As well as a report on this survey, we recently spoke to Dr Steffen Pauls of Moonfare about private market investing and why access to the asset class is an urgent public policy issue.

Nearly four in five private asset investors think US trade
policies will hurt the global economy, a survey of private market
investors has shown. More positively, long-term commitment to
areas such as private equity are appearing robust.

The survey, conducted by Moonfare, the digital private
asset platform, found that 76.9 per cent of those it questioned
were concerned about tariffs and trade wars, and 74.6 cited
worries about geopolitics.

Germany-headquartered Moonfare interviewed 175 of its investors
for the annual study, which the firm said is the only sentiment
survey of investors in private equity. 

Nearly half (49.1 per cent) of investors cited recession fears
among their top concerns in the post-election landscape. They
were more concerned about the US than Europe, however, with 43.7
per cent saying Europe offers the best macroeconomic environment
for private equity investing this year.

More positively, investors’ long-term commitment to private
equity remains “strong,” Moonfare said. More than 30 per
cent of investors plan to allocate 21 to 50 per cent of their
portfolios to the asset class, and 7.5 per cent intend to invest
more than half of their portfolios.

The study was released after this publication met with Dr Steffen
Pauls (main picture), co-chief executive and founder. He is
positive on the direction of private market/alternative investing
and argues that lingering scepticism about these areas does not
make sense. 

For those sceptical about whether private market assets can be
held at scale in the portfolios of affluent investors
and a wider market, the parallel to consider is that mass
ownership of stocks was not an option until about 30 to 40
years ago, Dr Pauls said. 

Moonfare holds about €3.5 billion ($3.94 billion) in assets
under management. 

“More and more people are becoming familiar with private equity,”
Dr Pauls continued. 

Even though private market investing has risen considerably,
there is further scope for this process to run. 

Banks continue to seek diversification and investment yields.
There are also requirements for alternatives to stocks and bonds,
he said. “Regulators in the West need to give normal investors
more exposure to private markets. It takes time before all these
market participants are working in sync. It takes time for banks
and others to adapt their systems, to educate advisors and the
end clients,” Dr Pauls said. 

To illustrate what’s at stake for the almost 1,000
startups in AI, almost all of them are not listed on the public
market, showing the importance of private market investing as a
way of accessing a portion of this business.

Secondaries boom

In 2024 Moonfare launched its first proprietary secondaries
strategy, which draws on its direct investments expertise, and
links with managers and their intermediaries. The firm said that
2024 was a record-breaking year for secondary transaction
volumes, hitting $160 billion.

The firm thinks that secondaries will remain a “critical pressure
valve” in 2025. 

“Given that secondaries still represent only around 1 per
cent of total private market assets, Moonfare sees
significant growth potential for this asset class in the years
ahead,” Dr Pauls added.

Other findings

In its survey, Moonfare said that secondaries
– buying/selling pre-existing investments – continue to gain
popularity, with 45.8 per cent of investors expecting the
strategy to perform best, almost matching enthusiasm for
traditional mid-market buyouts (51.2 per cent).

Sector sentiment is heavily focused on technology and software
(65.7 pr cent), and defence (56.2 pr cent), with healthcare and
biotech following closely.

Four fifths (79.4 per cent) of respondents had made private
market investments over the past year, and just over 55.3 per
cent plan new investments in the coming 12 months. Over 30 per
cent remain undecided.

The survey was carried in the first quarter of 2025.