Since our first secondary investment in 1986, HarbourVest has helped pioneer the global secondary market as a leading buyer. We have an extensive network of relationships that helps us gain early and sometimes exclusive introductions to potential sellers of private equity. We also leverage our network as a source of reliable and proprietary information about the assets and managers we evaluate in any given secondary opportunity. These broad and deep resources enable HarbourVest to efficiently evaluate and execute secondary transactions ranging in size, geography, and asset type.
Experience
A highly-skilled team of 21 investment professionals focuses on secondary opportunities and includes 11 senior professionals with an average tenure of 10 years. As a result of the knowledge gained over the course of multiple economic and private equity cycles, the team has refined its investment approach and decision-making process.
Innovation 
HarbourVest has been credited with successfully closing some of the industry’s most complex and innovative transactions.
- Completed one of the first synthetic secondary transactions in the industry (1995)
- Served as one of the lead investors in the MidOcean Partners spinout from Deutsche Bank Capital Partners (2003)
- Structured the purchase of a $1.3 billion private equity portfolio from UBS AG (2003)
Reputation
In today’s secondary market, fund managers are taking far greater interest in ensuring that limited partnership interests are sold to investors with the ability to serve as long-term limited partners, not just replacement investors. Fund managers view HarbourVest as a preferred buyer of limited partner interests due to our ability to commit significant amounts of capital to newly formed funds and our reputation for selectivity.
| Transaction Types | |
|---|---|
| Traditional LP Interests | Acquisition of limited partner commitments to existing private equity partnerships. This part of the market accounts for the majority of secondary activity and is the most competitive, as these transactions are relatively straight forward and are often brokered by intermediaries. HarbourVest seeks transactions with limited competition or where it has a proprietary advantage. |
| Synthetic Secondaries | Purchases of portfolios of direct investments through a new special purpose entity or via a new fund manager. This is a more sophisticated transaction type that requires greater resources and a differentiated skill set. HarbourVest has been active in this portion of the market since the mid-1990s and closed one of the first synthetic secondaries in the industry in 1995. |
| Structured Transactions | Tailor-made liquidity solutions that often involve the creation of innovative and proprietary transaction structures designed specifically to accomplish the goals of a particular seller. These transactions often involve portfolios of significant size and scale. As sellers continue to explore the secondary market with the hopes of satisfying complex objectives, we expect to maintain our position at the forefront of this subset of the market. |