The UK private market opportunities DC investors are already accessing

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More opportunities than many assume

It’s not unusual for UK private markets to be discussed mainly in terms of venture capital – after all, it’s one of the most headline-grabbing private asset sectors, and we’re all familiar with Dragon’s Den. But in reality, the market’s much broader. Private credit, for instance, is already funding everything from healthcare facilities and digital infrastructure to growing businesses and specialist lending.
 

UK private credit in practice

Healthcare facilities

One opportunity comes from the healthcare sector. In the central Scotland city of Perth, private capital has helped to fund the redevelopment of a restaurant building into a purpose-built diagnostics centre that will provide services such as MRI, CT and ultrasound scans. Since projects like this often need long-term funding and specialist expertise, they can be a natural fit for private market investment managers.

What’s most interesting is that this isn’t the sort of opportunity most DC investors would recognise from listed markets. It sits in a part of the economy that’s essential to everyday life, but it’s typically accessed through private capital and not public equities. And while healthcare facilities are one example, they’re far from the only kind of infrastructure attracting long-term private investment.
 

Digital Infrastructure

We can see the same trend in UK digital infrastructure. Here, private capital is helping to finance cloud-computing facilities, connectivity and the growing use of data-driven technologies. One recent investment provided funding for a portfolio of UK data centres. These are operated by nLighten, a pan-European platform that focuses on local and regional capacity.

In a similar way to healthcare facilities, assets like these tend to require significant upfront investment and long-term capital. They also sit at the heart of everyday economic activity, underpinning everything from online services and communications to increasing AI usage. Opportunities of this kind show how private markets can give exposure to parts of the economy that are difficult for investors to reach through public markets alone. But once again, not all private asset opportunities are tied to established assets and infrastructure.
 

Venture capital in practice

Backing innovation

In venture capital, the picture is quite different. There, private investment helps support early-stage businesses as they scale up and develop new products and technologies. One example is Wayve, a UK artificial intelligence company that’s developing autonomous driving technology – better known as driverless cars. Businesses like this often need large amounts of capital over several years before they become commercially mature. This makes private-market funding an important source of support.

Unlike private credit investments in healthcare facilities or data centres, here the value lies more in intellectual property, specialist expertise and future growth potential than in physical assets. It shows how UK private markets can provide DC investors with access to innovative businesses working at the forefront of technological change.