Industry Ventures raising $300 million fund

Industry Ventures, which invests in other venture and angel funds but has also made direct investments in healthcare, is raising a sixth fund after drawing down more than half of its 2-year-old, $265 million fund, according to VentureWire.

Industry Ventures, based in San Francisco, operates to a great extent in the secondary market and — as VentureWire points out — the new fund indicates the increasing importance of this market.

Investors and companies look to the secondary market for an exit while more traditional options — M & A and IPOs — wheeze along and only slowly come back to life. Industry Ventures founder Hans Swildens told The Wall Street Journal last year that “10 percent of invested capital in the venture-capital business is currently exploring a secondary sale,” roughly three times the normal amount.

The new fund would be $300 million, VentureWire stated.

Industry Ventures’ portfolio includes the vascular business Access Closure, cardiodiagnostics firm Atherotech, atrial fibrillation company CardioFocus, software business Caliper Life Sciences, and the biopharma company Intarcia Therapeutics.