Why the bank’s purchase of a specialist VC platform could reshape liquidity and access in private tech investing

Goldman Sachs has agreed to acquire Industry Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital investment firm, in a deal valued at up to roughly $1 billion. The transaction includes $665 million in cash and stock payable at closing and up to $300 million in additional contingent consideration tied to performance through 2030, according to the companies. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.

Industry Ventures, founded in 2000 by Hans Swildens, has become one of the best-known names in venture capital secondary markets—buying stakes in funds and private companies from early investors who want liquidity—and in “hybrid” funds that blend early-stage primaries with secondaries. The firm manages about $7 billion across strategies and has built long-standing relationships with early-stage managers in Silicon Valley and beyond. All 45 Industry Ventures employees are slated to join Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), with Swildens and senior managing directors Justin Burden and Roland Reynolds expected to become partners at the bank’s asset-management arm.

For Goldman, the acquisition underscores a multi-year pivot back to its core strengths: asset and wealth management. Goldman Sachs Alternatives managed about $540 billion as of June 30, 2025, within the firm’s $3.3 trillion in assets under supervision. Adding a scaled, specialist venture platform is meant to complement the bank’s distribution to institutions and private wealth clients while deepening ties with the technology founders and funds that Industry Ventures has cultivated for 25 years.

“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,” Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon said in a statement announcing the deal. Marc Nachmann, head of Asset & Wealth Management, called the purchase a “strategic fit” with the firm’s efforts to expand alternatives.

The timing speaks to the moment in private markets. Traditional venture exits via IPOs and big-ticket M&A have been sporadic over the last two years, leaving many limited partners and employees waiting for liquidity. Secondary transactions—sales of fund interests (LP secondaries) and sales of private-company shares (direct secondaries)—have surged as a practical pressure valve. Industry Ventures has been a consistent buyer in both segments, often providing structured liquidity to founders, employees and early backers while maintaining alignment with lead venture firms.

In practical terms, the combination gives Goldman three advantages. First, it adds a ready-made secondary engine with deep sourcing across early-stage managers—hard to replicate quickly. Second, it expands the bank’s menu of “evergreen” and drawdown vehicles to wealth clients searching for curated access to venture with more frequent liquidity options than traditional 10-year funds. Third, it plugs Industry Ventures’ portfolio into Goldman’s global distribution and balance sheet, potentially supporting larger, more complex transactions at scale.

The price tag—$665 million at close plus earn-outs to 2030—suggests Goldman is paying for growth as much as current economics. While Industry Ventures’ headline assets sit around $7 billion today, the secondary market’s trajectory and the prospect of a more active exit environment in 2026–2027 could enlarge fee-earning assets and carry potential. The contingent consideration aligns that upside directly with future performance.

The acquisition also continues a relationship that predates the deal. Goldman Sachs Asset Management has been a limited partner in Industry Ventures funds for more than two decades, and Petershill Partners—Goldman’s GP-stakes platform—took a minority interest in the firm in 2019. Folding the entire platform into GSAM is therefore less a cold start than a formal integration of an existing partner. People close to the firms say the plan is to retain Industry Ventures’ investment autonomy and culture while embedding risk, compliance and distribution within Goldman’s systems.

What could change for venture managers and founders? For managers, Industry Ventures is often a repeat buyer of LP stakes in smaller funds and a co-investor in later rounds from early-stage portfolios. Under Goldman, the check sizes can get bigger and the reach global. For founders and growth-stage companies exploring tender offers or structured secondaries, a deeper pool of capital and a broader client base could mean more standardized liquidity programs and potentially faster execution. For LPs, the bank’s presence could translate into more frequent secondary opportunities, co-investments and customized portfolios that blend primaries, secondaries and directs.

Skeptics will note integration risk, especially around incentives and decision speed. Venture secondaries are a relationships business and a timing business, and the best deals can be small, quirky or fast. Large banks have historically struggled to preserve the entrepreneurial DNA of acquired investment boutiques. People familiar with Goldman’s thinking counter that the acquisition is being placed within the External Investing Group, the division that already oversees partnerships and open-architecture offerings. The intent is to keep Industry Ventures’ processes intact while scaling what works.

Another open question is how the market evolves if IPOs rebound in 2026. A healthier exit window could reduce some secondary supply—but historically it has also increased demand for “pre-IPO” liquidity solutions and for portfolio rebalancing by LPs. In other words, a more normal exit market might actually expand, not shrink, the opportunity set for sophisticated secondary buyers. With Industry Ventures inside GSAM, Goldman can position itself across both outcomes: secondary liquidity in leaner times and growth-oriented access when the window opens.

The deal will go through customary regulatory reviews in the U.S. and, given Industry Ventures’ footprint, in the U.K. as well. Closing is targeted for early 2026. Until then, industry watchers will look for clues on product design—whether the combined platform leans into interval funds and evergreen formats for wealth clients, rolls out new co-invest pools for institutions, or accelerates hybrid funds that can nimbly deploy into both primaries and secondaries.

One thing is clear: venture investors no longer think of secondaries as an afterthought. The pendulum has swung toward liquidity-aware strategies that keep companies private longer without freezing early investors in place. By buying a specialist with a long track record in that niche, Goldman Sachs is wagering that the “plumbing” of venture capital—how dollars move into, through and out of private companies—will only matter more in the decade ahead.

If the integration is smooth, the acquisition could set a template for how large global managers bring specialized private-market capabilities to a broader audience. For founders, employees and LPs who have waited for a more reliable liquidity toolkit, the message is that the market’s center of gravity is shifting. With Industry Ventures now in the Goldman fold, the next phase of venture capital may be defined as much by how investors exit as how they enter.