Industry Ventures Raises $1.7B for Secondary, Tech Buyouts

Industry Ventures, a prominent venture capital firm with stakes in over 600 venture firms, has closed on $1.7 billion in new capital for two funds.

Industry Ventures Secondary X raised more than $1.45 billion, making it the firm’s largest fund to date. The fund will invest in later-stage venture-backed enterprises using special situation investment structures such as direct secondaries, secondary LP investments, and continuation funds.

The amount raised is a big increase from the $850 million raised at the hard cap close of Fund IX two years ago. To date, the most significant exits from the strategy include Uber, Alibaba, Roblox, Twitter, and Upwork.

“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,” said Justin Burden, head of the Industry Ventures secondary team.

The firm also closed its Industry Ventures Tech Buyout II, a $260 million hybrid direct private equity and fund of funds vehicle. The fund seeks to invest in small software firm buyouts as well as emerging software buyout funds.

Since the strategy’s inception five years ago, the business has invested in 14 direct software buyouts and over 14 emerging buyout funds.

Tech Buyout Fund I, a $125 million fund that closed in 2020, has already achieved four exits, including foodservice equipment & supplies platform AutoQuotes, cloud-based, mobile field operations management solutions provider Liquid Frameworks and Cloud 9 Software, a practice management system for dental and orthodontics offices.

“The current lack of liquidity in the venture ecosystem is generating notable buyout demand” said Lindsay Sharma, head of the Industry Ventures tech buyout team.

Industry Ventures, founded in 2000 and based in San Francisco, is led by founder Hans Swildens. The firm has more than $7 billion in capital under management.