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.