Industry Ventures has added former Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital professionals to its team as it prepares to begin investing its latest secondaries fund.
The San Francisco-based firm hired Nate Leung as a vice-president and Justine Huang as associate. Leung was most recently head of technology partnerships at Optimizely, a customer-experience optimisation software firm. Leung also has experience at Bain Capital Ventures and Boston Consulting Group.
Huang returns to Industry Ventures after interning as an analyst. She was most recently an equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs, focusing on the medical technology sector.
The firm plans to expand with a couple of openings in the investment team to be filled selectively in the next year, according to Hans Swildens, founder and chief executive.
The firm’s 2013-vintage $425 million Industry Ventures Secondary VII fund is about 70 percent called, Swildens said.
Deployment pace for secondaries got off to a slow start at the beginning of the year and picked up in the second quarter, while the firm’s fund of funds business kicked off the year quickly and has since slowed to reach normal levels, Swildens said.
“The sentiment is that it’s not a bad time to sell,” he told Secondaries Investor. “In venture, most GPs are emotionally bearish on the valuations and the market, so you’re seeing people sell things now. They are much more understanding of what the prices are for the buyers [compared with last year]”.
Industry Ventures plans to expand further with a couple of openings in the investment team to be filled selectively in the next year, Swildens said.
Industry Ventures Direct, the firm’s direct co-investment fund, is about 10 percent invested and has completed two investments, while Industry Ventures Partnership Holdings IV, its latest fund of funds, is about 20 percent invested, Swildens said. These funds target primary commitments and early secondaries purchases in smaller VC funds, and direct co-investments alongside its partner VC funds.
The firm allocates about two-thirds of its secondaries funds to direct secondaries in companies, and one-third to fund interests. For fund of funds vehicles, it allocates about 80 percent to funds and 20 percent to direct investments, according to Swildens.
Industry Ventures was founded in 2000 and has an office in Washington DC in addition to its San Francisco headquarters, according to its website.
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