Background: This paper examines contemporary changes and challenges within the Swedish private equity industry and reasons of their existence. Our research stems from the past years’ industry reports pointing out substantial inflows of capital on financial markets as one of the drivers behind high valuations and extended holding periods. Aim: The aim of this paper was to examine and analyse changes on the Swedish private equity market and how Swedish private equity participants experience how demand from investors have transformed and affected the industry. Completion: For this paper, we conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve actors at twelve different private equity firms operating on the Swedish private equity market. The participants were asked about their experiences regarding changes within the Swedish private equity market. Results: Through in-depth interviews we found that there are different views on whether there is too much capital on the private equity market. Frequent opinions were that demand for private equity investments from limited partners have increased, successful general partners see greater access to funding, the funds have increased in size, holding periods have extended and competition for portfolio companies has increased. We also found that some general partners think that the industry is at the top of a private equity cycle and faces a correction in the near future. / Bakgrund: Denna uppsats undersöker samtida förändringar och utmaningar i den svenska private equity-branschen samt orsaken till att dessa finns. Vår undersökning utgår från de senaste årens branschrapporter som pekar ut kraftiga kapitalinflöden på finansiella marknader som en av drivkrafterna bakom höga bolagsvärderingar och allt längre innehavsperioder. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka och analysera förändringar på den svenska private equity-marknaden och hur svenska private equity-aktörer upplever att efterfrågan från investerare har förändrats och påverkat sektorn. Genomförande: För studien har vi genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer med tolv aktörer på tolv olika private equity-bolag verksamma på den svenska private equity- marknaden. De medverkande tillfrågades om hur de upplever förändringar på den svenska private equity-marknaden. Resultat: Genom djupgående intervjuer fann vi att det råder delade meningar om huruvida det finns för mycket kapital på private equity-marknaden. Återkommande åsikter var att efterfrågan på private equity-investeringar hos limited partners har ökat, att framgångsrika general partners har lättare att få finansiering till sina fonder, att fonderna har vuxit i storlek, innehavsperioderna har förlängts och konkurrensen om portföljbolag har ökat. Vi fann även att vissa general partners anser att branschen befinner i toppen av en private equity-cykel och står inför en korrigering inom en snar framtid.

Using data of first time fund in venture capital in United States from 1995 to 2015, I explore characteristics of the funds in relation to the fund performances. Three groups of characteristics that examined are fund characteristics, manager characteristics and limited partners’ characteristics. The paper also incorporates the time effects to show if market cycles have influences in these relationships. Some of the critical findings include that fund sizes have essentially zero impact on the fund return. In manager characteristics, it is very helpful to have a lead manager with MBA or equivalent degree. For limited partners, it is useful to have school endowments as limited partners which could influence the funds’ return positively. Both general partners and limited partners could learn from this paper and be more mindful of certain factor when investing in first time fund.