Investor Profile: Industry Ventures — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Learning how to get funding from Industry Ventures requires understanding what kind of investor it is. It does not run a founder-facing seed programme. It is a venture capital platform built for the venture ecosystem itself: it buys secondary positions, invests in venture funds, co-invests alongside other funds, and invests directly. For founders, its money usually arrives indirectly, through the funds and companies it backs.

Thesis: liquidity for a longer private cycle

Industry Ventures was founded in 2000 in San Francisco, and its central insight is that companies stay private for longer. That creates a need for liquidity before an IPO or acquisition: employees, founders and early investors want to sell some of their stake, and limited partners want a way out of old fund positions. Industry Ventures pioneered venture secondary investing and early-stage hybrid funds of funds to meet exactly that need, in the words of the Goldman Sachs announcement of its acquisition.

Sectors and stages

The firm invests across all stages of the venture capital lifecycle, with secondary, direct, hybrid fund-of-funds and co-investment strategies. Its focus is technology and venture-backed growth companies, mainly in the United States.

Fund size and cheque size

At the time of the Goldman Sachs acquisition announcement in October 2025, Industry Ventures managed $7 billion of assets under supervision and had made more than 1,000 secondary, primary and direct investments since its founding. Its own realised performance across the platform was stated as a net internal rate of return of 18% and a net realised multiple on invested capital of 2.2x. No standard founder cheque size is publicly disclosed. Its newer secondaries fund illustrates the scale at the fund level: Industry Ventures Secondary XI was reported to have raised more than $1.7 billion in commitments.

Notable portfolio

Because much of its exposure comes through funds and secondary positions, its portfolio reads like a map of the venture market rather than a list of direct bets. Coverage of the acquisition named exposure to companies including Uber, Airbnb, Alibaba, DocuSign, Dropbox, DoorDash and Roblox. Its earlier Industry Ventures Secondary VII, closed in 2013, was a $425 million fund, alongside a $200 million Special Opportunities Fund.

Partners and team

The firm was founded by Hans Swildens, its founder and chief executive. At the acquisition announcement, all 45 employees were to join Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with Swildens and managing directors Justin Burden and Roland Reynolds becoming partners at the bank. The deal was valued at $665 million in cash and equity, plus up to $300 million contingent on performance through 2030, with the business sitting inside Goldman Sachs External Investing Group.

Programs run, credits and perks

Industry Ventures runs no founder accelerator, no credits programme and no public perks scheme, and founders should not look for one. Its programmes are fund programmes: secondary funds, hybrid funds of funds, direct investments and co-investments, designed for institutional investors, fund managers and existing shareholders.

How to apply for funding

There is no public application route for startups at Industry Ventures, and no pitch portal to submit a deck to. Founders reach this capital indirectly: raise from a venture fund that Industry Ventures backs, or, if you are an existing shareholder in a venture-backed company, explore a secondary sale through a firm like this when your company's investors allow it. Anyone promising a direct Industry Ventures seed cheque to an unknown startup is misrepresenting how the firm works.