Private Capital
Investing in infrastructure
Private capital’s opportunity
In 2025, infrastructure fundraising hit a record of nearly $200bn, and the sector established itself as one of the fastest-growing asset classes in private markets.
Fundraising during the first half of 2026 has been markedly more muted at $40.8bn, but the numbers for 2026 understate that capital is still entering the market through separately managed accounts, joint ventures, and co-investment, and the structural drivers of the asset class remain robust. The strength of the sector is also evidenced by the fact that more than half of institutional investors plan to increase their infrastructure allocations and capital is still being deployed.
The drivers are well understood: the energy transition, the AI-fuelled expansion of digital infrastructure, ageing public assets, and governments that have committed to programmes they cannot fund from the public balance sheet alone. What is less talked about is the set of challenges that sit between committed capital and deployment. The market is larger and more complex than it has ever been, and the assets attracting the most capital sit at the intersection of infrastructure, private equity, real estate, and technology, demanding a broader set of transaction skills than traditional sectors such as regulated utilities ever required. The investor base is broader, now spanning institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, GPs, private wealth, and family offices. The capital mix is more sophisticated, with private debt taking a rapidly growing share alongside equity. And the regulatory environment presents transactional challenges that must be managed as part of deal execution, not treated as a separate compliance exercise.
We have written this report for investment professionals and advisers navigating that complexity. Drawing on global data and Macfarlanes’ own analysis, we set out what these trends mean for investors deploying into the UK and wider European market. Across the four sections of this report, we examine where the capital is going, how it is being structured, and what determines whether it can actually be put to work.
Four key themes
The scale of the opportunity
Nearly $1.8tn of private capital deployed across close to 10,000 deals in five years – but the strongest returns are in a handful of segments where medium to long term revenue is contracted and demand is structural. The UK is Europe’s largest market for private capital in infrastructure, and mid-market and upper mid-market deal flow is proving more resilient than the headline fundraising numbers suggest.
Read more →
The capital stack
GP consolidation is reshaping the equity market, while private debt is emerging as the clearest signal of which segments have become bankable. Fund finance (including subscription lines and NAV facilities) has moved from the margins to the centre of infrastructure structuring, and minority stake acquisitions and co-investments are creating a growing stream of investment-level transactions.
Read more →
Navigating complexity and dependencies
The balance of difficulty has shifted. Raising capital for infrastructure remains competitive, but it is the development and execution process that now determines which deals are successful. Grid position, contract structure, and interface management impact which assets reach financial close, and the sponsors who can navigate that complexity on their transactions are the ones doing the best.
Read more →
When public policy meets private capital
Governments are broadly shifting from subsidy to regulatory reform with a bias towards projects that are the most viable and which carry lower execution risk. A single transaction can now trigger merger control, national security, subsidy control, and planning regimes at the same time. The advisory challenge has moved from securing public money to navigating the interaction of concurrent regulatory workstreams (often across multiple jurisdictions).
Read more →Download the full report
Sources: *McKinsey Global Private Markets Report 2026; Macfarlanes analysis of Preqin Infrastructure Deals Database, 22 July 2026; Record infrastructure funding sourced from McKinsey & Company, “McKinsey Global Private Markets Report 2026: Infrastructure: Investing to support global growth,” June 2026; Fastest-growing asset classes in private markets sourced from Ibid, 2026; CBRE Investment Management, Infrastructure Quarterly: Q1 2026, 30 March 2026; Allianz, How infrastructure secondaries can be additive to an investor‘s portfolio, 10 April 2026; IPE Real Assets, Infrastructure becomes 10% of all private markets amid data centre growth, 24 March 2026; $40.8bn sourced from PEI Infrastructure Investor, Fundraising Report H1 2026, 2026; More than half of institutional investors plan to increase their infrastructure allocations and capital is still being deployed, sourced from McKinsey & Company, Global Private Markets Report 2026, June 2026 (p. 59-62); Macfarlanes analysis of Preqin Infrastructure Deals Database (2021- July 2026), 22 July 2026; The UK is Europe’s largest market for private capital in infrastructure, and mid-market and upper mid-market deal flow is proving more resilient, sourced from Macfarlanes analysis of Preqin Infrastructure Deals Database (2021-July 2026), 22 July 2026.