Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Start-ups and companies seeking scale-up funding no longer flock to the stock market as readily as they once did. Many bypass the high street banks too. The reason? They have other options thanks to the ready availability of different types of funding from private markets, at least for those businesses showing fast growth potential.
Private capital markets, which have grown significantly in recent years, offer services ranging from debt funding, seed and venture capital to minority stakes and full buyouts.
Their efforts to rival public markets have been helped by bouts of volatility and illiquidity that have hit stock markets. The tougher life gets for listed companies, the more companies are tempted to go or stay private. Being on a public market comes with extra costs, the legal obligation to be fully transparent on all aspects of the business and the risk of a lifeless share price. Increasing numbers of listed companies are being taken private as their discounted shares make them easy prey.
Advertisement
Ironically, one way for investors to tap into the growth and profitability of private markets is through investing in companies that use public stock markets to raise capital for their private funding operations. Intermediate Capital provides a range of private funding, spanning debt, mezzanine finance and private equity. Petershill Partners, whose parent is Goldman Sachs, provides capital and expertise to private capital managers.
Investment trusts have invested in private markets for decades, and range from Pantheon International, which specialises in private equity assets, to Scottish Mortgage, which allocates a proportion of its portfolio to unquoted companies. Lucrative returns are not guaranteed and it has become an increasingly crowded market, which brings additional risks. Investors should take care to avoid overexposure and to research the available options properly.
Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY) executives said they were encouraged by the company’s performance in 2025 and expressed optimism about 2026 during a fireside chat at a Bank of America event. Sean Leary, Ally’s Chief Financial Planning and Investor Relations Officer, told attendees the company saw “solid
Neysa, an Indian AI infrastructure startup, has secured backing from U.S. private equity firm Blackstone as it scales domestic compute capacity amid India’s push to build homegrown AI capabilities.
Blackstone and co-investors, including Teachers’ Venture Growth, TVS Capital, 360 ONE Assets, and Nexus Venture Partners, have agreed to invest up to $600 million of primary equity in Neysa, giving Blackstone a majority stake, Blackstone and Neysa told TechCrunch. The Mumbai-headquartered startup also plans to raise an additional $600 million in debt financing as it expands GPU capacity, a sharp increase from the $50 million it had raised previously.
The deal comes as demand for AI computing surges globally, creating supply constraints for specialized chips and data center capacity needed to train and run large models. Newer AI-focused infrastructure providers — often referred to as “neo-clouds” — have emerged to bridge that gap by offering dedicated GPU capacity and faster deployment than traditional hyperscalers, particularly for enterprises and AI labs with specific regulatory, latency, or customisation requirements.
Neysa operates in this emerging segment, positioning itself as a provider of customized, GPU-first infrastructure for enterprises, government agencies, and AI developers in India, where demand for local compute is still at an early but rapidly expanding stage.
“A lot of customers want hand-holding, and a lot of them want round-the-clock support with a 15-minute response and a couple of our resolutions. And so those are the kinds of things that we provide that some of the hyperscalers don’t,” said Neysa co-founder and CEO Sharad Sanghi.
Advertisement
Nesya co-founder and CEO Sharad SanghiImage Credits:Neysa
Ganesh Mani, a senior managing director at Blackstone Private Equity, said his firm estimates that India currently has fewer than 60,000 GPUs deployed — and it expects the figure to scale up nearly 30 times to more than two million in the coming years.
That expansion is being driven by a combination of government demand, enterprises in regulated sectors such as financial services and healthcare that need to keep data local, and AI developers building models within India, Mani told TechCrunch. Global AI labs, many of which count India among their largest user bases, are also increasingly looking to deploy computing capacity closer to users to reduce latency and meet data requirements.
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA | June 23, 2026
Advertisement
The investment also builds on Blackstone’s broader push into data center and AI infrastructure globally. The firm has previously backed large-scale data centre platforms such as QTS and AirTrunk, as well as specialized AI infrastructure providers including CoreWeave in the U.S. and Firmus in Australia.
Neysa develops and operates GPU-based AI infrastructure that enables enterprises, researchers, and public sector clients to train, fine-tune, and deploy AI models locally. The startup currently has about 1,200 GPUs live and plans to sharply scale that capacity, targeting deployments of more than 20,000 GPUs over time as customer demand accelerates.
“We are seeing a demand that we are going to more than triple our capacity next year,” Sanghi said. “Some of the conversations we are having are at a fairly advanced stage; if they go through, then we could see it sooner rather than later. We could see in the next nine months.”
Sanghi told TechCrunch that the bulk of the new capital will be used to deploy large-scale GPU clusters, including compute, networking and storage, while a smaller portion will go toward research and development and building out Neysa’s software platforms for orchestration, observability, and security.
Advertisement
Neysa aims to more than triple its revenue next year as demand for AI workloads accelerates, with ambitions to expand beyond India over time, Sanghi said. Founded in 2023, the startup employs 110 people across offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai.
Two young children upset as parents fight at home.
It’s 2026, and most Canadian households aren’t asking how to get ahead — they’re asking how to avoid falling further behind. Fuelled by a quiet frustration and the common refrain behind this anxiety: If I’m doing everything right, why does it still feel like I’m losing ground?
For Stacy Yanchuk Oleksy, CEO of Money Mentors, that sentiment shows up daily in conversations she and her colleagues have with Canadians. These aren’t people who spend wildly; these are Canadians who have already cut spending, already tightened their budget and already done all the tasks required for responsible money management.
As Yanchuk Oleksy pointed out during an interview with Money.ca, the anxiety illustrates a subtle shift in how Canadians are handling the ongoing pressure of higher living costs, where families once talked about budgeting, now the discussion is brinkmanship — deciding what can’t be paid this month, not what should be paid.
These are the households already living lean — and still slipping.
For years, personal finance advice centred on discipline: Track your spending, pay down debt, avoid lifestyle creep.
Advertisement
But many families have reached a point where discipline alone no longer moves the needle.
“For households already stretched, stability just means the pressure isn’t getting worse — not that it’s getting better,” explains Yanchuk Oleksy.
With interest rates staying elevated longer than expected and everyday costs still stubbornly high, the margin for error has disappeared. Even small disruptions — a car repair, dental bill or temporary loss of overtime — can tip a household from “managing” to “making trade-offs.”
That’s when budgeting turns into triage.
Read more: Canadians spent $183B on dining and clothes in 2024. Prioritize these 4 critical investments instead and watch your net worth skyrocket
Advertisement
In practice, financial triage means deciding which obligations get paid first — and which get deferred.
“Families cut out anything non-essential — less food in the grocery cart, no dining out, pulling kids from activities, postponing travel — while still relying on credit to cover basics like utilities, school costs, or transportation,” says Yanchuk Oleksy. “Further down the line,” she said, “it looks like parents deciding which credit card or line of credit gets paid — and which one doesn’t.”
These choices are not made lightly. They’re tactical responses to a cash-flow problem, not signs of financial recklessness.
Advertisement
But over time, this juggling act becomes exhausting — mentally and emotionally — especially when progress never seems to materialize.
Financial triage doesn’t just strain bank accounts. It strains relationships.
Parents describe guilt over what their kids are missing, anxiety about unopened bills and rising conflict between partners about money decisions that feel impossible to “win.” Even when households agree on priorities, the constant pressure takes a toll.
“Inaction tends to be our default choice when it comes to money,” explains Yanchuk Oleksy. “We’re afraid to make the wrong decision, and the discomfort and shame only grow over time.”
This is often the stage where people stop talking about money with friends or family altogether — not out of secrecy, but shame.
Advertisement
What makes 2026 especially difficult is the disconnect between expectations and reality.
Many Canadians expected rate stability — or early cuts — to ease pressure. Instead, they’re facing a prolonged period where costs remain high, wages haven’t fully caught up and debt relief feels out of reach.
Stability, as Yanchuk Oleksy often points out, doesn’t equal affordability.
And when families do everything they’re “supposed” to do but still fall behind, the psychological impact can be as heavy as the financial one.
As Yanchuk Oleksy explains, there are a few red flags that can be used as alerts — as a signal for when the household has moved beyond short-term stress and into dangerous territory:
Advertisement
Credit cards are consistently maxed out, with no ability to pay more than the minimum
Using payday loans or high-cost instalment loans to cover everyday expenses
Missing or delaying payments on utilities, rent or credit products
Increasing tension or conflict at home is tied directly to money decisions
None of these indicates failure. They indicate a system under strain.
“These are early indicators that stress is turning into a crisis,” Yanchuk Oleksy said. “And the earlier people reach out for help, the more options they have.”
Financial triage isn’t a long-term solution — but it is a signal.
It’s a sign that households may need more than budgeting tweaks. That could mean professional credit counselling, restructuring debt or getting outside help to assess options before the situation worsens.
Most importantly, it means recognizing that falling behind in this environment isn’t a personal failure. It’s a reflection of sustained economic pressure hitting household balance sheets in very real, very human ways.
Advertisement
For many, the goal isn’t about getting ahead but holding on — and knowing when to ask for help before holding on becomes impossible.
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
