Firms & Funds

Industry Ventures targets $1bn for latest flagship VC secondaries fund

The VC secondaries specialist reached the $850m hard-cap for its predecessor, which held its final close in 2021.

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Industry Ventures, one of the venture capital secondaries sector’s biggest firms, is back in market with its latest flagship VC secondaries fund.

Industry Ventures Secondary X is targeting $1 billion, per a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Oppenheimer & Co Inc have been hired to help with the fundraising, according to the filing.

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The San Francisco-based firm declined to comment on fundraising for this report.

Hans Swildens

Speaking with Venture Capital Journal earlier in January, Industry Ventures founder and chief executive Hans Swildens said he was busier than ever, fielding late-night calls from freaked out tech execs looking to sell fund stakes amid a liquidity squeeze in the VC market.

“This is a work-your-ass-off year,” Swildens said. “We’re inversely correlated to the primary market.”

Industry reached the $850 million hard-cap for its 2020-vintage predecessor, which held its final close in 2021, according to affiliate title Secondaries Investor. That vehicle was targeting $750 million.

Fund IX fund sought exposure to later-stage VC-backed companies though direct secondaries, limited partnership stakes and GP-led processes, SI reported at the time.

LPs in Fund IX fund include Los Angeles Water & Power Employees Retirement Plan, which committed $65 million; New Hampshire Retirement System and New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, which each committed $50 million; and Employees Retirement System of Texas, which committed $40 million, according to SI.

In 2017, following the $500 million close of Industry Ventures Secondary VIII, Swildens told Secondaries Investor: “Our last three [funds] have all been $500 million or less and there’s been a reason for that. The only way that our funds might become larger is if there was a massive downmarket correction and there was distress, fear and uncertainty. Then I could see ourselves deploying more capital.”