30,000 mid-market private equity portfolio companies worth $20T need liquidity
Tony James · Building Blackstone, Backing Costco, and Working with Munger | Tony James on The a16z Show · May 5, 2026 · at 1:12:30
Tony James, former President and COO of Blackstone, highlights secondary and continuation vehicle opportunities created by unsold portfolio companies in mid-market private equity.
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“I think I think one of the great opportunities right now is there's about 30,000 portfolio companies of mid-market private equity firms that can't be sold, can't go public, there's no strategy. You know, 20 trillion or something worth of value. All those companies need to be, Will and Netton, eventually need to be sold.”
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