Goldman Sachs Acquires $7 Billion VC Platform Industry Ventures

Goldman Sachs is acquiring Industry Ventures, a venture capital platform managing $7 billion.

“Industry Ventures pioneered venture secondary investing and early-stage hybrid funds, areas that are rapidly expanding as companies stay private longer and investors seek new forms of liquidity,” said David Solomon, Goldman’s CEO, said in a news release announcing the deal Wednesday (Oct. 15).

“Industry Ventures’ trusted relationships and venture capital expertise complement our existing investing franchises and expand opportunities for clients to access the fastest growing companies and sectors in the world.”

The release says Industry Ventures has “pioneered” segments of the venture capital (VC) market, such as offering secondary liquidity solutions, seeding emerging venture capital funds, and “investing at the intersection of venture capital and tech buyout.”

According to Goldman, Industry Ventures also has one of the biggest portfolios of VC partnerships from the seed stage to late-stage growth stage in the U.S., representing investments in more than 800 venture capital and technology focused funds.

With this acquisition, Industry Ventures will bolster Goldman’s external manager platform, the External Investing Group (XIG), which has more than $450 billion in assets under management across “traditional and alternative strategies,” the release added.

“We believe the venture capital market is at a pivotal inflection point as technology and artificial intelligence reshape the world,” said Hans Swildens, Industry Ventures founder and CEO.

“By combining the global resources of Goldman Sachs with the venture capital expertise of Industry Ventures, we are uniquely positioned to serve the increasingly complex needs of entrepreneurs, private technology companies, limited partners, and venture fund managers—while fueling the continued growth of this critical economic engine.”

In other news from the VC world, PYMNTS wrote recently about how this space “has never been more one-sided,” with investors funneling almost $193 billion into artificial intelligence (AI).

That marks the first time since the dot-com bubble that more than half of global VC dollars went to one sector, according to PitchBook via Bloomberg, a surge that is minting winners at the top while the rest of the startup pipeline suffers.

“You’re in AI, or you’re not. You’re a big firm, or you’re not,” said Kyle Sanford, director of research at PitchBook. His comment reflects a venture market increasingly divided between a small group of AI giants and everyone else.

The leaders are pulling in historic rounds, with companies like Anthropic and OpenAI seeing their valuations soar.

“These deals show how capital is clustering around infrastructure and developer platforms that are seen as central to AI’s future,” PYMNTS wrote.

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