Untapped capital sitting in Australian-focused private market funds has more than tripled in size in the last seven years, making a case for more public-to-private mergers and acquisitions.

Unused capital, or “dry powder,” swelled to $US24 billion ($36 billion) at the end of last year, from $US7 billion in 2016, data from McKinsey & Company showed. This spiked to more than $US70 billion when taking into consideration Asia-wide private funds, the data showed.