How secondaries open the buyer’s market for elite tech assets

Driven by a VC liquidity crunch, the static buy-and-hold era of private equity is no more. The capital rotation on the secondary market creates an unprecedented way for buyers to join otherwise unjoinable assets’ cap tables in AI, robotics, space tech, and other elite domains. 

In 2024, secondary volume represented ~20 percent of total global PE exit activity.

You’ve seen the headlines for OpenAI’s tender offers, Anthropic’s strategic capital raises, or the early architects of protocols like LayerZero or Starkware securing their generational stakes. And you might have thought that the entry to these elite private tech assets was hermetically sealed.

Yet, right now this seemingly impenetrable door has, in fact, been swinging wide open. The secondary market is now an avenue to get desirable assets  — and at a discount, no less.

We analyzed the forces driving this structural reset in our analysis before: How the great liquidity crunch is reshaping private markets

Here, we unpack how the secondary market is teeming with entry points that simply don’t exist in primary markets.

Access the inaccessible

The reality is that the transformative sectors driving tomorrow’s markets are almost exclusively private. AI, advanced robotics, sustainable energy solutions, the foundational protocols of Web3, biotech, quantum computing, and new space infrastructure companies are not publicly traded, and likely won’t be for years. The deals on the secondary market are the investor’s only chance to get a piece of the action in these domains.

Investable universes

The current market dislocation is pronounced within high-growth sectors. 

The excitement surrounding GenAI, for instance, has led to exponential growth. Global PE/VC-backed investments in artificial intelligence surged by nearly 200% in 2024, attracting $56 billion across 885 deals. The technology’s longer-term prospects appear equally strong: AI’s total addressable market is expected to approach $1 trillion by 2027 and grow at a compound annual rate of up to 55% over the next three years. This explosion of investment and market potential reveals the location of many of today’s elite tech assets.

Breakthrough biotech, too, is an expensive, high-risk endeavor that relies on private capital. Heavy venture investment in this sector in the past two decades resulted in the creation of hundreds of new companies. In 2025, median venture rounds in biotech often secure $100 million in a single round. This influx of private capital and the long runway to public markets solidify biotech and biopharma as a prime sector where elite assets are exclusively accessible through secondary channels. 

New space infrastructure, in turn, moves beyond launch capabilities to downstream applications. Companies like Finland’s Iceye, a unicorn building radar satellites for constant Earth monitoring, and Germany’s Isar Aerospace, developing next-gen rockets, have attracted hundreds of millions in private funding. The global space economy’s trajectory is undeniable, projected to exceed $1.8 trillion by 2035, with substantial private investment fueling innovations in Earth observation, in-orbit services, and advanced connectivity. 

While these exciting predictions fuel anticipation on the markets, the world’s leading private companies – SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, or the pre-TGE crypto blue-chips – have long since closed their primary capital raises to new investors. A select echelon of elite VCs or strategic partners curates their cap tables. For the majority of institutional capital, the only access to these assets is through the acquisition of existing shareholder stakes on the secondary market. 

For shares of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, dozens of transactions occur on the secondary market, involving blocks of shares valued in the tens of millions. 

SecondLane data as of 25th Sep 2025: Anthropic - two open deals for 5M and 50M equity; OpenAI - two open deals for 25M and 50M equity; SpaceX - two open deals for 20M and 50M equity.

Similar activity occurs for premier pre-TGE crypto companies, where early allocations trade hands as investors manage their positions before the public launch. 

Accelerated Capital Velocity
Primary market seed investments lock capital for 7-10+ years. Secondary acquisitions of later-stage private company equity, conversely, offer an accelerated path to liquidity. Entering a company 2-4 years from a projected IPO, strategic M&A event, or major TGE provides a compressed return cycle. This is critical for LPs managing fund-of-funds or direct investment portfolios with specific liquidity mandates.

De-risked entry

The biggest advantage of secondaries, often underappreciated, is the mitigation of early-stage risk. A seed investment is a speculation based on a pitch deck. A secondary acquisition in a Series C or D company, however, is an investment in a validated enterprise. By these later stages, the company has proven product-market fit, established revenue streams, and a reliable management team. The buyer faces a lower risk while getting mature growth at more disciplined post-ZIRP valuations.

A framework for hunting value in the secondary market

Operating in this nuanced buyer’s market requires analysis and strategy. For a full guide to setting these transactions, including steps for due diligence and structuring, refer to our analysis: The anatomy of a Web3 secondary deal in six steps

In a nutshell, success hinges on four pillars: understanding the true seller motivation to understand your negotiating leverage; contextualizing valuation by assessing illiquidity and projecting IRR; doing advanced due diligence to find hidden liabilities; and scrutinizing the share classes and transfer restrictions to assess true ownership and future exit optionality.

The secondary market becoming a primary strategy

The secondary market is no longer an afterthought or a venue of distressed “dumping.” It has matured into a nexus for capital allocators to gain access to elite opportunities at risk-adjusted entry points. This evolution is reshaping the innovation capital. Its permanence is proven with the buying and selling of existing stakes in startups and VC funds surging to $152 billion in 2024, a 39% year-over-year increase.

The elite market is now inviting you in – at better prices, on better terms, and with a better story to tell.

Nick Cote, CEO SecondLane; Oleg Ivanov, COO SecondLane