Rethinking the Asia private capital playbook

Asia's private capital story is often told as one narrative: a single, fast-growing region for allocators to tick off with a generalist mandate. The reality, according to three leaders deep in the region's dealmaking, is far more fragmented and far more interesting. We sat down with industry leaders at SuperReturn Asia to unpack why treating Japan, India, China and Southeast Asia as one investment case is the fastest way to miss where the real opportunity sits.

Asia consists of five or six very different markets with Rebecca Xu, Asia Alternatives

Having invested in Asia for over 20 years, Rebecca Xu has watched old myths persist and new ones emerge. The most persistent, she told us, is the idea that Asia is one block of markets requiring only a generalist allocation. In reality, she explained, the region holds at least five or six distinct markets, each with its own regulatory regime, policy environment, capital markets structure and currency dynamics. Japan's opportunity sits in corporate restructuring, spin outs and succession situations within small to mid-market buyouts. India's growth story is powered by digitalisation reform and a robust local capital market that supports venture, growth equity and even buyout exits. China has moved through a GDP-beta era into a confidence crisis and is now, in her view, on a path of recovery led by technology innovation rather than macro growth alone.

Watch the interview to learn about:

• Why "Asia is one market" is the costliest myth for LPs
• How Japan, India and China each demand a different investment lens
• Why local managers must be judged on insight, not just office location
• How AI is reshaping founder profiles and the skills managers need to back them

A nuanced market with Emmanuel Pitsilis, Partners Capital

For Emmanuel Pitsilis, the defining feature of private capital in Asia right now is fragmentation, both in capital flows and in market structure. He pointed to major shifts across asset classes, infrastructure drawing in previously underallocated capital, multi-strategy approaches absorbing flows that would once have gone into privates, and private credit facing significant outflows as investors unwind evergreen structures. Within this picture, Asia itself defies generalisation. Japan has developed a true buyout market comparable to the US. Most other markets look more like venture and growth. China, India and Southeast Asia are, in his words, fundamentally different from one another, and Southeast Asia is not even one thing internally, with Indonesia and Vietnam operating as distinct markets in their own right.

Watch the interview to learn about:

• Why private credit has seen major outflows while infrastructure draws fresh capital
• The case for operational value creation over leverage and multiple expansion
• Why Japan's buyout market stands apart from the rest of the region
• How to size AI exposure across a private portfolio without overexposure

Filling the growth equity gap with Ridhi Chaudhary, Dragon Funds

Ridhi Chaudhary's perspective comes from building a firm specifically to address a gap she saw in the regional market. After the 2022 tech valuation reset, she identified a hole between early-stage venture funds and the large global and mid-market funds focused on control transactions, with few vehicles dedicated to growth equity beyond Series B and C. Dragon Funds was built to fill that space, taking a broad geographic lens across Asia, China and Japan while applying private equity-style underwriting discipline to growth-stage technology companies in fintech, enterprise AI software and consumer internet.

Watch the interview to learn about:

• The gap in Asia's growth equity market and why it exists
• A private equity approach to underwriting growth and venture deals
• Investing with a DPI-first lens to address a key LP pain point
• Early proof points from fund one, including a notable India IPO