PE’s growth compared to the public market
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As an asset class, private equity’s growth has exploded over the past two decades. According to PitchBook’s latest Quantitative Perspectives Report, there are now twice as many PE-backed companies as there are public companies in the United States. Those numbers, aided by figures from the World Bank, are through 2019. PitchBook figures extend through 2021, which show 9,277 PE-backed companies, almost 7% higher than the number above. So the gap may be even bigger than this chart lets on.