EQT, ChrysCapital Partners, and A91 Partners triumphed in the firm of the year categories at the 2025 AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Capital Awards.

A total of 17 prizes were presented for fundraising, investments, exits, responsible investment, and value creation. Airtree Ventures, Creador, Pacific Equity Partners, Templewater, KKR, Qiming Venture Partners, Potentia Capital, Bain Capital, IDG Capital, Bintang Capital Partners, Multiples Alternate Asset Management, and DCP were among the other winners.

Hemal Mirani, head of Asia Pacific at HarbourVest Partners, who has worked for the firm across two stints since 1997, won the AVCJ Special Achievement Award.

EQT has generated USD 16bn of liquidity out of Asia in the past 12 months, including one of the region’s largest-ever single distributions via the Nord Anglia cross-fund transfer plus co-investment deal. More than USD 18bn was deployed across new investments, ranging from Fuji Tec in Japan to Remember in Korea to PropertyGuru in Southeast Asia to the re-investment in Nord Anglia.

Meanwhile, the firm reached a first close of approximately USD 10bn on its ninth pan-Asian buyout fund in September. It has since passed USD 12.5bn, including commitments signed but not yet closed, and expects to reach a final close at the institutional hard cap of USD 14.5bn in early 2026.

Jean Eric Salata, chairperson of EQT Asia, paid tribute to all the award winners, noting that, after nearly three decades in private equity, he understands what it takes to deliver such achievements.

“There’s a tremendous amount of perseverance in this room and hard work, and I think we should all recognise that,” Salata said. “I also want to say that I’m really happy and grateful to have been a participant in this industry during these last three decades, during which so many good things have happened. It’s great to see the industry thriving.”

ChrysCapital recently closed its 10th India fund on USD 2.2bn. However, Saurabh Chatterjee, a managing director at the firm, highlighted what has happened beyond the fundraise: a debut consumer sector buyout with Theobroma Foods, the sale of a 5% stake in National Stock Exchange of India that has returned 20% of the capital cost within a year, and a full exit from GeBBS Healthcare.

“GeBBS continues the tradition of successful investments in India-US IT services for ChrysCapital that started seven or eight years ago with Liquid Hub and Infogain. In the last five years, we’ve exited these three companies – all of which were control investments – with an average IRR of about 40% and an ROI [return on investment] of 6x,” he said.

ChrysCapital also won mid-cap exit of the year for GeBBS, which was sold in November 2024 at an enterprise valuation of USD 840m. The investment generated a 5.7x money multiple and a 35% IRR, in US dollar terms, while returning 80% of the fund that made the investment.

The small-cap exit award went to Australia’s Potentia Capital for its 14.3x return on mining software provider Micromine, while Bain Capital claimed the large-cap prize for two partial exits – via a strategic sale and an IPO – from Virgin Australia. This followed the turnaround of a business bought out of administration five years ago in a deal involving private equity and special situations strategies.

“I think we had about six weeks to make the decision, and it was a business we truly transformed,” said Barnaby Lyons, a partner and global head of special situations at Bain. “We reset 6,000 supply contracts, we changed the perimeter of the airline, we transformed the management team, and fortunately, that’s been recognised by both a private buyer and public buyers this year.”

Mirani recalled joining HarbourVest as a junior associate in 1997 and sitting in the audience at past AVCJ Awards ceremonies, watching others recognised for their contributions to the industry.

She spent 11 years at HarbourVest, building out the firm’s network of GP relationships in the region. This was followed by a stint at CVC, where she served as head of Asia investor relations and chief administrative officer, and helped the firm raise its fourth pan-regional fund. Mirani returned to HarbourVest in 2015 and has since overseen further expansion in Asia.

“I have worked with so many of you in this room, so I want to say thank you for the support, for the friendship, for the allocations to your funds, for the secondaries, and for the occasional difficult LPAC [LP advisory committee] discussion,” said Mirani, who also acknowledging the role played by colleagues and family in her career.

The winners in full:

• Fundraising of the Year – Venture Capital: Airtree Ventures Fund V (Airtree Ventures)
• Fundraising of the Year – Mid Cap: Creador VI (Creador)
• Fundraising of the Year – Large Cap: Pacific Equity Partners Fund VII (Pacific Equity Partners)
• Deal of the Year – Mid Cap: TalkMed Group (Templewater)
• Deal of the Year – Large Cap: Fuji Soft (KKR)
• Exit of the Year – IPO: Insta360 (China Merchants Capital, CITIC Securities Capital, FreesFund, IDG Capital, Langmafeng Ventures, Shenzhen Co-Stone Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Zhuhai Huajin Capital)
• Exit of the Year – Small Cap: Micromine (Potentia Capital)
• Exit of the Year – Mid Cap: GeBBS Healthcare (ChrysCapital Partners)
• Exit of the Year – Large Cap: Virgin Australia (Bain Capital)
• Deal of the Year – Secondary: IDG Capital
• Responsible Investment: Care Concierge (Bintang Capital Partners) & BDR Pharmaceuticals Internationals (Multiples Alternate Asset Management)
• Operational Value Add: Sun Valley (DCP)
• Firm of the Year – Venture Capital: A91 Partners
• Firm of the Year – Mid Cap: ChrysCapital Partners
• Firm of the Year – Large Cap: EQT
• AVCJ Special Achievement: Hemal Mirani

The judges:

Main categories: Adams Street Partners, Asia Alternatives, Axiom Asia, Azimuth Asset Consulting, Federated Hermes, Future Standard, Generali Asia, Golden Alpha, HarbourVest Partners, HQ Capital, LGT Capital Partners, Manulife Investment Management, MetLife Investment Management, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Solutions, North East Private Equity Asia, Pantheon, Roc Partners, StepStone Group

Responsible Investment Award: APAC Advisors, Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, Kroll, Jaclyn Seow, Senior Advisor, ESG, Openspace Capital, Priya Gopalan, Senior Advisor, ESG, Northstar Group

Operational Value Add Award: AlixPartners, Alvarez & Marsal, Bain & Company, EY-Parthenon, KPMG

The process:

Industry participants were invited to make nominations based on activity over the 12-month period to 17 September 2025. Entries were evaluated by the AVCJ Editorial Board, and a long list was submitted to the industry judges. Their collective recommendations formed the basis of the final shortlists.

The shortlists were posted online for the private equity and venture capital community to cast their votes in October 2025. Registered voters and the judging panel each had a 50% say in the result.

Three categories are not subject to a public vote. The Responsible Investment Award and the Operational Value Add Award are presented at the discretion of the AVCJ Editorial Board with input from separate expert judging panels comprising industry professionals with experience in ESG and operations, respectively.

The AVCJ Special Achievement Award is presented solely at the discretion of the AVCJ Editorial Board.