Venture capital has long occupied a somewhat ambiguous place in institutional portfolios. On the one hand, it has gained significant attention with its high-profile founders, unicorns and stories of exponential growth. On the other hand, it is often treated as a peripheral allocation because its outcomes are volatile, dispersion is extreme and cash flows are slow.

This representation of venture capital is increasingly misaligned with how value is created in the modern economy. We believe that venture capital should be viewed as a strategic building block within a portfolio because it strengthens diversification, helps to hedge disruption risk and provides access to increasingly institutionalized manager capabilities.

The whitepaper looks at the rise of venture secondaries as a critical liquidity infrastructure for the asset class, as traditional exit pathways decline. It explains that secondaries are increasingly taking on the role once played by public markets: providing price discovery, enabling ownership transfers and allowing partial realizations while companies remain private. In addition, the paper discusses the importance of access in venture capital.