Alternative investment firms had a total of $1.8 trillion in dry powder as of June 30, with more than $1 trillion of the total capital held by private equity firms, according to data released by Preqin.
Dry powder is continuing to rise. It just topped $1 trillion in 2017, which was up from $838 billion in 2016. At the same time, capital raised by alternative investment firms is beginning to taper off — $159 billion was raised by 326 funds in the second quarter of 2018, down from $166 billion raised by 373 funds in the first quarter and $229 billion by 546 funds in the year earlier quarter.
What's more, there is a record 4,369 funds targeting a combined $1.5 trillion now in the market.
In two other, separate reports, Preqin showed aggregate venture capital deal value grew to a record $74 billion in 3,686 transactions in the second quarter, while infrastructure aggregate deal value dropped to a record low of $49 billion in 569 infrastructure transactions.
The Preqin venture capital transaction report noted second-quarter valuations exceeded the $51.5 billion combined value of the 3,429 deals in the first quarter and the $49 billion for 2,909 transactions in the second quarter of 2017. The increase in transaction value in the second quarter this year was driven by Greater China deals, with combined value of $40 billion in 1,155 deals.
