Morningstar adds to its innovative suite of private market indexes, adding a European version to its modern market series, combining public and private European equity exposure in a single index.
Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN), a leading provider of independent investment insights, today announced the Morningstar PitchBook Europe Modern Market 50 Index. The Europe Modern Market 50 blends the largest and most significant Europe-based publicly listed and late-stage venture-backed private companies into a single index.
With companies raising significant capital while staying private longer, the investor opportunity set is expanding beyond public markets, especially in technology-driven areas like AI, biotech, and fintech, where many of the most dynamic firms are remaining private well into maturity. Morningstar research highlights that expanding equity market exposure to late-stage VC-backed companies can enhance diversification and unlock growth potential in innovative segments beyond what public markets capture. In fact, venture capital-backed companies now account for nearly 11% of the combined public and private global equity markets – up from 1% twenty-five years ago.
In Europe, the investment opportunity set in private markets is growing, with 211 European venture-backed companies now valued at $1 billion or more. Given this trend, investors are increasingly looking to private markets in addition to public markets for portfolio opportunities. The Europe Modern Market 50 includes 50 Europe-domiciled companies—45 of the largest publicly listed firms including HSBC and Shell and 5 leading, liquid venture-backed private companies including Revolut and Mistral AI. The result is a concentrated index of 50 names reflecting the largest and most influential players across the entire European equity landscape.
The index combines the leading methodology of Morningstar Indexes with the private markets data and insights of PitchBook, a Morningstar company. Built for investability, it uses transparent pricing, liquidity screens, and quarterly rebalances. Prices are calculated daily, with VC-backed companies based on verified secondary market transactions and public company prices from official exchange closes.
Sanjay Arya – Head of Innovation, Morningstar Indexes:
"We continue to grow our innovative set of private market indexes to help investors address emerging markets and new data needs. The public-to-private market convergence is indeed a global trend as we see growing late-stage venture capital markets and broadening investor interest in Europe as well as the US. The Europe Modern Market 50 adds another building block to our modern market index format and another tool for investors taking a more holistic view on asset allocation to incorporate public and private markets."
Nalin Patel, Director EMEA Private Capital Research, PitchBook:
"Europe's private market opportunity has grown substantially – companies are staying private longer and at greater scale than ever before. With 211 venture-backed companies now valued at $1 billion or more, investors who focus solely on public markets risk are missing a significant and growing portion of European innovation. Integrated tools that capture both public and private market exposure are increasingly important for anyone seeking a complete view of European growth."
Morningstar has introduced several new and enhanced investor tools to navigate the convergence of public and private markets in recent years, including expanded coverage of private companies and semiliquid funds from PitchBook and Morningstar Manager Research, standardized categories and metrics from Morningstar Direct, a suite of differentiated benchmarks from Morningstar Indexes, and unified workflow tools from PitchBook, like its best-in-class private markets reference data and analytics suite.
About Morningstar Indexes
Morningstar Indexes was built to keep up with the evolving needs of investors—and to be a leading-edge advocate for them. Morningstar's rich heritage as a transparent, investor-focused leader in data and research uniquely equips Morningstar Indexes to support individuals, institutions, wealth managers and advisors in navigating investment opportunities across all major asset classes, styles, and strategies. In February 2026, the acquisition of CRSP brought the CRSP Market Indexes – benchmarks for over $3 trillion in US equities – into the Morningstar Indexes family. Additionally, CRSP's Research Data Products, renowned for their academic rigor, historical depth and accuracy, further enhances Morningstar's equity research and data capabilities. This powerful combination unites two trusted sources of market insight, reinforcing a shared commitment to transparency, quality and investor-focused solutions. Please visit indexes.morningstar.com for more information.
About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment insights in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The Company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers and owners, retirement plan providers and sponsors, institutional investors in the debt and private capital markets, and alliances and redistributors. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, debt securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $352 billion in AUMA as of June 30, 2025. The Company operates through wholly- or majority-owned subsidiaries in 32 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MorningstarInc.
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