HighGear Ventures Closes Oversubscribed $43M Venture Secondary Fund

Fund II Launched with Singular Focus on IT and Software-as-a-Service

SAN FRANCISCO--()--HighGear Ventures, a premier venture secondary fund with a singular focus on IT and SaaS, announces the closing of its oversubscribed second fund, HighGear Ventures Secondary II, LP, at $43 million. Founded by partners Jim Jones and Steven Taubman, HighGear Ventures invests in market leading companies in business-to-business infrastructure and applications by offering liquidity to founders, ex-employees, early investors, LPs and portfolio managers. With its targeted approach to uncovering unique opportunities, HighGear provides a seamless path for shareholders in the high-growth SaaS market segment to work with an investor that is uniquely focused with a deep network of contacts and history in the space.

“We are excited to have the increased resources available to execute our investment strategy and thankful for the support from our investors. We believe the venture secondary market is at the start of an overdue transition from generalist funds to firms that will deliver superior performance through focus and sector expertise. With focus comes better opportunity, providing frictionless interactions with both shareholders and company management teams, efficient diligence and, ultimately, better investment decisions,” said Jim Jones, Managing Director. “Our goal is to bring the same level of experienced investor knowledge and insights to the secondary market that primary venture capital funds have brought to their investment decisions over the past 30 years.”

“We founded HighGear Ventures with the goal of being the trusted partner for both shareholders and company management teams in the IT and SaaS market. We are fortunate to have a deep network of sector-specific advisors and contacts built over decades of experience that we bring to our investments. Company management teams give an audible sigh of relief when they understand our focus and deep knowledge of their businesses,” said Steven Taubman, Managing Director.

The HighGear opportunity comes as private venture-backed companies are choosing to stay private for longer and longer periods, locking up value that is difficult for shareholders to realize when needed. HighGear helps founders, ex-employees and early investors in these companies get access to needed liquidity while offering company management teams a trusted partner for these transactions. The most difficult hurdle to realizing a secondary transaction is a lack of information and company insight as both sellers and buyers struggle to agree on an appropriate valuation. With its targeted approach and deep insights, HighGear can complete transactions many generalist secondary funds are not able to access.

Jim Jones and Steven Taubman have previously invested over $500M into high-growth and market-leading companies and portfolios, primarily in venture-backed companies in IT and SaaS and with premier primary and secondary venture funds including Scale Venture Partners, VCFA Group and Industry Ventures. Prior HighGear Ventures investments in its 2017 Fund I and just-closed Fund II include DocuSign (public), Anaplan (public), Adaptive Insights (acquired), Webroot (acquired), HireVue (acquired), Couchbase, DigitalOcean Holdings, OneLogin and Exabeam.

About HighGear

Founded in 2017, HighGear Ventures is a leading venture capital fund investing in market-leading business-to-business IT and Software-as-a-Service companies by providing liquidity to existing shareholders such as founders, ex-employees and early investors. HighGear Ventures is the first and only venture capital secondary fund focused exclusively in the IT and SaaS sectors. HighGear Ventures is based in San Francisco, CA.

Contacts

Media Contact:
Jeff Fox
415-828-8298
jfoxpr@gmail.com

Contacts

Media Contact:
Jeff Fox
415-828-8298
jfoxpr@gmail.com