As venture-backed startups remain private for longer and traditional exit avenues stall, VC secondaries have emerged as a compelling yet often misunderstood path to liquidity.
In this webinar, our expert panel analyzed relevant data and outlooks from our recent Analyst Note: Sizing the US VC Secondaries Market, which discussed VC secondaries, valuations, and how they compare to the primary markets.
According to our report, at approximately $50 billion, VC secondaries represent only 2% of unicorn valuations, which total nearly $3 trillion in the primary markets.
To download the presentation slides and watch the recording, please fill out the form.
Key topics
- The size of the current US VC secondary market and its estimated growth
- Startups, sectors, investors, and platforms driving the most secondary transactions
- Structural and regulatory hurdles preventing wider adoption of secondaries
- What it means for future deal flow that secondaries reflect primary VC market trends
Related PitchBook reports
PitchBook Analyst Note: Sizing the US VC Secondaries Market
Q1 2025 US VC Secondary Market Watch
PitchBook Analyst Note: Exit Alternatives for US VC
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Emily Zheng is a senior research analyst at PitchBook, where she covers major trends and evolving themes in US venture capital through quarterly core reports and thematic analyst notes. Prior to this role, Zheng was a private banker at J.P. Morgan, where she provided wealth management solutions and advice to affluent individuals, families, endowments, and foundations throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Zheng received a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in Public Policy Analysis and Economics from Pomona College. She also holds the Securities Industry Essentials, Series 7, Series 63, and Series 65 licenses. She is based in PitchBook’s Seattle office.
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Justin concentrates on originating, valuing, and managing secondary investment opportunities in later-stage, venture-backed companies and venture capital funds. As a member of the Industry Ventures Secondary and Tech Buyout Funds investment committee, he is actively involved in fundraising and LP relationship management.
Since joining in 2004, Justin has sourced and led the acquisition of over seventy-five secondary transactions in secondary directs and limited partnership interests. These transactions include purchasing corporate venture capital funds, hedge fund investments, restructuring limited partnership interests, acquiring portfolios of limited partnership interests, purchasing founders’ equity interests, and structuring special situation investments with General Partners and Limited Partners.
Previously, he worked at GE Equity in San Francisco, the VC arm of the General Electric Company, where he sourced, structured, and managed investments in the technology, consumer, media, and telecom sectors. Prior to GE Equity, Justin worked at Wells Fargo’s high-yield fund purchasing debt securities in buyout transactions.
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Javier is co-founder and CEO of Caplight. Founded in 2021, Caplight aggregates billions of dollars of private secondary market transaction data annually from a network of broker-dealers and institutional investors. Investors use Caplight to value their private portfolio companies and opportunistically buy/sell in the secondary market. Prior to starting Caplight, Javier worked at Forge Global, most recently as senior vice president of Marketplace. Javier started his career in the investment banking and investment management divisions of Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
