Placement Agent
Private Equity glossary · Private Equity Fundamentals
Definition
A third-party intermediary that raises capital for PE funds.
Placement Agent in plain English
A private equity (PE) fund is a big pool of money that professional investors use to buy companies. Before they can buy anything, they first have to collect that money from wealthy people and institutions like pension funds — and that fundraising is hard, salesy work. A placement agent is a middleman hired to do exactly that: introduce the fund to potential investors and help talk them into putting money in, usually in exchange for a fee. Think of a literary agent who shops an author's book to publishers — the agent doesn't write the book, they just open doors and close deals.
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