Not All Private Equity GP-leds Are Created Equal: Why the Next Phase Will Be Defined by Access and Discipline

Not all continuation vehicles are created equal, and the next phase of the GP-led market will make that distinction difficult to ignore. After a decade of compound annual growth exceeding 25%, the continuation vehicle market surpassed $100 billion in annual transaction volume in 2025, cementing its status as a mainstream liquidity tool for private equity sponsors. But the very success that has legitimized the market is now reshaping its composition. As the opportunity set broadens beyond trophy assets into more complex, lower-conviction portfolio companies, the defining question for secondary investors is no longer whether to participate in GP-led transactions—it is whether they can access the right ones.¹

In this paper, we examine why the quality profile of the GP-led pipeline is shifting, what macro forces are accelerating that shift, and why we believe privileged access to high-quality continuation vehicles will separate outperformers from the rest of the market.²

In 2025, the continuation vehicle (“CV”) market eclipsed $107 billion of closed volume, surpassing the prior year’s record by approximately 40%, with the overall secondary market reaching a record $232 billion (Figure 1).

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An average of roughly 70 buyout single- or multi-asset continuation vehicle deals transacted annually between 2020 and 2025, nearly three times the average between 2015 and 2019. This growth reflects a strategic shift in how general partners (“GPs”) and limited partners (“LPs”) view continuation vehicles. What was once perceived as a lifeline for underperforming assets has become a proactive portfolio management tool, allowing sponsors to retain exposure to their trophy companies, secure additional fee-paying capital, build long-term relationships with new investors, and generate liquidity optionality for existing LPs.

1 “Trophy” represents transactions held at 3x multiple of invested capital (MOIC) or greater.

2 “High-quality” represents the ratio of first- and second-quartile sponsors and/or assets within their corresponding benchmarks.

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