- Acurio Ventures has closed its Acurio Secondaries I FCR fund at €115 million, beating its €100 million objective. This brings the Basque agency’s complete property below administration to greater than €450 million.
- The fund buys discounted stakes in mature European VC funds, specializing in offers below €20 million that enormous US secondaries corporations usually ignore. Acurio says it’s the solely agency in Europe with a fund devoted solely to this strategy.
- The fund closed at a time the agency’s companions name the hardest yr for VC fundraising in 25 years. Up to now, it has invested €45 million and stories a 1.75x TVPI earlier than ending its portfolio.
Ander Michelena‘s enterprise agency raised cash for a fund constructed totally round different funds’ lack of ability to exit. Acurio Ventures closed Acurio Secondaries I FCR at €115 million, surpassing its €100 million goal in what its companions name the toughest fundraising yr for European enterprise capital in 25 years.
The elevate got here from personal buyers, with no public funds concerned. This brings Acurio’s property below administration to greater than €450 million throughout 5 funds.
What the fund buys
Acurio, beforehand often called All Iron Ventures, is predicated in Bilbao and led by founders Michelena, Kate Cornell, Diego Recondo, and Hugo Fernández-Mardomingo. The 17-person workforce works in Bilbao, Madrid, Barcelona, and London. The agency has invested in round 120 startups and 20 VC funds, utilizing this expertise to influence fund managers to promote stakes at a reduction.
Acurio Secondaries I FCR is the agency’s fifth fund and its second fund centered on shopping for stakes in different funds somewhat than startups. It often buys 10% to twenty% stakes in European VC funds which might be at the least eight years previous, paying 10% to 30% lower than face worth from managers or restricted companions who want liquidity and can’t look forward to an IPO or sale.
Acurio appears for offers below €20 million, a phase most large US secondaries managers ignore. The agency plans to speculate all the cash inside 18 to 24 months.
“We’re extraordinarily grateful for the belief positioned in us by our buyers, each new and returning. Efficiently launching a brand new fund of this nature in such a troublesome fundraising marketplace for VC, and doing so with a 100% personal investor base that features prestigious institutional buyers, is a milestone and a validation that reinforces the technique now we have been pursuing,” notes Recondo.
Acurio says this makes it the one agency in Europe with a fund centered solely on VC fund secondaries.
Why the timing issues
This technique tackles a liquidity downside, not a progress alternative. Exits have been uncommon prior to now 5 years, and after the funding growth in 2021 and 2022, LPs now care most about managers returning money. Despite the fact that exits improved barely in late 2025, payouts stay low, so fund managers can not return capital even when their portfolios carry out nicely.
Due to this, fund-level secondaries have change into one of many fastest-growing components of personal markets. World secondary market quantity hit a document $220 billion in 2025, up 42% from the earlier yr, in accordance with William Blair’s 2026 Secondary Market Report. The report expects the 2026 quantity to achieve $250 billion.
Europe accounted for about $60 billion in secondary deals last year, the primary time the survey tracked Europe individually. Enterprise secondaries in Europe are nonetheless a lot smaller and fewer developed than buyouts, which Acurio needs to alter.
Acurio’s new fund has already dedicated practically €45 million and stories a complete value-to-paid-in capital ratio of 1.75. The agency says this exhibits it’s avoiding early losses, often called the J-curve, that often have an effect on new funds.
Who’s funding this
Establishments supplied about 30% of the €115 million, led by a serious US-based endowment that was not named, in addition to pension plans and greater than 35 household places of work. The final companions put in over €15 million, which Acurio says is far larger than regular for the market.
“We proceed to hunt inventive and differentiated methods tailored to market situations, with the intention of constant to generate worth for our buyers and creating into a number one agency in Europe,” Michelena provides.
Acurio’s three different funds make investments straight in startups. The newest, Acurio Ventures III, closed at over €150 million in 2024 and remains to be investing, with greater than 40 firms like Seedtag, Preply, Jobandtalent, Indexa Capital, Lingokids, and Refurbed.
The agency has additionally backed firms beforehand coated by Tech Funding Information, akin to authorized AI startup Lexroom and veterinary biotech Phagos. Acurio sees its two methods, direct startup funding and fund secondaries, as complementary, giving it perception into each side of the promote it needs to open up.
It’s nonetheless unclear if a €115 million fund centered on offers below €20 million will actually assist resolve Europe’s liquidity downside, or if it’s going to simply present the concept works in a market that’s nonetheless far behind the US in dimension.
