SecondQuarter targets Australia's $12 billion liquidity gap with larger third fund
Australia’s only dedicated secondaries fund has put a figure on the venture liquidity gap — and wants super funds to help close it.
Australia has become adept at building globally significant technology companies. Providing liquidity to the people who built and funded them has proved harder.
SecondQuarter Ventures estimates that between “$12 billion and $15 billion in liquidity” will be required across the Australian venture market over the next few years. That figure encompasses both fund investors and individuals on company share registers, including founders, employees and early backers.
Around $12 billion of that sits as net asset value in venture capital funds from 2018 and earlier vintages. Those funds are now eight years old or more and will need to find liquidity for their LPs as they approach the end of their fund life.
“There is no data — we are probably the only group in town that is anywhere near capable of being able to produce an accurate estimate,” SecondQuarter managing partner Ian Beatty said. “Whether it’s $12 billion, whether it’s $15 billion — it’s a big number.”
