Key Takeaways
- • Harvard Management Company's private equity portfolio grew by $2.6bn in FY2025, appearing to be its largest annual increase since FY2021, according to PEI Private Equity.
- • The gain came despite funding pressures facing the endowment, per the PEI report authored by Katrina Lau.
- • Harvard increased its private equity exposure to 41 percent, according to publisher context excerpts from the same story series.
- • Harvard is a regular user of secondary markets and has used them in recent years to offload stakes in older funds as discounts narrowed, per related PEI coverage.
Summary
Harvard's private equity portfolio expanded by $2.6bn during fiscal 2025, according to PEI Private Equity. The growth appears to be the largest annual jump in the portfolio since fiscal 2021, despite funding pressures that have weighed on the university's endowment, the publication reported on 17 October 2025.
PEI reported that Harvard Management Company increased its private equity exposure to 41 percent of the portfolio, based on excerpts from related coverage in the publisher's archive. The article is tagged across buyout, growth equity, secondaries, venture capital and endowment allocation themes, reflecting the breadth of the endowment's private markets activity.
The secondaries angle is notable for allocators. Coverage elsewhere in the PEI archive notes that Harvard has regularly used the secondary market to sell stakes in older funds as pricing discounts narrowed, a pattern also seen among other Ivy League endowments that have sold private equity holdings.
PEI also flagged a parallel story on Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, whose private equity portfolio rose 26 percent in a challenging environment, according to the publication's coverage of that report. The two stories together highlight continued institutional commitment to private markets despite liquidity constraints and a difficult operating backdrop.
PEI reported that Harvard Management Company increased its private equity exposure to 41 percent of the portfolio, based on excerpts from related coverage in the publisher's archive. The article is tagged across buyout, growth equity, secondaries, venture capital and endowment allocation themes, reflecting the breadth of the endowment's private markets activity.
The secondaries angle is notable for allocators. Coverage elsewhere in the PEI archive notes that Harvard has regularly used the secondary market to sell stakes in older funds as pricing discounts narrowed, a pattern also seen among other Ivy League endowments that have sold private equity holdings.
PEI also flagged a parallel story on Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, whose private equity portfolio rose 26 percent in a challenging environment, according to the publication's coverage of that report. The two stories together highlight continued institutional commitment to private markets despite liquidity constraints and a difficult operating backdrop.
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