Acurio raises €115M for Europe's only VC secondaries fund

Spanish venture capital manager Acurio Ventures has closed Acurio Secondaries I FCR at roughly €115 million, above its initial €100 million target. The fund buys stakes in mature European early-stage VC funds on the secondary market.

Acurio targets funds that are at least eight years old, buying 10% to 20% positions "where the manager doesn't want to sell assets cheaply and the companies have upside potential," said partner Diego Recondo . It focuses on deals under €20 million, plans to deploy over 18 to 24 months, and models exits from two to three years after each investment.

The firm is aiming for internal rates of return above 25% and a net return of two times invested capital. It has already committed close to €45 million.

Institutional investors supplied about 30% of the capital, and international investors a quarter. Backers include an unnamed major US endowment, more than 35 family offices across Spain, tech entrepreneurs, and pension funds.

Recondo pointed to a secondary market that has grown sevenfold in a decade, plus a liquidity squeeze hitting fund managers and investors alike. "In the last five years we've seen lower merger and acquisition volume," he said.

The firm argues that public listings below €1 billion "are no longer worth it," pushing companies to wait around 12 years to go public — double previous periods. Partner Ander Michelena blamed the 2022 "bubble burst," driven by inflation and rate hikes tied to the war in Ukraine.

Michelena said there is "a bubble" in AI valuations and called a potential OpenAI listing "a good barometer" for the sector, given what he described as its "disastrous figures." Acurio holds no AI companies, though it may back firms that benefit from the technology.

With the new vehicle, Acurio says it is the only firm in Europe running a fund dedicated to VC fund secondaries. It now manages more than €450 million across five funds — three investing directly in startups, two in VC funds — with portfolio names including Job&Talent, Indexa Capital, Seedtag, and Preply.

As IPOs and M&A stay slow, capital trapped in ageing venture funds needs new exit routes. Acurio's bet is that secondaries can supply that liquidity — and that being early in an underserved European niche is worth more than chasing AI.