Lawrence Aragon

At a recent event focused on 'the future of venture secondaries,' GPs and LPs shared the reasons they are so keen about the space.

Assembly Ventures, an early-stage firm focused on mobility technologies, has closed its debut fund at $76 million with support from a lengthy list of corporate backers.

Ben Fried, who served as chief information officer for Google from 2008 until last year, has joined early-stage firm Rally Ventures as a venture partner.

Yet another venture secondaries fund has come to market as investors are betting that the owners of once highly valued start-ups will sell shares at a discount because they are desperate for liquidity.

'There is more than $130bn of supply, and supply keeps building, but the bid prices are averaging 40% to 65% off NAV, and this is holding back any sellers in the market from transacting,' says Industry Ventures founder and CEO Hans Swildens.

The New York firm's debut fund had backing from Bain Capital Ventures, Tiger Global and VCs such as Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and Hunter Walk and Satya Patel of Homebrew.

Investors in the first close for Yosemite's debut fund include Emerson Collective, The Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and venture capitalist John Doerr.

Prime Movers Lab, a Wyoming-based venture capital firm focused on scientific start-ups, has raised $245 million for its third early-stage fund.

Energize Capital, a climate software venture firm, has raised $300m for its second growth fund, bringing its total assets under management to $1.2bn.

Investors in the new funds include California Public Employees' Retirement System, New Mexico State Investment Council, Alaska Permanent Fund and the Fire and Police Pension Association of Colorado