Goldman Sachs is making a major bet on the growing secondary venture market with its acquisition of Industry Ventures, a San Francisco-based investment firm managing $7 billion in assets. The deal, valued at up to $965 million, reflects a clear shift in how capital flows through the startup ecosystem as traditional IPO and M&A exits continue to lag.
According to details shared by Goldman, the investment bank will pay $665 million in cash and equity, with an additional $300 million tied to performance milestones through 2030. The transaction is expected to close in early 2026, and all 45 employees of Industry Ventures will join Goldman’s alternatives division.
This acquisition adds to Goldman Sachs’ expanding $540 billion alternatives investment platform, a business the bank now considers a core pillar of its long-term growth strategy. CEO David Solomon said the partnership will deepen Goldman’s access to fast-growing private markets while strengthening its relationships with venture funds, startups, and institutional investors seeking liquidity options.
The deal comes at a pivotal time for venture capital. With IPOs and strategic acquisitions slowing over the past few years, secondary transactions, continuation funds, and tech buyouts have emerged as new lifelines for liquidity.
Industry Ventures founder and CEO Hans Swildens has long been a prominent advocate for this shift. Speaking earlier this year, he noted that buyout funds now account for roughly 25% of all liquidity across the venture ecosystem, calling it “a huge chunk of liquidity.”
Swildens argued that the old playbook of investing and waiting for a public exit no longer works. Instead, venture managers must actively engineer liquidity solutions to sustain returns and keep limited partners engaged. He added that several leading VC firms have already built internal teams focused on alternative exits — a sign that the market is professionalizing around these structures.
For Goldman, acquiring Industry Ventures is both a strategic and symbolic move. It signals that Wall Street is doubling down on private market liquidity as a major growth category. With its deep connections across Silicon Valley’s venture ecosystem, more than 1,000 portfolio investments and 700 fund stakes, Industry Ventures provides Goldman an immediate foothold in a space where access and relationships often matter more than capital itself.
Goldman’s Solomon described the acquisition as a way to “serve the increasingly complex needs of entrepreneurs, private companies, limited partners, and venture fund managers.” It’s a nod to how intertwined venture liquidity has become with institutional capital markets — and how traditional investment banks are adapting to stay relevant in an era defined by long private company lifecycles.
Industry Ventures’ strong historical performance, including an 18% internal rate of return (IRR), likely helped seal the deal. The firm’s expertise in secondary markets also positions Goldman to help institutional clients gain exposure to late-stage startups without waiting for elusive IPO windows.
As alternative VC exits surge, this acquisition marks a defining moment: the convergence of Wall Street’s scale with Silicon Valley’s need for liquidity.
