Employment & job creation
By portfolio company stage5
How does private equity support jobs at different stages of a portfolio company’s growth?
Private equity invests in businesses of all different shapes and sizes, from the smallest seeds of an idea to the largest multinational corporations.
Note: In this analysis, the Venture, Growth and Buyout categories refer to the portfolio company stage. In the previous analysis, the categories Venture, Growth, Generalist and Buyout refer to the type of private equity firm. Although the category names are the same, the underlying data points are not comparable.
Employment
Private equity not only selects the companies most likely to grow and succeed, but also gives them the investment, support, business contacts and tools they need to achieve their full potential at all stages. This active investment management by private equity firms supercharges job creation as the portfolio company grows.
Venture stage portfolio companies
There were 16,018 venture capital-backed portfolio companies in Europe in 2024, employing roughly 641,000 staff. That’s 55% of all companies backed by private equity, and about 6% of the private equity-backed workforce in European companies.
Growth stage portfolio companies
There were 7,022 portfolio companies in a Growth stage backed by private equity, with a total of 3.4 million employees. That’s 24% of all companies backed by private equity in Europe and 30% of the overall private equity-backed workforce.
Buyout stage portfolio companies
We studied employment at 5,702 portfolio companies at the Buyout stage of investment, which is 19% of the total number of European companies backed by private equity. These businesses employed almost 7 million staff, which is 61% of all jobs supported by private equity in Europe.
Job creation
Unlike the analysis by type of private equity firm – where Growth firms recorded the highest job creation, followed closely by Venture firms – this stage-based view shows Venture stage companies posting the highest growth rate, while Growth and Buyout stage companies exhibit more modest job growth.
Venture stage portfolio companies
Seed, start-ups and later stage venture companies (almost exclusively SMEs by size), experienced the highest level of growth. During 2024, these 7,231 venture stage portfolio companies created 26,006 jobs, accounting for almost 9% job creation rate.
Growth stage portfolio companies
Growth companies experienced a 4% job creation rate, adding 82,735 new jobs, 28% of the total jobs created by private equity.
Buyout stage portfolio companies
Portfolio companies in a Buyout investment stage created a total of 179,420 new jobs, almost a 4% job creation rate, and representing 61% of the total new jobs created by private equity across European companies.
7 million
people employed by private equity-backed companies that are at a Buyout investment stage
3.4 million
people employed by private equity-backed companies that are at a Growth investment stage
5. According to the latest investment stage into the portfolio company
Employment 2024
By portfolio company stage
Number of portfolio companies in sample
Job creation 2023-24
By latest investment stage
Companies backed by private equity as of end of 2024
* Other includes Turnaround/Rescue and Replacement capital