About Atlas Venture

• Founded: 1980

• Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

• AUM: $4bn as of 2024

• Strategy: Early-stage venture capital, life sciences and technology

• Track record: Seed investor in DraftKings, multiple healthcare and biotech exits including Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Novo Nordisk for $3.3bn in 2021)

• Leadership: Bruce Booth, Jean-François Formela, Jason Rhodes among managing partners

Atlas Venture is raising a dedicated VC secondaries fund, marking a structural shift for the Cambridge-based firm known for seed-stage life sciences and technology investments. The fund will target secondary purchases of venture positions, providing liquidity to existing shareholders while Atlas retains exposure to portfolio companies. The firm previously backed DraftKings at the seed stage before its $3.3bn SPAC combination in 2020.

The move reflects growing LP demand for secondaries as a liquidity mechanism in venture portfolios where exit timelines have extended. Atlas joins a wave of specialist VC firms launching dedicated secondaries vehicles — Industry Ventures closed a $3bn fund in early 2024, while Greenspring Associates has raised over $2bn across multiple secondaries vintages. For seed-stage firms like Atlas, secondaries funds create optionality around holding period: the firm can acquire secondary stakes in companies it knows well, potentially at discounts to last primary round pricing, while offering early investors an exit before M&A or IPO.

The fundraise also signals how venture secondaries are bifurcating. GP-led continuation vehicles dominate growth and buyout secondaries, but in venture the buyer pool skews toward funds like Atlas's — managers with operational insight into specific portfolio companies or sectors. Pricing remains opaque: secondary venture transactions in 2023–2024 averaged 60–75% of last primary round valuation according to Jefferies data, but life sciences deals often trade at steeper discounts given binary clinical risk. Whether Atlas can deploy at attractive entry points while maintaining LP relationships from its primary funds will define the vehicle's performance.

Source: Venture Capital Journal