Goldman Sachs has agreed to acquire Industry Ventures, a 25-year-old, San Francisco-based investment firm with $7 billion in assets under management, CNBC was first to report on Monday. The deal underscores the growing importance of secondary markets and buyouts as traditional venture exits remain sluggish.
The investment bank is paying $665 million in cash and equity, with up to $300 million more tied to the firm’s performance through 2030, according to a release from Goldman. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, and all 45 Industry Ventures employees are expected to join Goldman.
We’ve reached out to Industry Ventures founder and CEO Hans Swildens for more information.
The acquisition comes as venture funds increasingly turn to non-traditional exits amid a prolonged IPO drought that only now looks to be breaking. Speaking on TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC Download podcast earlier this year, Swildens said that tech buyout funds now account for 25% of all liquidity in the entire venture ecosystem — “a huge chunk of liquidity,” he said.
Swildens explained that venture managers are being forced to adapt their approach. “Just going out and seeing companies, putting them in your fund and then waiting for an IPO or strategic M&A exit probably won’t work anymore,” he said in the podcast interview. “[VCs] need to start working on alternative liquidity solutions.”
At the time — in April — he noted that at least five major venture funds had hired full-time staff dedicated to manufacturing non-traditional exits, including secondary transactions, continuation funds, and buyouts. “All the brand name funds are all staffing and thinking through liquidity structures,” Swildens said.
Goldman is making the acquisition to bolster its $540 billion alternatives investment platform, which the bank has identified as a key growth engine.
“Industry Ventures’ trusted relationships and venture capital expertise complement our existing investing franchises and expand opportunities for clients to access the fastest growing companies and sectors in the world,” Goldman CEO David Solomon said in a prepared statement. “By combining the global resources of Goldman Sachs with the venture capital expertise of Industry Ventures, we are uniquely positioned to serve the increasingly complex needs of entrepreneurs, private technology companies, limited partners, and venture fund managers,” the statement continued.
Industry Ventures says it has made more than 1,000 investments, has stakes in more than 700 venture firms, and that it boasts an internal rate of return of 18%.