Hi there,
We hope your week is off to a great start. At Zero One Hundred Conferences, we’re always tracking the most important trends and moments shaping venture capital and private equity, and this week, we want to highlight the secondaries market.
The private equity secondaries market has experienced significant activity in recent months, driven by liquidity constraints, evolving investor strategies, and macroeconomic uncertainties. Here's a concise overview of the latest developments:
Record-Breaking Deal Volume
In 2024, the global secondary market for private equity stakes reached an unprecedented volume of approximately $162 billion, a significant increase from previous years. According to our newsletter guests Ricardo Miró-Quesada (Arcano Partners) and Joaquín Alexandre Ruiz (EIF), this number is expected to keep growing and could soon surpass $200 billion.
Surge in GP-Led Transactions
(GP)-led secondary deals have gained momentum, offering liquidity solutions for aging funds and providing GPs with extended timeframes to manage portfolio companies. In 2024, GP-led transactions accounted for a substantial portion of the secondary market activity.
Major Fund Closures
Several prominent firms have successfully closed large secondary funds in the last months:
Apollo Global Management: On May 1, 2025, Apollo announced the final close of its debut secondaries fund, the Apollo S3 Equity and Hybrid Solutions Fund I, with approximately $5.4 billion in commitments. This fund aims to provide liquidity solutions to investors seeking early exits from private equity investments. Read more: Apollo Global Management
AlpInvest Partners: On April 7, 2025, AlpInvest Partners, a subsidiary of Carlyle Group, closed its AlpInvest Strategic Portfolio Finance Fund II at $3.2 billion, exceeding its initial target. Including parallel separate managed accounts and co-investments, the total capital raised for its Portfolio Finance platform surpassed $4 billion. The fund focuses on providing financing solutions to private equity funds, general partners, and limited partners. Read more: AlpInvest Partners
Coller Capital: On May 28, 2025, Coller Capital structured a $1 billion securitization backed by stakes in its private capital secondary funds. This innovative approach reflects the firm's efforts to provide liquidity solutions and diversify funding sources in the secondary market. Read more: Bloomberg
Institutional Shifts
Notably, major institutional investors, including Ivy League endowments like Yale and Harvard, have begun selling private equity stakes to manage liquidity and rebalance portfolios. (Read more about it in this Moonfare article)
Market Dynamics and Pricing
The influx of secondary market supply has led to pricing adjustments, with discounts on private equity stakes widening. This trend reflects the growing demand for liquidity among investors and the cautious approach of secondary buyers amid economic uncertainties.
In this edition, we dive into the growing role of secondaries in private equity with insights from two leading players. Joaquín Alexandre Ruiz (EIF) and Ricardo Miró-Quesada (Arcano Partners) share their views on market evolution, LP liquidity, and what’s next for the asset class.
🎧 Podcast Spotlight | Secondaries and ESG Assessment
Joaquín Alexandre-Ruiz, Head of PE Secondary at the European Investment Fund, shared valuable insights into the mechanics and purpose of the secondaries market from a long-term capital perspective — all in one of the most insightful and educational episodes of 0100 Impact Talks. 😊
He explains why the EIF has steadily expanded its secondary activities since 2014, calling them essential for growth, transparency, and responsible investment.
Key takeaways from the podcast:
Why it matters: Secondaries enable fund managers and investors to rebalance portfolios and respond to market changes without starting from scratch.
ESG benefits: “When you buy into a portfolio at the secondary level, you’re buying real performance history,” Alexandre-Ruiz explains. This enables better ESG analysis and benchmarking.
Value and role: The EIF uses secondaries to deploy capital at scale with targeted impact.
📝 Expert Round-up | Market Trends and deal flow in PE Secondaries with Arcano Partners
Our recent in-depth article features Ricardo Miró-Quesada, Partner and Head of Private Equity at Arcano Capital, who discusses the evolution of the secondary market, investment strategies, and sectoral opportunities in Europe and beyond.
Arcano’s private equity platform, launched in 2006, has raised over €6 billion in assets under management and spans the full investment spectrum, including primaries, secondaries, and co-investments. The firm began its secondaries activity in 2009 and has since raised five dedicated funds. Arcano’s secondary strategy focuses on acquiring small to mid-market LP stakes and GP-led transactions, with a deliberate emphasis on avoiding cyclical and capital-intensive sectors.
Key takeaways from the article:
Europe is gaining momentum: In 2024, the global secondaries market reached $160B, with Europe driving 27% of deal volume.
LP-led momentum: LP-led deals jumped 40% year-over-year, as limited partners used secondaries to rebalance portfolios in today’s slow exit environment.
GP-led activity remains strong: GP-led deals comprised 44% of total activity, as general partners looked to hold onto quality assets while still providing liquidity options for their LPs.
🎥 Right From The Stage | What Opportunities Secondaries Offer in Europe?
From the VC perspective, Luca Mannucci, Managing Partner at Sella Venture Partners, 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 concentrates on deep knowledge of the asset and relationships with GPs, especially in a venture market still working through 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.”
🗓️ Exploring The Era of Secondaries at 0100 International
We’ll continue the conversation on secondaries at our upcoming event, 0100 International, with a session bringing together top-tier investors and fund managers to discuss how specialisation, deal structuring, and ESG priorities are shaping the future of secondaries in Europe and globally.
Joining the panel is Matilde Horta e Costa, Investment Director at Arcano Capital, who co-leads the firm’s private equity investments in Europe. Before Arcano, she spent over five years at Coller Capital—one of the world’s largest secondary managers.
We’ll also be joined by Thomas Hallinger, Managing Director at Golding Capital Partners, who leads secondary transactions across private equity, private credit, and infrastructure. His background includes roles at UniCredit and Ardian, and he brings significant experience structuring complex secondary deals across European markets.
More speakers to be announced soon!
🌐 Around The Ecosystem | What’s Happening in Secondaries
We’re not the only ones tracking the rise of secondaries, and the conversation is gaining traction across the European VC and PE space. Here’s a spotlight on other resources from the ecosystem:
🗞️ News | Morgan Stanley launches evergreen private equity fund targeting co-investments and secondaries
Morgan Stanley Investment Management has launched the North Haven Private Assets Fund, its first-ever evergreen private equity fund aimed at high-net-worth investors. The fund is structured to offer enhanced liquidity and institutional-quality access to co-investments and secondaries in the lower middle market.
According to the firm, the new structure is designed for private wealth clients seeking diversified exposure across sectors, geographies, and managers.
👀 VC Perspective | Hamilton Lane: 'We've seen a massive increase in GP-led secondaries'
In a recent interview with Sifted, Miguel Luina, Co-Head of Global Venture and Growth Equity at Hamilton Lane, shared the firm’s increasing activity in European secondaries through its new $615M venture fund.
Hamilton Lane expects Europe to experience a secondaries wave, mirroring U.S. market developments but on a lag. GP-led deals are the fastest-growing segment in the secondary market, particularly in the venture capital sector.