About This Fund
EIF Secondaries Fund is a secondary private equity investment program managed by the European Investment Fund (EIF), the European Union's specialist venture capital and private equity fund-of-funds investor, headquartered in Luxembourg. The program represents the EIF's dedicated commitment to developing and professionalizing the European secondaries market, providing liquidity solutions to limited partners and general partners across the private equity spectrum through GP-led, LP-led, and hybrid transactions in the European buyout, growth equity, and venture capital small-cap segments.
The EIF launched its secondaries investment activities in 2016, initially deploying capital from its own balance sheet to build a proof-of-concept track record before inviting outside institutional investors. The 2016–2019 program completed 14 transactions, with individual transaction sizes typically ranging from €5 million to €20 million, focused on portfolios of small-cap buyout, growth, and hybrid European private equity funds. The program generated a gross TVPI of 1.6x as of December 31, 2022, with an IRR of approximately 17%, reflecting the compressed holding periods characteristic of secondaries investing.
The EIF Secondaries Fund aligns with the broader EIF mandate to support the development of European private capital markets and increase liquidity for investors in the asset class. By participating in secondary transactions, the EIF acts as a market-maker and anchor investor in a segment of the European private equity market that benefits from institutional validation. The EIF is a subsidiary of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, with EIB, the European Commission, and various European financial institutions as shareholders, providing a supranational backing that underpins its investment mandate.