Industry Ventures Raises Over $1.7 Billion in Two New Funds to Help Venture Capital Investors Generate Liquidity

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Industry Ventures, a leading investment firm focused on private technology investments, announced today the final closing of Industry Ventures Secondary X (the “Secondary Fund” or “Secondary X”) with over $1.45 billion of new commitments. In addition, the firm closed Industry Ventures Tech Buyout II (the “Tech Buyout Fund” or “Tech Buyout II”) with over $260 million of new capital commitments across the Fund and affiliated entities. Consistent with the strategy of prior funds, Secondary X will seek minority investments in leading later-stage venture-backed companies through flexible investment structures, including direct secondaries, secondary LP investments, continuation funds, and other special situations. Tech Buyout II is a hybrid fund focusing on small software company buyouts and emerging software buyout funds. The close of Secondary X and Tech Buyout II comes during a time of burgeoning market demand for investor liquidity. The two new funds bring the firm’s total committed capital under management to over $7 billion.

Secondary X is Industry Ventures’ largest fund raised to-date and will enable the firm to continue to provide a broad range of liquidity solutions for venture capital investors. As a pioneer in the venture secondary market, Industry Ventures has completed over 600 secondary investments in its 20-year history. These investments include over 400 secondary venture capital fund limited partnership interests and 170 direct secondary company share purchases, enabling exposure to over 5,500 venture capital funded companies. The largest exits to date for the secondary strategy result from investments in Uber, Alibaba, ZipRecruiter, Nubank, LifeLock, Marqeta, Roblox, Trustwave, Twitter, and Upwork.^1,2

Tech Buyout II is Industry Ventures’ second buyout vintage and represents a doubling of commitments relative to the prior fund. The Tech Buyout Fund invests directly and indirectly in private equity buyouts of venture-backed software companies and special situations. In addition, it invests a minority of its capital in leading small-cap technology buyout managers through both primary and secondary LP commitments. Since starting this strategy five years ago, Industry Ventures has invested in 14 direct software buyouts and over 14 emerging buyout funds. These investments enabled the funds to gain exposure to over 75 active software companies that are majority controlled by their investors. Tech Buyout Fund I has already had four exits to-date from the portfolio, including LINQ, AutoQuotes, Liquid Frameworks and Cloud 9 Software². Each of these software companies were sponsor-to-sponsor exits or to strategics that were sponsor-backed.

“We’re especially grateful for the strong support both Funds received from existing and new limited partners alike given the difficult fund-raising environment that we are in,” said Hans Swildens, CEO and Founder of Industry Ventures. “Overall, the venture market needs more liquidity, and our investment team is hard at work helping shareholders and limited partners generate cash from their investments.”

“The closing of our tenth secondary fund is a tremendous achievement and milestone for Industry Ventures,” said Justin Burden, head of the Secondary team. “Over our 20-year history we have invested across multiple market cycles, and this new fund enables our team to continue to identify and gain exposure to attractive secondary opportunities for our investors.”

Lindsay Sharma, head of the Tech Buyout team, commented, “The Tech Buyout Fund is a logical extension of our investment platform and a value-add to both our venture capital fund managers and company management teams. The current lack of liquidity in the venture ecosystem is generating notable buyout demand. We are excited to continue leveraging our unique position in the market to generate proprietary deal flow, access leading technology-focused buyout opportunities, and deepen our collaboration with our small fund managers.”

The Funds’ investor bases include leading institutions representing public and corporate pension funds, endowments, charitable foundations, financial institutions, health delivery networks and family offices, as well as sizable commitments from the general partners.

About Industry Ventures:

Founded in 2000, Industry Ventures is a leading venture capital platform with over $7 billion of committed capital under management. Industry Ventures invests across the technology growth lifecycle from early stage to buyout, through complementary fund strategies and a flexible approach. The primary funds invest directly and via early-stage venture funds from company formation to their growth stages. The secondary and tech buyout funds help later stage companies and their direct shareholders with minority or majority liquidity solutions. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Washington, DC, and London. For more information, please visit www.industryventures.com.

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¹ Realized investments are those where >50% of a deal’s cost basis has been realized.
² The portfolio companies identified and described herein do not represent all of the portfolio companies purchased, sold, or recommended for funds advised by Industry Ventures.  The reader should not assume that an investment in the portfolio companies identified was or will be profitable.  Past performance is not indicative of future results.