Global private equity and venture capital deal value jumped 64.6% in April to $65.06 billion from $39.53 billion the same month a year earlier, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

The number of deals, meanwhile, went down to 968 from 1,025 deals in April 2023.

– Download a spreadsheet with data in this story. – Read about private equity-backed entries in the first quarter. – Explore more private equity coverage.

Year to date, total deal value stood at $190.04 billion from $168.71 billion in the first four months of 2023.

The US and Canada posted the highest deal value in April, at $47.72 billion, compared with just $12.69 billion in the same month a year ago.

Private equity investments in Europe decreased 50.6% year over year to $8.47 billion, while deal value in Asia-Pacific climbed to $8.14 billion from $6.16 billion in April 2023.

The technology, media and telecom sector once again had the most deal activity, with 328 private equity-backed announced transactions.

Within the sector, application software tallied the highest number of transactions at 145, followed by systems software with 39 deals and IT consulting and other services with 23.

Mega-deals

The month of April recorded nine deals with transaction values of at least $1 billion.

In the biggest transaction of the month, Silver Lake Technology Management LLC agreed to buy sports and entertainment company Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. for a transaction value of $21.09 billion, according to Market Intelligence data. The take-private deal was also April's largest overall M&A deal.

The month's biggest round of funding involved AI company X.AI Corp., which raised $6 billion in capital from investors led by Sequoia Capital Operations LLC.