Investing in Small Companies via Private Equity

July 2026

In 1996, the US public equity market included roughly 8,000 listed companies.

Today, that number is closer to half of that, even as the total value of the US stock market has grown many times over. Much of that decline has occurred at the small end of the market, the very segment institutional investors have long relied on for early access to high-growth companies, diversification away from large cap concentration, and the potential for manager alpha in a historically less efficient corner of the public markets. The natural question this raises is not whether small companies still exist, but where investors now need to look to find them.