The average personal net worth exceeds 100 million, and Goldman Sachs has bought.

Venture capital institutions are always on the lookout for ideal buyers for their projects. It's rare for them to sell themselves.

Therefore, the recent news stands out - Goldman Sachs officially announced the acquisition of Industry Ventures, a venture capital firm managing $7 billion in assets. Since its establishment in 2000, it has made over a thousand investments, covering enterprises from the seed stage to the late growth stage, with an annual internal rate of return (IRR) of 18%. Goldman Sachs will pay $665 million in cash and equity, and an additional up to $300 million based on the company's future performance up to 2030. The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026. All 45 employees will join Goldman Sachs, and the CEO and core management team will be appointed as partners of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Group.

Look, here comes another exciting wealth - creating story in the VC circle. If calculated at the maximum payment price, these 45 employees are worth $965 million (approximately 6.8 billion yuan), with an average net worth of over 100 million yuan per person.

Why does a top - tier investment bank take a fancy to a VC? In detail, Goldman Sachs has an alternative investment platform worth $540 billion, directly investing in areas such as growth - stage, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, infrastructure, and private credit. More specifically, Industry Ventures will be incorporated into Goldman Sachs' External Investment Group (XIG). XIG has an asset management scale of over $450 billion. In the private market, its business scope includes co - investments, alternative management strategies, the Vintage Strategies secondary market platform, and the Petershill GP equity business.

Compared with traditional venture capital, XIG's investment strategy is more diversified. For example, Vintage Strategies under XIG focuses on S funds and has become the flagship product of Goldman Sachs' alternative investment business. The Petershill GP equity business also doesn't directly invest in startups. Instead, it acquires a portion of the equity of private equity fund management companies to obtain a share of the management fees and performance rewards of these funds.

So, don't misunderstand. This acquisition doesn't mean that Goldman Sachs will now compete with venture capital firms and squeeze into more popular financing rounds. If you remember, a few years ago, hedge funds including Tiger Global entered the venture capital field and then withdrew.

Industry Ventures is also an active investment institution, but it is also well - known for S transactions. Therefore, Goldman Sachs' acquisition of Industry Ventures is due to its interest in S transaction opportunities. As a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners pointed out when commenting on this matter, "Industry Ventures is one of the most established players in the venture capital secondary market and hybrid funds. Therefore, this provides Goldman Sachs with a high - quality entry point into the private market - offering both liquidity solutions and early insights into the venture capital transaction process."

Atypical Venture Capital with a 25 - Year History

Industry Ventures started with secondary trading business. Its largest - scale exit cases came from investments in projects such as Uber, Alibaba, Roblox, Twitter, and Upwork. Since then, its business has gradually extended to all areas of the venture capital market, including providing liquidity solutions for secondary transactions, providing seed capital for emerging venture capital funds, directly co - investing in early - stage high - growth enterprises (SPV) using pro - rata rights, and investing in the intersection of venture capital and technology acquisitions.

It may seem a bit complicated. You can understand its layout concept as similar to the PSD strategy of a fund - of - funds. By combining primary investment, secondary investment, and direct investment, it achieves risk diversification, return enhancement, and liquidity optimization. In addition, it also involves mergers and acquisitions and SPV.

According to the press release, Industry Ventures has one of the largest venture capital portfolios in the United States, investing in more than 800 funds focused on venture capital and technology and collaborating with over 325 venture capital firms as limited partners, liquidity solution providers, and co - investment partners.

In terms of fund - raising, in 2022, Industry Ventures completed the raising of a $300 million direct investment fund. In 2023, with the support of Greenstone Equity Partners, Industry Ventures completed the raising of two funds, with a total fundraising of $1.7 billion.

Among them, the Secondary X Fund has committed capital of over $1.45 billion, and the Tech Buyout II Fund has committed capital of over $260 million. Secondary X is one of the largest - scale venture capital secondary market funds raised and is also the largest - scale fund raised by Industry Ventures to date.

This is exactly the direction in which Goldman Sachs is making efforts. According to the "US VC Secondary Market Observation" released by PitchBook, during the 12 - month period from June 2024 to June 2025, the total transaction volume in the US VC secondary market reached $61.1 billion, surpassing the total IPO exit volume of $58.8 billion in the same period for the first time. With the difficulty of IPOs, trading old shares naturally becomes the main exit channel. This acquisition aims to strengthen Goldman Sachs' layout in the private secondary market and early - stage technology investment fields and broaden its clients' investment channels in high - growth enterprises.

Marc Nachmann, the global head of asset and wealth management at Goldman Sachs, said that Goldman Sachs views secondary trading as a "long - term growth opportunity," and the acquisition of Industry Ventures reflects the banking giant's belief in perfecting its platform.

More Venture Capital Acquisition Cases May Emerge

Acquiring a venture capital institution is generally rare in merger and acquisition transactions. If we have to mention some cases, there have been a few, such as Meta's semi - acquisition of NFDG this year and StepStone Group's acquisition of Greenspring Associates in 2021.

Different transaction parties have different demands. Taking the above two cases as examples, the former aims to strengthen talent and investment layout in the artificial intelligence field, while the latter is to better provide diversified investment solutions for clients and meet the needs of different clients.

Regarding Goldman Sachs' deal, a senior venture capital analyst at PitchBook analyzed, "This acquisition is the first of its kind, marking the increasing importance of venture capital in driving the growth of Wall Street banks. Given Goldman Sachs' influence, it's difficult to replicate an acquisition of this scale. However, affected by this news, we may see an increase in banks' investment in alternative investment strategies."

As the IPO timeline is postponed, the secondary trading market has soared. It has gradually become the lifeblood of the US private market from a once - criticized tool. Data shows that by the end of 2025, the trading volume of the secondary trading market may exceed $200 billion, breaking the record of $162 billion set last year.

As mentioned before, Goldman Sachs is acquiring the entire company, including the team, infrastructure, and operational capabilities for future business operations. Zach Aarons, co - founder and general partner of MetaProp, said, "This deal truly demonstrates the significant development the venture capital secondary trading market has achieved in recent years - it has become an important part of venture capital portfolio management for companies of all types and sizes."

In the future, venture capital firm acquisition cases will not be the mainstream in the market, but we may see more cases. In a market full of uncertainties, venture capital is still attractive. Although the regulatory environment in the United States is constantly changing, such as the recent executive order in Washington, D.C., which more closely links the private market with the 401k plan (retirement savings plan). But investors in the US public market are well aware that the number of US listed companies has actually decreased significantly in the past few decades, and the real game seems to be increasingly concentrated in the private market.

As Hans Swildens, the founder and CEO of Industry Ventures, said, the venture capital market is at a critical turning point. By combining Goldman Sachs' global resources with Industry Ventures' expertise in the venture capital field, it may better meet the increasingly complex needs of entrepreneurs, LPs, and fund managers.

Compared with the relatively mature US private equity secondary market, the domestic S trading market started late and has not yet seen an explosive growth. The "2025 China Private Equity Secondary Market Special Research Report" released by ChinaVenture shows that in 2024, the trading volume of private equity secondary market fund shares in China increased by 5.5% year - on - year to 40.53 billion yuan, but the number of transactions still showed a downward trend.

Although the market conditions are different, this deal across the ocean at least shows that the market always needs the flow of money, and there are always people in need of venture capital institutions. In this sense, the case of Industry Ventures may still provide some inspiration for domestic VCs who are exploring new ways forward.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Dongshisi Tiao Capital" (ID: DsstCapital). Author: Liu Yanqiu. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.