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What is a secondary investment?

Secondary investment occurs when a buyer, like HarbourVest, purchases existing private assets.

Our approach to secondary investments

HarbourVest’s longstanding relationships and experience means we have access to opportunities, insights, and trends that we believe provides our investors an undeniable edge. For investors, secondary investments are often attractive because investing in existing assets may reduce risk and capital can be put to work faster. HarbourVest provides outperformance and value with our experience in complex segments of the market. Benefits of secondary exposure with a an experienced partner like HarbourVest can include access to near-term liquidity, increased diversification and exposure to seasoned assets.

$50 B+

Committed

58

Team members

37

Years of experience

Investors: Why consider HarbourVest?

Secondary transactions offer opportunities for investors and sellers alike. Whether you prefer to invest in a portfolio of existing assets or wish to capture early returns, HarbourVest offers access to attractive secondary investment opportunities. If you’re looking to rebalance your portfolio allocation, raise capital, or simply change direction by selling your private equity interests, HarbourVest is a credible buyer, having committed over $43 billion to secondary markets since 1986.

Contact us to discuss our investment strategies.

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Continuation solutions encompass a host of transaction types in which a GP secures interim liquidity and/or additional primary capital for their LPs in a strongly performing asset, or set of assets, that the GP will continue to own and control. Specifically, they include continuation funds, new funds created by GPs for the purpose of acquiring the asset(s) that continue to be managed by the same GP and capitalized by one or several secondary buyers, or equity recapitalizations involving a direct equity or structured equity investment into a portfolio company. These transactions can also include a parallel investment from the GP’s latest fund into that same pool of assets (a “cross-fund trade”).