Inside Deal Origination Today: More Competitive, More Data-Driven — and Still Relationship-Led
Deal origination isn’t just more competitive than it was five years ago — it’s fundamentally different. In our proprietary Deal Origination Study, dealmakers describe a market where data is ubiquitous, processes are tighter and winning opportunities increasingly comes down to something harder to scale: relationships. The result is a new landscape for sourcing — one that blends technology, sector expertise and relentless network-building in ways that didn’t exist even a few years ago.
The following is a summary of our findings, and highlights of commentary from some of our participants across private equity, private credit, independent sponsors and advisory firms.
The study is broken down into three sections:
1. The Origination Role & Job Metrics
2. Today’s Market & New Technology
3. Best Practices in Deal Sourcing