In our World Investment World Report 2025, “surfing the wave of change of market”, Forvis Mazars questioned more than 300 respondents of investment capital (PE) who provided their point of view on challenges and opportunities with an impact on the EP landscape around the world. Economic factors stimulating strategic changes in an evolving regulatory and geopolitical environment, the EP market sails in a period of uncertainty – with critical impacts for the technology sector in 2025 and beyond.
More specifically, our report stresses that the technological sector remains a main area of interest for PE companies. In the United States, we see investors targeting specific industry sub-sectors, including Fintech, cloud services, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) because of their potential scalability and their recurring income potential. While technology leaders seek to assume investing in PE, here are five world trends to keep in mind:
1. Economic volatility
Our report finds that inflationary pressures, associated with interest rate increases, are evaluations. However, the EP market has experienced a significant development towards heavy agreements, as companies avoid high debt charges in an environment of rising rates. Consequently, companies are looking for more sustainable organic growth opportunities instead of counting on debt -oriented expansion. Despite continuous unpredictability, PE companies are confident in market conditions, with those of North America and Asia -Pacific – regions which are considered to be global centers for technological innovation, in particular positive on the growth of the portfolio for the coming year.
2. Geopolitical uncertainty
Although technology remains among the main global investment sectors, international transactions in high -tech fields are often subject to higher regulatory examination, especially when riding other highly protected industries, forcing companies to navigate an increasingly complex global regulatory network. Many countries, including the United States and the EU, have introduced stricter investment screening protocols, especially in the technology sector to monitor foreign direct investments and cross-border data flows. This trend affects the ability of companies to engage in cross -border mergers, acquisitions and partnerships.
“The uncertainty of the post-electoral American commercial environment puts a new objective on transactions that oblige companies in terms of PE to consider the potential impacts of prices and regulatory changes. The market awaits clarity, but expectations are that the activity of transactions could increase in the second half of 2025 as interest rates decrease and inflation is stabilized. ”
-Scott Link, partner and leader of the national investment capital industry, forvis Mazars US
3. Cross -border strategies
Due to the current geopolitical uncertainty, PE companies, in particular in Asia-Pacific and North America, are increasingly cautious about cross-border investment projects. Our report finds that this trend has led to greater dependence on regional expansion strategies, in particular on emerging markets where the entry cost can be lower but is accompanied by its own set of challenges, such as the cost of the repatria of income from different jurisdictions, costs of conformity and hiring.
4. Portfolio performance
The changing dynamics between majority and minority shareholders is demonstrated by companies that are oriented towards co-investment strategies, allowing minority shareholders to line up more closely on the long-term objectives of the company while benefiting from the expertise of majority investors. Active shareholders of minorities declare the performance of the most solid portfolio both at three years and at the exit, while active majority shareholders have higher internal rate of return, some in the speculating PE industry, this could reflect the types of businesses likely to take care of minority shareholders. Our report finds that this trend is particularly widespread in the technology sector at a rapid rate, where innovation requires a collaborative approach between investors and management teams.
5. Creation of evolution value
Our report notes that the two main operational challenges faced by PE companies include:
- Selection of the leadership team: Attracting and retaining senior executives remains difficult, companies prioritize the access and retention of experienced managers to support the objectives of the portfolio. It is increasingly important that technological companies identify leadership capable of responding to the challenges of rapid technological progress in AI as well as the growth of confidentiality and data cybersecurity. In addition, within the technological industry, the challenges are extended to the identification and conservation of senior engineers taking into account the shortage of talents within certain vertical sectors.
- Development and monitoring of the key performance indicator (KPI): companies focus on the definition and monitoring of KPIs to identify the areas of improvement and provide proactive operational support. For technological companies, it plunges more deeply into recurring income from income beyond new monthly recurring incomes (MRR) and swirls Mr., but rather understanding the expansion MRR, For examplePulled by new services, price increase, etc.
Given these five global trends, PE companies evolve how they manage their portfolios, adopting a more practical approach to strategic support and operational partnership and allowing companies to help guarantee that their portfolios continue to generate solid yields, even in uncertain market conditions. Even with certain opposite winds of uncertainty, mergers and acquisitions should continue to be an essential growth strategy for technological companies.
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