Private equity firms are facing another hard year for fundraising as tariffs and a choppy economy make it harder to cash out on deals. Amid these headwinds, some firms believe they have found a new source of hard-to-find capital: retail investors, who have long been excluded from the world of private big business deals that are the PE world’s bread and butter.
In the past, only the super wealthy and institutional investors, like pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds, could get a piece of PE. Since 2017, though, private equity firms have launched more than 400 funds with flexible structures and lower minimums—as low as $500 in some cases. Recently, the pace of these offerings has accelerated, offering unprecedented opportunities for small investors to access PE-style investments like private credit, real estate, and infrastructure, according to data from investment manager Hamilton Lane.
