Opening up private markets: creating more access and transparency

With continued capital flows into private markets, the universe of these assets has become too significant to ignore.

Fuelled by investors seeking diversification and higher risk-adjusted returns, private markets have reached around US$14 trillion in assets under management (AUM) – and are forecast to soar to anything up to $25 trillion by the end of the decade.¹ Yet the scope is much bigger, since opportunities today remain limited mostly to institutions and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Transparency, liquidity, and accessibility are the holy grail of private markets investing – not only to tap into a much wider group of different types of investors keen to allocate; but also, to cater to those asset owners seeking more cost efficiency.

Take mass affluent investors, those with assets over US$500,000. Collectively, this group represents roughly US$20 trillion in AUM in the US alone but is yet to expand into private markets. Further, standardisation can benefit liquidity in the institutional segment, with these investors keen to explore index solutions alongside direct access.

This all aligns with S&P DJI’s goals in this space. “We want to first create more transparent [private markets] indices, and then indices that can be the basis of investible products,” said Rajendra.

Maybe different, or new, players need to be involved in this ecosystem, suggested Rajendra, with GPs as the originators of these assets potentially playing a bigger role in making the data they hold more widely available.

Bringing benchmarks to private markets

To meet demand for private markets access, S&P DJI has been increasingly focused on developing new benchmarks customized to these assets.

For the last few years, for example, it has had a strategic relationship with Cambridge Associates as an exclusive distributor of the firm’s benchmark. The objective has been to leverage Cambridge Associates’ 50-year track record in providing performance evaluation tools and insights for private investments. This includes sourcing its data directly from private investment fund managers, which contribute their fund financial statements anonymously across strategies and geographies.

Yet while this benchmarking is broader and relatively in-depth across private equity, venture capital, private credit and real assets, confidentiality agreements with GPs limit transparency.

A more recent agreement involving S&P Global (the majority shareholder of S&P DJI), Cambridge Associates and Mercer in September 2025 has moved private markets performance analytics forward. It aims to tackle data fragmentation through aggregated, anonymised insights into global fund performance monitoring, fundraising tracking, and deal analytics.

Index innovation to drive investment

Despite these initiatives, investors still need investable products that democratise private market assets. In response, S&P DJI has drawn on its long history of making markets more accessible by taking indexing in this space to the next level.

Most notably, it has created the foundation for investable products with the September 2025 launch of the S&P Private Equity 50 Indices, in collaboration with NewVest, the private markets index manager.

A key driver was to accurately measure and represent this emerging asset class. “This is a broad, rules-based benchmark representative of institutional private equity portfolios through the S&P Private Equity 50 Indices," said Rajendra.

The family of indices are designed to measure the performance of 50 of the largest available private equity funds each vintage period, he explained. In turn, market participants can get an efficient and accessible view into some of the largest funds in North American and European private equity which make performance data available.

“We believe the new benchmarks capture broad, high-quality and diversified exposure in an innovative way that is enhancing transparency and scalability,” Rajendra added.

To already show the potential to provide accredited investors with targeted exposure to private market assets, Krane Capital Management (KraneShares) launched a US-focused private company fund in early October 2025 – the Krane S&P U.S. Private Stock Top 10 Vintage 2025 Series.

This enables investors to access the top US private technology companies, spanning artificial intelligence, humanoid robotics, aerospace, and defence, as selected and tracked by the S&P US Private Stock Top 10 Vintage 2025 Series Index.

Put simply, by creating a formal index standard, S&P DJI is bringing greater comparability, accessibility, and benchmarks for broader set of investors.

Creating more access to private credit

The private credit landscape might take a little longer to penetrate. Inevitably, the confidential nature of these assets means companies want some level of anonymity or confidentiality.

“Availability of data is a key component that needs to be worked on,” said Rajendra, although added that this plays to S&P’s advantage through its Market Intelligence division, a reliable source of pricing data for fixed income instruments, including loans.

For the time being, some transparency is emerging as Business Development Companies (BDCs) become a bigger part of the growing direct lending ecosystems. With BDCs providing new forms of debt and equity financing to SMEs in recent years, more investors have been able to gain exposure to private credit without sacrificing the oversight and transparency required by regulators in public markets.

At the same time, however, since BDCs trade on public exchanges, they can be influenced by broader market fluctuations. As a result, while they offer a gateway into private credit, their performance may still be affected by public equity market dynamics.

“Our eventual goal is to have a benchmark that represents the entire private credit market, but we're approaching it piece by piece, starting with direct lending,” said Rajendra.

Building blocks

Ultimately, private markets are too big and important to remain opaque.

With the potential for these assets to play a more significant role in portfolio construction and risk management, breakthroughs via indices can ensure there is wider access for all types of investors. This should fuel further innovation and usher in a new era for investable products.

Source - 1: https://www.ardian.com/news-insights/article/private-market-assets-could-reach-25-trillion-2030

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