Private securities secondaries topped $110 billion in 2025, easily beating 2024, which reportedly totalled $89 billion. This is according to HarbourVest Partners, as outlined in the FT.
According to the report, private markets continue to grow, with secondary transactions boosting that growth.
Liquidity, or the lack of it, can deter private investment. But technology continues to develop to offer streamlined transactions between buyers and sellers. Effectively, private markets are becoming more like public markets.
Predictions are for 2026 to deliver another record year.
Harborvest notes that the cumulative total value for global buyouts, venture capital, and growth topped $1.15 trillion by Q3 2025, with full-year figures estimated at $1.4 trillion—the highest investment value since 2021.
Stating that this activity is a clear reflection of sustained investor demand, Michael Aldridge, Global Head of LP Portfolio Analytics at Carta, says that private secondaries hitting a record as investors seek liquidity shows that “what was once a niche strategy is now a core part of private market portfolios, driven by sustained LP demand and the continued growth of GP-led transactions.”
“As volumes scale at this pace, the industry is running into a data problem. Investors are underwriting more complex portfolios using vast amounts of unstructured and inconsistent information, which slows decision-making and increases the risk of mispricing, especially as premiums to NAV become more common. If the secondaries market is going to sustain this level of growth in the years ahead, improving data transparency and infrastructure will be critical.”
The advent of tokenization and anticipated regulatory reforms regarding private securities should further propel secondary transactions.
