HarbourVest Partners

In a new article for Financial Planning, HarbourVest’s Sofia Gertsberg, Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Investment Science, explains that as private equity goes mainstream, advisors face growing challenges in measuring performance in an asset class “where the numbers don’t always line up,” with benchmarks that can vary widely. She highlights the importance of incorporating more granular, investment-level benchmarks to enable clearer comparisons and more accurate evaluation of private market portfolios. Read more: https://lnkd.in/edzgKnMq

In Private Equity International’s Private Take, our CEO John Toomey argues that as access to private markets expands, institutional discipline around diversification, portfolio construction, and fiduciary responsibility must expand with it—and that more products do not necessarily lead to better portfolios. Read the article: https://lnkd.in/emgMENQQ

We’re pleased to have participated alongside Oak Hill Capital and New Mountain Capital in IMA Financial Group, Inc.'s recently completed equity recapitalization. The transaction supports IMA’s continued growth — supporting investments in technology, talent and strategic partnerships while preserving the firm’s independence and client- and employee-first culture. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gi8ZmiAB

This year marks 30 years of HarbourVest’s presence in Asia Pacific — reflecting decades of partnership, growth, and long‑term commitment across the region. Since opening our first APAC office in Hong Kong in 1996, we’ve continued to invest in local expertise and relationships. Today, Asia Pacific is home to one of HarbourVest’s most established private markets platforms, built over multiple market cycles alongside long‑standing partners. That momentum continues in Singapore, where our expanded office at One Raffles Quay brings together growing investment, client, and operational teams — strengthening collaboration and supporting our work across the region.

The secondary market reached record highs in 2025, with more than $225 billion in transactions. What’s driving this growth—and how could the market continue to evolve? In this Q&A, Valérie Handal explores the forces shaping today’s secondaries market—from liquidity dynamics and pricing to the expanding role of continuation vehicles and broader participation across private market asset classes. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eWpdJjCX

Private credit isn’t the problem — concentration is. In a new Financial Times op‑ed, our CEO John Toomey argues that diversification within private markets—across strategies, managers, structures, and geographies—is essential to managing risk and building resilient portfolios. Read the article: https://lnkd.in/eJ-ek2VV

Proud to see our Dublin team using their Employee Service Hours to give back at FoodCloud. Working together to turn surplus food that might otherwise go to waste into meals for communities across Ireland, the team helped support a model that proves environmental responsibility and social impact can go hand in hand. All proceeds from FoodCloud are reinvested to help redistribute surplus food to hundreds of community and voluntary organizations nationwide. A meaningful example of how small actions can support people, communities, and the planet. 

Global order is shifting—from a US‑dominated system to one where power is more widely distributed, and global growth is moving from open interdependence to fragmentation. HarbourVest Market Strategists Scott Voss and Mindy Lahrman call this the shift from Pangea to Antipode: if Pangea was convergence, Antipode is maximum divergence—ending frictionless globalization and elevating sovereignty as a core risk alongside fundamentals. From ByteDance to DeepSeek to the Meta‑Manus collapse, this shift is playing out in real time. Learn more in our latest insight: https://lnkd.in/eY7y7G2e

Our Asian & Pacific Islander Professionals at HarbourVest (APHV) ERG recently partnered with the Asian Business Empowerment Council (ABEC) to host their AAPI Business Leadership Breakfast at our Boston office. The program featured a panel hosted by ABEC, including remarks from HarbourVest Chief Marketing Officer Raymond Ahn, alongside leaders from finance, entrepreneurship, and the nonprofit sector. The conversation focused on leadership journeys, community impact, and expanding long‑term economic opportunities within AAPI communities. HarbourVest colleagues joined guests for breakfast and networking before and after the panel, reinforcing our firm’s commitment to community partnership and to supporting AAPI leaders locally and across the region. 

As private equity continues to play an increasingly important role across both institutional and wealth portfolios, the need for consistent, reliable, and decision‑useful performance measurement is becoming more critical—much as it is in public markets.   Unlike public markets, however, private equity benchmarks are not constructed uniformly. Benchmarks intended to represent the same asset class can differ by 300–500 basis points over identical periods, depending on how underlying data is sourced, defined, and aggregated. These differences are meaningful and can materially influence performance evaluation, reporting, and fiduciary oversight.   A recent article published by the CFA Institute's Research and Policy Center, written by HarbourVest’s Sofia Gertsberg, provides a clear examination of these issues, outlining why such discrepancies persist and what allocators, fiduciaries, and platforms should consider when assessing the appropriateness of private market benchmarks. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eWjwAX7v