StepStone Targets $7B Across Secondaries Vehicles as Market Eyes Record 2026

StepStone Dual Fundraise: $6B LP Secondary Fund + $1B GP-Led Strategy StepStone Group has launched simultaneous capital raises targeting $7 billion across two complementary secondaries vehicles. The primary vehicle — StepStone's latest Secondary Opportunities Fund — targets approximately $6 billion, focused on acquiring LP stakes in private equity funds. This follows StepStone's previous secondaries fund, which closed at $4.8 billion in 2024, marking a 25% size increase. The second vehicle is a $1 billion continuation fund-focused strategy targeting GP-led transactions, primarily single-asset continuation deals with flexibility to pursue multi-asset structures and co-investments. Blackstone Strategic Partners: $5B Initial Close on Fund X Simultaneously, Blackstone has reported an initial close of $5 billion for Strategic Partners Fund X, with the firm's president and COO Jon Gray indicating another major close is expected in the coming weeks. Blackstone's predecessor fund — Strategic Partners Fund IX — stands at $22.2 billion with $19.7 billion committed by year-end 2025, indicating the scale of capital being deployed through its secondaries platform. 2026 Market Outlook: Another Record Year in Sight The 2025 global secondaries market hit $226 billion in transaction volume — comfortably surpassing the prior record of $160 billion set in 2024. Key drivers for 2026 include: Continued IPO market sluggishness creating persistent distribution drought for LPs Over $600 billion in dry powder across global private equity funds, intensifying demand for liquidity GP-led continuation funds representing ~20% of all sponsor-backed PE exits H1 2025 alone hit $103 billion in transaction volume (Jefferies data) Firms like Ardian, Lexington Partners, Blackstone, and now StepStone are aggressively scaling their secondaries platforms, underscoring how the market is evolving into one of the most dynamic segments of private capital. LP Secondaries Pricing Pricing for LP secondaries has remained resilient heading into 2026. While discounts persist for older vintage, lower-quality fund stakes, high-quality LP positions in top-quartile PE funds are trading at or near NAV. The LP-led market contributed approximately $120 billion of the 2025 total transaction volume, driven by prominent university endowments, state pensions, and sovereign wealth funds seeking liquidity. Why This Matters for Private Markets The simultaneous major fundraises by StepStone and Blackstone confirm that secondary market infrastructure is scaling proportionally to meet surging deal flow. For LPs and GPs alike, the expanding pool of dedicated secondaries capital means better price competition, faster execution, and more creative transaction structures. As 2026 unfolds, the secondary market's role as a primary liquidity mechanism — not just a last resort — is becoming firmly established.