The 2026 PE Benchmark Report: what the data says

Affinity analyzed platform data from more than 300 private equity firms to benchmark how they source, communicate, and build the relationships behind their deals. Here's what the data shows.

How much a firm emails tells you almost nothing about it. However, what a firm does with its relationships tells you almost everything. The benchmarks below are ordered to match that. We’ll present the widest, most revealing gaps first, and the uniform ones last.

Download the 2026 PE Benchmark Report here.

How concentrated is a PE firm's relationship capital?

According to our data, one person holds a median 31% of a firm's strong relationships. The top three people hold 72%.

Private equity runs even more concentrated than venture, and it is a continuity risk most firms have never put a number to. If your most-connected partner leaves, roughly a third of the firm's relationship capital can leave with them. In buyout, where a single banker or operator relationship can decide who sees a deal first, that concentration is both the firm's edge and its exposure. The firms that manage it best have moved relationship capital out of individual heads and into something the whole firm can see.

That shift, from a private book of contacts to a shared firm-wide asset, is the direct answer to key-person risk.

How much of its network does the typical PE firm use?

The median private equity firm activates 34% of its tracked relationships into introductions. The bottom quarter activates under 15%, and the top quarter clears 61%.

Two-thirds of the median firm's network never produces a single introduction. Those relationships were earned, logged, and then left dormant, which in an industry built on proprietary access is capital sitting idle. Activation is the clearest line between firms that treat their network as a living asset and firms that treat it as an address book.

How many introductions does a PE firm make each month?

The median firm makes 18 introductions per user per month. The spread is the widest of any activity metric: the bottom quarter sits at 8, the top quarter at 33, a range of roughly 4x.

This is where firms separate. Communication volume barely moves between the busiest and quietest firms, but introductions vary fourfold. That gap measures how well a firm converts relationships into action, which is the entire job of origination in a competitive buyout market.

How fast do PE firms grow their networks?

The median firm adds 36 new contacts per user per month. The bottom quarter adds fewer than 23; the top quarter adds more than 66.

Adding names is only half the equation. Growth pays off when the new contacts get activated, not when they get archived. Read this number next to your activation rate: a firm growing fast but activating slowly is building a bigger list, not a bigger advantage.

How much do PE firms email?

Emails per user is the most uniform benchmark in the dataset. The median firm runs 1,087 emails per user per month, and the top quarter sends barely twice the per-user volume of the bottom quarter (692 to 1,568).

Communication is a rhythm, not a lever. Firms settle into a cadence and hold it, which is why email volume tells you so little on its own. If it were the edge, the range would be wide. It isn't, and that is exactly why the relationship metrics above carry the signal.

See where your firm lands

These medians are the surface. The full 2026 PE Benchmark Report breaks down each metric across the entire distribution, with two-year quarterly trends, the per-metric guidance on where your firm sits, and the methodology behind every figure.

See the full distributions, two-year trends, and how your firm compares. Download the 2026 PE Benchmark Report.

Frequently asked questions

What is network activation for a PE firm?

It is the share of a firm's tracked relationships that convert into an introduction over a given period. The median PE firm activates 34%; the top quarter clears 61%.

How concentrated is relationship capital in private equity?

A median 31% of a firm's strong relationships sit with one person, and 72% with the top three, higher than venture and a concentration most firms have never measured.

Which PE benchmark varies most between firms?

Introductions per user, which spread roughly 4x from the bottom quarter (8 per user per month) to the top (33). Email volume varies least.

How many firms are in the benchmark?

The 2026 PE Benchmark Report is drawn from platform data across more than 300 private equity firms.