Fundraising in 2026: How to Win in a Bifurcated Market

The venture capital landscape in 2026 has become a tale of two markets. While the largest firms continue to command significant capital, average-sized firms are navigating a "bifurcation" that demands higher levels of strategic precision.

During a recent webinar hosted by NVCA and Juniper Square, Jay Farber, General Manager of GPX at Juniper Square, sat down with two of Juniper Square’s 2025 Top Fundraisers, Sundeep Peechu, Managing Partner at Felicis, and Derek Dedeker, Principal at Frist Cressey Ventures, for a conversation that goes beyond surface-level commentary about a tough market and moves into tactical, experience-driven insights on what’s actually working. 

While many GPs would describe the current environment as uniquely difficult, Peechu offered a broader perspective. “I don’t know whether fundraising is honestly difficult or easier in any given year. I think sometimes it feels that way, but it almost always is hard.” The real unlock, he explained, is understanding the nature of the process itself.

The traditional instinct in fundraising is to convert skeptics—to refine the deck, polish the narrative, add more proof points, and return with a stronger argument next cycle. But in a liquidity-constrained, allocation-sensitive environment, that instinct can become a strategic liability. Instead, Peechu reframed the fundraising process's objective as “finding believers rather than convincing skeptics.”

By adopting a “Believer Framework,” GPs reallocate their most finite resource, time, toward connecting with LPs whose mandate, pacing, and conviction already align with their thesis.

A believer already understands—or is predisposed to understand—the firm’s strategy. A skeptic requires re-education, category defense, or allocation restructuring, a lift rarely worth the return. At the same time, structural fit matters as much as interest. An LP may like the strategy and still be unable to invest. Allocation caps, denominator effects, and pacing discipline can override enthusiasm. A believer is not just philosophically aligned; they are structurally positioned to say yes.

The goal is not to talk to more LPs indiscriminately. It is to quickly identify signals of belief, including prior allocations to similar strategies, openness to working with new managers, demonstrated interest in the sector or stage, and for GPs to double down where conviction already exists. After all, in a bifurcated market, energy spent chasing reluctant capital is energy diverted from building and reinforcing relationships that compound across vintages.

As Dedeker noted, “The best time to fundraise is when you're not fundraising.” Meeting an LP for the first time while actively raising is often too late, as many will simply say, We love what you're doing, but we're just going to have to wait until the next fund.

This dynamic reflects a fundamental reality of venture fundraising: conviction takes time to build. Unlike other asset classes where LPs can rely heavily on historical financial metrics, venture capital requires a deeper form of underwriting. Peechu highlighted that an LP’s job is uniquely difficult because, unlike a SaaS company with predictable recurring revenue, a venture fund essentially “starts from zero” with every new vintage. LPs are not simply evaluating past returns—they are assessing whether a team can replicate success in a constantly evolving market. That kind of judgment cannot be formed through a single pitch meeting or even a short diligence process. It requires repeated observation: how a firm thinks, how it communicates, how it executes on its stated strategy over time.

As a result, an LP conviction typically develops through a series of touchpoints over months or even years.

In this context, pre-marketing becomes less about pitching and more about pattern-building. Early conversations are rarely about a specific fundraise. Instead, they focus on understanding how an LP approaches venture within their broader portfolio—how they structure their program, how frequently they add new managers, what sectors or stages they prioritize, and how they think about pacing commitments across cycles. These discussions create the foundation for future fundraising cycles. By the time a fund is officially in market, the goal is not to introduce the firm or its strategy. It is to convert a relationship where belief has already begun to form.

Seen this way, fundraising is not an event with a defined start and end date. It is an ongoing process of building familiarity, credibility, and alignment long before capital is formally raised.

In a high-stakes fundraising environment, operational alpha isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s the infrastructure that keeps a firm composed and credible as diligence intensifies.

The reality is that fundraising generates immense repetition and scrutiny. The same data may need to be surfaced multiple times, in multiple formats, for different LPs. In that context, infrastructure matters. A well-organized, comprehensive data room—complete with PPM, LPA, and financial reporting—won’t win a commitment on its own. But it plays an important signaling role. It shows that a firm is disciplined, organized, and capable of operating at an institutional scale. It reduces friction during diligence and shortens decision timelines. Most importantly, it allows investment teams to remain focused on building conviction rather than chasing documentation.

Both Felicis and Frist Cressey Ventures described meaningful efficiency gains after modernizing their fundraising infrastructure with Juniper Square. As fundraising processes now span hundreds of conversations and touchpoints, firms increasingly rely on purpose-built systems—such as portals and CRMs—to track commitments, manage follow-ups, and maintain institutional memory across cycles.

Just as importantly, operational alpha is a cultural choice. Leading fund managers reject the traditional “front office vs. back office” divide. At Felicis, for instance, the General Counsel and CFO participate in weekly leadership meetings to ensure alignment at the executive level. As Peechu noted, the firm views itself as “rowing together,” rather than separating investment and operational responsibilities. And internal leaders like Katie Riester serve as the quarterback of the LP process—coordinating engagement, managing timelines, and bringing senior investment professionals into conversations at the right moments.

The finance team, in particular, plays a critical role. Dedeker called them the “unsung heroes by a mile.” Their responsibilities extend far beyond accounting. They manage Operational Due Diligence, respond to extensive information requests, navigate legal and compliance processes, and ensure there are no “red flags” that could derail a commitment late in the process. Their work continues through final documentation, commitment batching, and SEC filings, often layered on top of their day-to-day responsibilities running the fund itself.

A lack of liquidity is the primary hurdle for many investors today. This crunch is driven by a stagnant exit market, with public offerings and high-multiplier acquisitions slowing significantly since 2021. Many institutional LPs are also facing denominator effect issues or strict allocation caps set by their Investment Committees. Peechu pointed out, “If they're very close to that number, it doesn't matter how good your strategy is…you're almost never going to get a check from them.”

Dedeker shared a candid example of an institutional LP who, despite years of courting, told him, “We absolutely love everything that you're doing. Unfortunately, at this point, we have a certain number of slots for managers, and until one of those slots frees up, we just don't have additional capital to bring a new manager in.”

To succeed, GPs must treat their fundraising pipeline with the same analytical rigor they expect from their portfolio companies.

• Qualify the pipeline: Ask LPs direct questions about their current liquidity, such as whether they have written any checks to new managers in the last year.
• Identify new capital: The odds of success are significantly higher with LPs who are brand-new to venture or have recently had a liquid event (e.g., selling a company) and are starting their program from scratch.
• Double the volume: Because timing and macro-environments are so volatile, aim for a top-of-funnel pipeline that is twice the size originally anticipated.

Success is no longer driven by the best narrative or the largest network. It is driven by precision: identifying the right LPs, building conviction years in advance, and executing the diligence process with operational discipline.

The firms that adapt to this reality are reframing fundraising itself. They see it less as persuasion and more as alignment. Less as a campaign and more as an ongoing relationship. Less as storytelling and more as proof. In a bifurcated market, capital may be harder to access—but it has not disappeared. It is simply flowing to firms that demonstrate clarity of strategy, strength of relationships, and the operational maturity to scale.