Why Investors Are Looking at Franchise Platforms in 2026

For most of the past decade, the case for private markets was made mainly to institutions. That has changed. Alternative investments are the asset classes that sit outside traditional publicly traded stocks and bonds, private equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, venture capital, hedge funds, and other real assets, prized for return streams that behave differently from the public markets. Much of that demand comes down to return. Traditional fixed income has delivered thin yields, and public equities carry their own concentration and valuation concerns, so investors increasingly turn to alternatives on both fronts: for income that bonds struggle to provide, and for equity-style growth that isn't tethered to an increasingly top-heavy stock market. Allocators point to a long record of returns above public-market benchmarks and to relative resilience when those markets fall.

The scale of the shift is hard to miss: alternative assets under management have grown from roughly $7.2 trillion in 2014 to more than $20 trillion today, and institutional allocations to alternatives were expected to reach around 25% in 2025, according to.¹ Cherry Bekaert's U.S. Alternative Investment Industry Report. Private markets are now approaching $20 trillion globally, per² Elliott Davis. What was once a satellite position has become a core sleeve of modern portfolio construction.

Individual and Accredited Investors

For most of their history, alternatives were the preserve of institutions, pensions, endowments, and insurers with the scale, capital, and relationships to reach private deals that individuals simply could not. That is changing. Over the past few decades, alternatives have grown from a small, institution-only market into a mainstream part of how portfolios are built, and investments once open only to large institutions are increasingly available to individuals, a shift often called the democratization of alternatives.¹

Two forces in particular are opening that door for accredited investors. Companies are staying private longer, pushing value creation off the public markets, and the SEC has expanded its definition of an accredited investor to include people who can demonstrate financial sophistication through professional knowledge and experience, not just wealth. The pool of investors who can access private deals, and who want differentiated, less-correlated returns, is growing at the same time the public markets have become more concentrated.

The Family-Office Signal

Nowhere is the shift clearer than among family offices. In a survey run by Institutional Investor, more than three-quarters of family offices said they planned to increase or maintain their private-market allocations in 2026.³ Goldman Sachs' 2025 Family Office Investment Insights report put the average family-office allocation to alternatives at about 42%, with roughly 39% planning to raise private-equity exposure over the following year.⁴ J.P. Morgan's 2026 Global Family Office Report, drawn from 333 offices across 30 countries, found alternatives making up roughly a third of the average portfolio, rising above 40% for offices targeting returns greater than 11%.⁵

The structural trend is unmistakable: the number of family offices tracked by Preqin with private-market exposure has climbed 524% since 2016.⁶ Just as important is how they invest. Advisers describe a decisive move toward direct investing at smaller entry points, deals now structured at $250,000 to $500,000 that were historically reserved for $5–10 million commitments.⁷ And the capital is moving closer to home: traditional hubs like New York and San Francisco are seeing outflows to Texas, Austin and Dallas specifically, along with Florida and Nashville.⁸ For a Texas-based platform, that last point is not incidental.

Why Franchising, and Why Now

Increasingly, that capital is going into franchising. 2026 has been defined by franchise consolidation at the top of the market: Blackstone's roughly $8 billion acquisition of Jersey Mike's, KKR's $2 billion purchase of Nothing Bundt Cakes, and Roark Capital's ownership of Subway.⁹ According to FRANdata, private equity now touches roughly 31,000 franchise businesses, and Goldman Sachs cited a 40% industry-wide jump in franchise deal volume heading into 2026, a year analysts have described as shaping up to be unusually active, even crowded, for transactions.¹⁰

The appeal is structural. With an estimated $3.2 trillion of dry powder to deploy, private equity is drawn to a model that produces predictable, recurring revenue, runs asset-light, and scales geographically through local operators. Well-run units in the category commonly post EBITDA margins in the mid-teens to twenties; Nothing Bundt Cakes, for reference, averaged about $1.4 million in annual revenue per store at roughly 21.6% four-wall EBITDA before its sale.¹⁰ Recurring, real-asset cash flow is exactly what accredited investors are hunting for, and franchising delivers it in a form that is easier to underwrite than a purely financial-engineering play.

From Brands to Platforms

The more important development for individual investors is where the money is now flowing. Private equity's early franchise interest centered on franchisors, the brands that collect royalties. In 2026 that focus has moved down to the operating level, where investors are drawn to the strong unit-level cash flow of individual locations and the opportunity to roll up units from retiring owners and develop new ones faster.¹¹ Some of the largest multi-unit operators already carry institutional sponsors, Flynn Group, with more than 2,900 units and about $5 billion in sales, has been private-equity-backed for years, while firms such as Snapdragon Capital Partners, Taurus, Savory Fund, and Bain Capital's new Prosper Growth Partners are explicitly building franchisee platforms.¹¹

That is the category accredited investors are now being offered access to: not a single franchise, but a franchise platform.

The distinction matters. Buying one franchise concentrates your outcome in a single location, a single manager, and a single trade area. A platform aggregates multiple units under one entity, spreading single-location risk, adding professional management depth, and creating operating leverage across marketing, purchasing, and regional oversight. It also changes the exit. A single shop typically sells to another operator; a platform of well-run units generating recurring revenue at scale becomes a target for the very private-equity buyers now paying premiums for franchise cash flow, and can preserve a retained stake for a future "second bite."¹²

The Part That Separates Platforms: Operations

Not all platforms are built the same, and this is where accredited investors should look closely. Many vehicles raise capital and then outsource the actual operating, leaving investors exposed to a management layer they never underwrote. The stronger model is the owner-operator: a platform that develops, owns, and runs its own locations, so the people raising the capital are the same people accountable for unit-level performance.

That is the model behind SummitView and its Texas franchise platform, H&N Texas Holdings, LP. The Fund develops, owns, and operates Hammer & Nails Grooming Shop for Guys locations across Texas. The distinction is worth stating plainly: H&N Texas Holdings, LP is the Texas-based investment platform, separate from Hammer & Nails, the national franchisor, an established, operating brand with 72 locations open and additional licenses sold as of its 2026 franchise disclosures and website, not a startup concept.¹³ Rather than serving as a passive capital pool, the platform owns its locations directly, applies centralized professional management across them, currently owns six Texas locations, and is pursuing an institutional strategy to scale to 20–30 locations under a single entity, with a targeted platform sale as its exit.

The leadership behind that operating model has its own track record. Chief Executive Officer Frank Muller built his career in institutional investment management and real estate, including a stint leading global distribution as Executive Vice President at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, followed by roles as President of Hines Real Estate Investments and Chief Strategy Officer at Behringer Investments, before founding H&N Texas. Chief Operating Officer Chad Reid brings more than 15 years of multi-unit health and wellness franchising experience, including managing an eight-location portfolio at Massage Heights that consistently ranked among the system's top performers. That combination, institutional capital markets experience paired with hands-on multi-unit operating discipline, is precisely the pairing the owner-operator thesis depends on: the team raising the capital is the same team accountable for what happens inside each shop.

It pairs a recurring, membership-based revenue model with the multi-unit diversification and owner-operator accountability that the broader market is now rewarding.

Access Is No Longer the Hard Part

For accredited investors and family offices building an alternatives sleeve in 2026, franchise platforms sit at a useful intersection: the recurring, real-asset cash flow investors want, inside a category private equity is actively bidding up, with a defined institutional exit path. The category is real, and the capital is already moving. The differentiator, as with any private investment, is the team and the structure, whether the platform genuinely operates what it owns, and whether its unit economics, management depth, and exit assumptions hold up under scrutiny, exactly the diligence sponsors themselves apply. Access is no longer the hard part. Selection is.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Any investment involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Targeted returns and forward-looking statements are projections based on current assumptions and are not guarantees of future results.

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Sources

1. Cherry Bekaert — U.S. Alternative Investment Industry Report 2025 (alternatives AUM growth; institutional allocation; expanded accredited-investor definition). https://www.cbh.com/insights/reports/u.s.-alternative-investment-industry-report-2025
2. Elliott Davis — Alternative Investment Outlook 2026 (private markets approaching $20 trillion globally). https://www.elliottdavis.com/insights/alternative-investment-outlook-2026
3. Institutional Investor — Family Offices Plan to Shift More Money Into Private Markets (over three-quarters increasing/maintaining private allocations in 2026). https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/family-offices-plan-shift-more-money-private-markets
4. Goldman Sachs — 2025 Family Office Investment Insights (avg. 42% alternatives allocation; ~39% planning to raise private-equity exposure). https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/nearly-40-percent-of-family-offices-plan-to-raise-allocations-to-public-and-private-equity
5. J.P. Morgan Private Bank — 2026 Global Family Office Report (333 offices, 30 countries; alternatives share of portfolios). https://privatebank.jpmorgan.com/nam/en/insights/reports/2026-family-office-report
6. IQ-EQ — Key Predictions for Family Offices in 2026 (Preqin: family-office private-market exposure up 524% since 2016). https://iqeq.com/us/insights/key-predictions-for-family-offices-in-2026/
7. Crain Currency — What to Expect in 2026 for Family Offices (direct investing at $250K–$500K entry points). https://www.craincurrency.com/family-office-management/what-expect-2026-family-offices-more-diversification-technology-adoption
8. Forbes — How Family Offices Are Quietly Reshaping Global Investing (geographic shift toward Austin/Dallas; scale of the sector). https://www.forbes.com/sites/carriemccabe/2026/02/12/how-family-offices-are-quietly-reshaping-global-investing/
9. Entrepreneur — Private Equity Is Pouring Billions Into Franchises (Blackstone/Jersey Mike's, KKR/Nothing Bundt Cakes, Roark/Subway). https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/private-equity-is-pouring-billions-into-franchises-many-are-discovering-an-expensive-blind-spot
10. VettedBiz — Private Equity and Franchising in 2026 (FRANdata ~31,000 PE-backed franchise businesses; 40% deal-volume jump; dry powder; unit economics). https://www.vettedbiz.com/resources/private-equity-franchise-investment
11. Franchise Times — Why Private Equity Investors Are Getting Active at the Franchise Unit Level (Flynn Group; Snapdragon, Taurus, Savory, Bain's Prosper Growth Partners). https://www.franchisetimes.com/franchise_finance/why-private-equity-investors-are-getting-active-at-the-franchise-unit-level/article_95e4f712-67f6-4d3a-94fa-37415ecdee5e.html
12. International Franchise Association — Private Equity Options for Growth (family offices as outside capital; the 'second bite' structure). https://www.franchise.org/2026/03/private-equity-options-for-growth-what-multi-unit-franchisees-should-know-before-making-a-deal/
13. Hammer & Nails Grooming for Guys — open location count compiled from the franchisor's locations directory, July 2026 (72 locations open, with additional licenses sold). https://hammerandnailsgrooming.com/our-locations/

Figures reflect the most recent available reporting from the sources listed above as of publication; third-party market data is presented as reported and has not been independently verified.