Acurio, Europe’s VC fund focused on secondaries, closed a €115M fund, surpassing its target — TFN

• Acurio Ventures has closed its Acurio Secondaries I FCR fund at €115 million, beating its €100 million goal. This brings the Basque firm’s total assets under management to more than €450 million.
• The fund buys discounted stakes in mature European VC funds, focusing on deals under €20 million that large US secondaries firms often ignore.
• The fund closed at a time the firm’s partners call the toughest year for VC fundraising in 25 years. So far, it has invested €45 million and reports a 1.75x TVPI before finishing its portfolio.

Ander Michelena‘s venture firm raised money for a fund built entirely around other funds’ inability to exit. Acurio Ventures closed Acurio Secondaries I FCR at €115 million, surpassing its €100 million target in what its partners call the hardest fundraising year for European venture capital in 25 years.

The raise came from private investors, with no public funds involved. This brings Acurio’s assets under management to more than €450 million across five funds.

What the fund buys

Acurio, previously known as All Iron Ventures, is based in Bilbao and led by founders Michelena, Kate Cornell, Diego Recondo, and Hugo Fernández-Mardomingo. The 17-person team works in Bilbao, Madrid, Barcelona, and London. The firm has invested in around 120 startups and 20 VC funds, using this experience to persuade fund managers to sell stakes at a discount.

Acurio Secondaries I FCR is the firm’s fifth fund and its second fund focused on buying stakes in other funds rather than startups. It usually buys 10% to 20% stakes in European VC funds that are at least eight years old, paying 10% to 30% less than face value from managers or limited partners who need liquidity and cannot wait for an IPO or sale.

Acurio looks for deals under €20 million, a segment most big US secondaries managers ignore. The firm plans to invest all the money within 18 to 24 months.

“We are extremely grateful for the trust placed in us by our investors, both new and returning. Successfully launching a new fund of this nature in such a difficult fundraising market for VC, and doing so with a 100% private investor base that includes prestigious institutional investors, is a milestone and a validation that reinforces the strategy we have been pursuing,” notes Recondo.

Acurio’s approach focuses specifically on funds dedicated to VC fund secondaries, a strategy still uncommon among European managers, though the firm is not the only one pursuing.

Why the timing matters

This strategy tackles a liquidity problem, not a growth opportunity. Exits have been rare in the past five years, and after the funding boom in 2021 and 2022, LPs now care most about managers returning cash. Even though exits improved slightly in late 2025, payouts remain low, so fund managers cannot return capital even if their portfolios perform well.

Because of this, fund-level secondaries have become one of the fastest-growing parts of private markets. Global secondary market volume hit a record $220 billion in 2025, up 42% from the previous year, according to William Blair’s 2026 Secondary Market Report. The report expects the 2026 volume to reach $250 billion.

Europe accounted for about $60 billion in secondary deals last year, the first time the survey tracked Europe separately. Venture secondaries in Europe are still much smaller and less developed than buyouts, which Acurio wants to change.

Acurio’s new fund has already committed nearly €45 million and reports a total value-to-paid-in capital ratio of 1.75. The firm says this shows it is avoiding early losses, known as the J-curve, that usually affect new funds.

Who is funding this

Institutions provided about 30% of the €115 million, led by a major US-based endowment that was not named, as well as pension plans and more than 35 family offices. The general partners put in over €15 million, which Acurio says is much higher than usual for the market.

“We continue to seek creative and differentiated strategies adapted to market conditions, with the aim of continuing to generate value for our investors and developing into a leading firm in Europe,” Michelena adds.

Acurio’s three other vehicles invest directly in startups. The most recent, Acurio Ventures III, closed above 150 million euros in 2024 and is still in its investment period, holding more than 40 companies from its own portfolio. Across all of its direct-investment vehicles, Acurio has backed more than 120 companies to date, including Seedtag, Preply, Jobandtalent, Indexa Capital, Lingokids and Refurbed.

The firm has also backed companies previously covered by Tech Funding News, such as legal AI startup Lexroom and veterinary biotech Phagos. Acurio sees its two strategies, direct startup investment and fund secondaries, as complementary, giving it insight into both sides of the market it wants to open up.

It is still unclear if a €115 million fund focused on deals under €20 million will really help solve Europe’s liquidity problem, or if it will just show the idea works in a market that is still far behind the US in size.