, business investment is shrinking under the weight of macro whiplash and rising costs. The Fed is staying cautious, while export demand slows. In short: it’s not a recession, but it sure feels like one in boardrooms. (More)

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

This Week in History: The 36-Minute Meltdown That Shook Wall Street

On May 6, 2010, the U.S. equity markets suffered one of their most perplexing collapses in modern history, the Flash Crash. In just 36 minutes, the S&P 500 E-mini futures plunged and rebounded with breathtaking speed, briefly wiping out nearly $1 trillion in market value. No major news. Just algorithms, panic, and a dangerously thin market.

The trigger? A $4.1B automated sell order, executed without regard for price, flooded the E-mini market, overwhelming liquidity in an already volatile session. High-frequency traders (HFTs), far from stabilizing prices, engaged in rapid-fire trades that exacerbated volatility. ETFs saw trades executed 60% away from their fair value before normalcy returned.

Why it matters: The Flash Crash was the first real stress test of fully automated markets, and it failed. For PE and institutional allocators, it highlighted a systemic risk: liquidity that disappears exactly when it's needed most. A decade later, as private markets increasingly intertwine with public signals and algorithmic flows, the lessons of May 6 still echo. (More)

INTERESTING ARTICLES

Warren Buffet retirement, what is next?

Should investor rethink private equities strategies?

Why should traditional TV outlets be rolled out by Private equities?

TWEET OF THE WEEK

"The biggest challenge after success I shutting up about it."

Criss Jami