Happy back-to-business season!
This week, we’re turning the spotlight on one of the fastest-growing (and often misunderstood) corners of venture capital: secondaries.
For years, secondaries were treated like a side show, an occasional way for early investors or employees to cash out. Today, they’re becoming central to how liquidity flows through venture.
Secondaries give early investors a way to return capital sooner, improving IRR instead of relying solely on long-term markups. They also allow GPs to offload positions in companies where their role has faded, reducing the risk of being sidelined as later investors take control.
Why secondaries are heating up
In 2024, the US venture secondary market reached nearly half the size of the primary market, an impressive milestone that signals the growth of secondaries as a core feature of the venture ecosystem.
Some projections even suggest that by 2030, secondary activity could surpass primaries altogether. That shift is being driven by several forces like delayed IPOs, muted acquisition activity, and an ever-growing pool of late-stage unicorns.
Where do things stand today, and what’s next?
Today’s $61 billion secondary market is still tiny compared to the $3.3 trillion locked up in unicorns. With IPO windows reopening slowly, secondaries are increasingly filling the liquidity gap.
Globally, the dry powder in venture secondary funds reached $8.2 billion, more than doubling since 2022, and some big venture capital firms are leading the way with multi-billion-dollar funds.
While that growth is notable, secondary-focused funds still account for just 2.9% of the dry powder held by primary VC funds, indicating how small the segment remains relative to the broader venture landscape.
On the investor side, the interest in venture secondaries is picking up fast. After experiencing some small drops early in the year, activity increased by 32% in May and then rose by another 56% in June.
This significant change indicates that more investors are becoming excited about secondaries. Confidence is clearly growing, and many view it as a smart way to secure a position at top private companies.
According to PitchBook, another major force behind this growth has been the rise of special-purpose vehicles (SPVs). SPVs have evolved from niche instruments to a central feature of VC liquidity, providing both institutional and emerging managers with efficient ways to participate in secondary markets.
📝 Private Markets in Depth | From Last Round to Fair Value: Decoding VC Secondaries Valuation in a New Market Reality
Our latest conversation brings to the table Rafaël Le Saux, Director of Valuation & Modelling Advisory at PwC Luxembourg and Vice-Chairman at the Luxembourg Valuation Professionals Association, to explore one of the most pressing questions in the fast-growing secondary market: how do you value venture-backed companies when exits are delayed, markets are volatile, and the “last round price” no longer tells the full story?
For secondary buyers, relying solely on the last round is a risky strategy. Discounts of 25–50% to NAV are now common, with size driven by time since the last financing, company performance, and broader market sentiment. Late-stage assets may trade tighter, but early-stage secondaries still see steep haircuts.
Rafaël highlighted the growing importance of secondary trade comps and carefully adjusted public multiples. At the same time, they also advise us to pay attention to misalignments: sellers often anchor to stale NAVs, while buyers insist on pricing in illiquidity and risk.
📝 Private Markets in Depth | Fast-Track to the Top 1%: VenCap’s VC Secondaries Playbook
Earlier this year, at 0100 Europe, our colleague Laura talked with Matt Russell, Investment Director at VenCap, who explained how the Oxford-based venture fund-of-funds is leaning into secondaries, and why this part of the market could be set for a breakout year in 2025.
“Secondaries let us scale exposure to the top 1%—but with more visibility and shorter timelines.”
Why secondaries, why now
Russell highlights three big reasons secondaries are gaining momentum:
Clarity on assets – You know what you’re buying, since portfolios are already built and early winners are visible.
Attractive pricing – Entry often comes below fair market value, especially when conservative marking policies reveal hidden discounts.
Faster cash flow – Later-stage assets shorten the time to liquidity versus traditional 10–12 year fund cycles.
VenCap’s approach is to back managers with repeated access to those outliers—while its growing secondaries strategy extends that edge, giving LPs a way to double down on emerging winners with faster liquidity.
📝 Private Markets in Depth | What Opportunities Secondaries Offer in Europe?
Another perspective on the rise of secondaries in venture capital comes from Luca Mannucci, Managing Partner at Sella Venture Partners, who outlined how his team gives European investors access to primary and secondary VC fund allocations across Europe and North America.
Rather than chasing discounted positions, Luca focuses on gaining deep knowledge of the asset and building relationships with GPs, especially in a venture market still recovering from a three-year liquidity drought.
While venture secondaries typically come with larger discounts than buyouts, due to lower liquidity and limited information, Luca notes that “the quality of the asset is more important than the size of the discount.”
🗓️ 0100 International Panel Spotlight: Secondaries – Specialization in a Maturing Market
The secondary market has entered a new phase of sophistication. While the largest secondary funds continue to operate as broad generalists across both private equity and venture capital, clear differences between PE and VC secondaries are reshaping the landscape. Strategies built for private equity often fail to translate effectively into venture capital, creating the need for specialized expertise. Today, we see the rise of managers with dedicated VC secondary strategies—and a sharper focus from investors on matching a fund’s focus with their portfolio objectives.
This panel will bring together leading voices from across the secondary spectrum to explore how the market is evolving, what specialization means in practice, and how LPs should evaluate opportunities in this dynamic segment.
Panelists include:
Igor De La Sota, Founder & General Partner, Cardumen Capital
André Aubert, Partner, LGT Capital Partners
Teddy Mouawad, Partner, Keyhaven Capital Partners
Matt Russell, Investment Director, VenCap
🌍 Across the Ecosystem | News & Useful Resources for You
We’re not the only ones tracking the rise of secondaries, and the conversation is gaining traction in the European venture space. Here’s a spotlight on other resources from the ecosystem.
👀 VC Perspective | Why the Venture Capital Secondary Market Is Booming in 2025
In 2025, venture capital secondaries have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the market, as traditional exits such as IPOs and M&A remain muted. With global VC assets under management topping $3.1 trillion but distributions lagging, funds raised in the mid-2010s are now reaching the end of their life without achieving liquid outcomes.
Secondaries have shifted from being a workaround for frozen exit markets to a structural feature of venture capital, with LPs increasingly expecting built-in liquidity options and GPs incorporating secondary pathways directly into fund management.
🗞️ News | BlackRock is set to launch a venture secondaries fund
BlackRock is preparing to launch its first dedicated venture secondaries fund, targeting the acquisition of discounted stakes in venture capital portfolios. The move reflects growing demand for liquidity solutions as IPO and M&A markets remain subdued.
The fund underscores BlackRock’s broader push into private markets, where it aims to raise $400 billion by 2030. Recent acquisitions by Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners have strengthened the firm's position in infrastructure and private credit. At the same time, it has already raised over $2.5 billion for another secondaries vehicle.
✍️ Masterclass | How to master the sell-side of secondaries
Alberto Chalon, Founding General Partner of Giano Capital, breaks down the sell-side of venture secondaries on the EUVC podcast. Alberto explains seller motivations, from employees cashing out a portion of equity for personal needs to VCs needing DPI to raise their next funds.
With liquidity needs rising, regulatory frameworks evolving, and U.S. adoption leading Europe by 5–7 years, he sees secondaries becoming a core tool for both investors and GPs—provided sellers prepare thoroughly and align their interests with those of founders and management.