The growth moved private.
Most of the companies worth owning never list, and the ones that do list later. The institutions moved their money to where the companies are. This page is the published numbers on that, and what an accredited investor can do about it.
The public market is half the size it was.
In 1996 there were 8,090 listed companies in the United States. In 2025 there were 3,908.2 A company that would have gone public at eight years old now waits until twelve.3 Eight of every ten American companies with more than $100M in revenue are private.1
The growth that used to happen on an exchange now happens before the exchange. If your portfolio is only what is listed, it is only what is left.
8,090
1996
3,908
2025
World Bank; Ritter, University of Florida; Apollo. Sources below.
Endowments hold more than half of their money in private strategies.
Across 657 US college and university endowments, 54.5% of assets sit in private and alternative strategies. At the largest, over $5B, it is 62.5%.4
Yale, the endowment that wrote the playbook, reports $11.23B in venture capital and $9.24B in buyouts inside a $44.1B pool, and 9.4% a year over the last ten years.5 The study-wide ten-year figure is 7.7%.4 Both are reported history, not a forecast of anything.
Half the wealth. A sixth of the access.
Individuals hold roughly half of the world’s wealth and about 16% of the money in alternatives.6 In the United States, 24.3 million households qualify as accredited, about one in five.7 Most have never been shown a private deal.
The reasons were never about the investor. They were fees, minimums and who you knew.
Two and twenty, a million-dollar door, and a phone number you did not have.
The standard private fund charges a 2% management fee and 20% of the profit. Over a fund’s life that is a median 12% of committed capital in buyouts and 17.75% in venture, before the fund has returned a dollar.8 Deal Box takes the fee, the door and the phone number out of it.
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Every figure on this page is published by the body named beside it and was read on the source page on September 23, 2026. Returns shown are reported history for the institutions named. Past performance does not predict future results. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer of any security; any offer is made only by an issuer through its own offering documents. Private investments carry a high degree of risk, including illiquidity and complete loss of capital. Read the general risk factors.
- 1Apollo Academy (Torsten Slok), Public vs Private chart book, February 2026, S&P Capital IQ data: 81% of US companies with more than $100M in revenue are private. Source
- 2World Bank, World Development Indicators, listed domestic companies, United States: 8,090 in 1996; 3,908 in 2025. Source
- 3Jay R. Ritter, University of Florida, IPO data: median age at IPO, founding to listing, 12 years in 2025 (technology IPOs); the 1980 to 2025 median is 8. Source
- 4NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments, fiscal 2025 (657 institutions, $944.3B): 54.5% of assets in private and alternative strategies, dollar-weighted; 62.5% at institutions over $5B; 10-year average annual return 7.7%. Source
- 5Yale Investments Office, fiscal 2025 results and Yale Financial Report 2024–25: $44.1B endowment; 9.4% a year over ten years; venture capital $11.23B and buyouts $9.24B held at net asset value on June 30, 2025. Source
- 6Bain & Company, Private asset investing desperately needs new market infrastructure, July 2023: individuals hold roughly 50% of global wealth and about 16% of alternatives assets under management. Source
- 7SEC staff, Review of the Accredited Investor Definition, December 2023, 2022 data: 24.3 million US households qualify, 18.5%. Source
- 8Metrick and Yasuda, The Economics of Private Equity Funds, Review of Financial Studies 2010: the most common management fee is 2% and carry 20%; median lifetime fees of 12% of committed capital for buyout funds and 17.75% for venture funds. Source
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