private equity

noun

plural private equities

1

: investment in a company that does not trade on a public stock exchange : interest in a private company

… the proportion of the pension fund parked in private equity grew from nearly 21% of the portfolio in 2014 to about 28% earlier this year.

—Alex Baumhardt

—often used before a noun

private equity investments

2

: investment groups that pool the money of investors in order to acquire ownership shares in private companies

Private equity likes to acquire firms with debt, merge some of them together, find efficiencies, expand and then sell the company or go public on the stock market—in hopes of making a profit for investors.

—Kelly Yamanouchi

Examples of private equity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This singular moment sparked massive sales of the putters nationwide and led private equity firm L Catterton to value the nascent putter maker at more than $200 million, according to Front Office Sports. — Larry Olmsted, Forbes.com, 27 June 2026

With Anthropic and OpenAI increasingly competing against their biggest financial backers, the IPO market may be the best avenue for new money, especially as their capital needs have become too great for most venture and private equity firms. — Ashley Capoot,kate Rooney, CNBC, 26 June 2026

D’Arpizio said investments have ranged from investors such as private equity buying shoe brands to brands investing in the creation of teams to develop shoes or other aspects of product development. — Vicki M. Young, Footwear News, 25 June 2026

The financier started his career at KKR, a global investment firm in London, before leaving to found Searchlight Capital Partners, a private equity firm, in 2010. — Rebecca Aizin, PEOPLE, 25 June 2026

Anant Gupta, a Bay Area private equity exec who launched an investment firm titled Advaya Capital, inked a deal with Comscore in May to buy that box office data unit and spin it off into its own firm that will take the name of Rentrak. — Erik Hayden, HollywoodReporter, 25 June 2026

Shannon did not know that Lifepoint Health, the hospital’s operator, is owned by a huge private equity firm called Apollo Global Management. — Kaylah Jackson, NBC news, 25 June 2026

But over the last five years, private equity firms have eyed minority stakes in professional teams. — Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 20 June 2026

Tech layoffs are already hitting families in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, and private equity firms buying up affordable housing will only make things worse. — Alex Lee, Mercury News, 19 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for private equity

• inequity