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| The Daily Pitch |
| PE, VC and M&A |
| Your edge on global private capital markets |
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Latest forecast for returns: Our Private Capital Return Barometers close the gap in traditional private fund performance reporting with near-real-time, data-driven estimates of performance across PE, VC, private debt, infrastructure and natural resources.
The current readings remain firmly within the neutral zone, reflecting expectations for near-average returns in late 2025. Download the report |
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| Inside biopharma's VC reset—fewer deals, more conviction |
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By Ben Zercher, Senior Research Analyst, Biotech and Pharma
Although the long-awaited biopharma VC boom never fully arrived in 2025, the sector still closed the year with another step forward.
The biopharma market continued its gradual recovery, as both VC dealmaking and funding rose for the second straight year. Momentum strengthened in the second half of the year, with two of the strongest quarters since the post-2021 contraction, according to our latest report on the industry.
VCs concentrated capital into fewer, higher-conviction bets. Many of 2025’s largest rounds, particularly in Q4, went to seasoned leadership teams advancing more mature programs, a contrast to the preclinical platform financings that defined the pandemic era.
That recalibration is reshaping the early-stage biopharma landscape: Deal share has declined, but median round sizes have climbed sharply. |
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That's not to say investors abandoned platforms altogether, as some of the largest late-stage rounds still backed customizable therapeutics. Pharma giants continue to face a steep patent cliff and are looking to replenish pipelines.
The difference now is quality—investors want well-understood biology and clinically advancing candidates.
Biopharma VC exit value also edged slightly higher in 2025, even as total exits declined. M&A was the preferred path to liquidity in Q4, but a quiet wave of smaller, high-quality IPOs began to reset expectations for a public market reopening.
Early 2026 is already confirming that shift, with biopharma IPO activity accelerating out of the gate. |
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• The PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor now includes league tables for the industry's most active investors. See the rankings
• Evergreen indexes: As the US evergreen fund market has surged to about $500 billion, are these vehicles delivering? To help find the answer, Morningstar and PitchBook have launched a suite of indexes focused on this expanding universe. Read our analyst note
• A two-tier VC market is emerging in Europe. Funding for the continent's startups is up, but those outside the AI sector are having to make concessions to secure capital. Read more |
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Smart reads that caught our eye.
• How PE's strong software bet fell apart. The rise of AI coding technology is threatening to make decade-long software investments obsolete. [Financial Times]
• NBC hasn't had this many Winter Olympics viewers since 2014. From the same period at the Beijing 2022 games, the network has seen a 93% increase in viewers across all of its platforms during the first week of the Milano Cortina games. [Reuters]
• European Central Bank economists are calling for centralized EU oversight of the bloc’s largest asset managers to close supervisory blind spots and bolster financial stability. [Reuters] |
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| Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: |
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163
Deals
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495
People
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213
Companies
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7
Funds
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| An article in our Feb. 13 newsletter incorrectly stated that Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros was approved by the Trump administration. The deal is still under review by the DOJ, among other parties. |
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| The Daily Benchmark: 2020 Vintage Global Secondaries Funds |
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