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Most of the country-level advice in this guide follows from 10 shifts that happened, or became visible, between our first edition and September 2026.
The Backdrop: Large, Slow and Concentrated
Global alternatives fundraising was about $1.3tn in 2025, flat on the year (Bain & Company). Private equity funds returned just 12% of NAV to investors, about half the 20-year average (MSCI), and the typical fund that closed in 2025 spent about 20 months on the road and finished 19% below target (Allianz Research). Unsurprisingly, 21% of allocators now rank DPI as their most critical metric, up from 8% three years earlier.
Two consequences follow for anyone raising outside the US. Allocators everywhere ask about DPI before IRR, so a credible liquidity story belongs in the pitch. And European and Asian allocators weigh geopolitics and currency more heavily than their North American peers, and they raise it in the first meeting.
1. Private credit became the growth allocation almost everywhere
The most consistent signal across every region is a rising private credit allocation, delivered through external managers. CPP Investments is targeting more than $80bn of credit by 2029. APG is lifting private credit from 1.5% to between 2% and 4% of the ABP portfolio. Publica, the Swiss federal pension fund, has been seeking managers for up to $1.1bn of direct lending, and AustralianSuper is building toward about $13bn. If you run credit, the door is open in more markets than at any point in the last decade.
2. The biggest allocators moved to partnerships, secondaries and co-investment
CPP Investments sold 33 fund interests in May 2026 while committing more than $16bn to private markets, much of it through co-investments. La Caisse is cutting direct private equity in favor of fund and co-investment partnerships. Gulf sovereigns co-invested in 21 of the 42 global deals above $1bn in the first half of 2026. A fund without a co-investment program now loses to one with it in Canada, the Gulf, Singapore and Australia.
3. The family office became the most common allocator type outside the US
Dakota Marketplace counts 2,900+ family offices outside the US, more than any other allocator type. They make up 430+ of the 650+ Middle East allocators and 550 of the 930+ in Asia. The populations are growing fastest where governments have built regimes for them: Hong Kong, Dubai's DIFC and Singapore. Plan the trip around this reachable majority, and treat sovereign and pension meetings as multi-year investments.
4. Sovereign wealth funds went direct, went domestic and started asking for reciprocity
The Gulf's seven largest sovereign investors deployed $119bn in 2025, 43% of all state-owned investment activity worldwide. PIF's 2026 to 2030 strategy targets 80% domestic investment, and QIA expanded its venture fund of funds to $3bn on the condition that managers open in Doha. "What do you bring to the country?" is now a standard question in Riyadh, Doha, Muscat and Jakarta.
5. Pension systems were rewired, and money is moving because of it
- Netherlands: every fund converts to the new system by January 2028, and APG is raising private markets from about 26% to just above 30% of assets.
- United Kingdom: the LGPS went from eight pools to six, and Dakota has logged 740+ mandate events.
- Sweden: the AP buffer funds were merged in January 2026.
- Chile: a new generational-fund regime with new alternatives limits takes effect in April 2027.
- Japan: GPIF holds 1.7% in alternatives against a 5% cap the government wants filled.
Each of these triggers a strategic asset allocation review, and a review is the moment a new manager gets in.
6. The wealth channel went global, and it wants evergreen structures
European long-term investment fund (ELTIF) assets grew 55% in 2025 to about $40bn. In Spain, private wealth now supplies about 35% of private equity capital raised after the minimum ticket was cut to about $12,000. A closed-end fund with a 10-year lock is increasingly the wrong first product for private banks and family offices in Geneva, Madrid, Toronto and São Paulo.
7. The rules changed, mostly in the manager's favor
AIFMD II applied across the EU from April 2026. Germany now lets Spezialfonds hold closed-end partnership funds, removing a structural "no" many foreign managers had heard. Saudi Arabia opened its capital market fully to foreign investors in February 2026. China is the one large market moving the other way, with 2026 outbound rules that restrict blind-pool commitments.
8. Allocators started rethinking their US exposure
CPP Investments holds 47% of its assets in the US, OMERS 55% and PSP 41%, and all three are reviewing that exposure. Dutch, Italian and Austrian pensions made similar moves in 2026. A European or Asian manager has a better hearing in Toronto, Amsterdam and Vienna today than at any point in the last decade.
9. ESG screens moved in both directions
Germany's KENFO dropped its weapons exclusions in April 2026, and Nordic pensions have been unwinding defense exclusions. Swiss and Nordic screens still exclude fossil fuels, and Singapore will require climate transition plans from 2027. Have both answers ready: your defense exposure and your climate-risk process.
10. The map itself got bigger
Around 60% of the non-US allocators in Dakota Marketplace were added in the past 12 months. Channels that were hard to see in 2025 are now filterable by metro and type: Canadian advisory teams, UK charities, Gulf and Asian family offices, and Iberian and Indian wealth managers. The chapters that follow are organized around that map.
