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The top secondaries firms are Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Ardian, StepStone, Blackstone and Coller Capital, each with more than $35bn raised for secondaries funds over 2021 to 2025. The ten largest managers raised between $21.9bn and $45.1bn each.
These firms hold most of the capital that buys LP stakes and funds continuation vehicles, so their appetite has a large effect on the prices sellers get.
We rank the firms by capital raised for secondaries from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025, as published in Secondaries Investor’s SI 50 ranking on 1 September 2026. Firm-level dry powder is rarely disclosed, so five-year fundraising is the best public measure of buying power.
The table lists the ten largest managers by secondaries capital raised over the five years.
| Rank | Firm | Head office | Capital raised 2021-2025 | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goldman Sachs Asset Management | New York | $45.1bn | Bank-owned manager |
| 2 | Ardian | Paris | $43.8bn | Diversified private markets firm |
| 3 | StepStone Group | New York | $35.9bn | Multi-strategy platform |
| 4 | Blackstone | New York | $35.4bn | Alternatives giant |
| 5 | Coller Capital | London | $35.1bn | Secondaries specialist |
| 6 | HarbourVest Partners | Boston | $31.1bn | Multi-strategy platform |
| 7 | Pantheon | London | $29.6bn | Multi-strategy platform |
| 8 | Lexington Partners | New York | $26.2bn | Secondaries specialist |
| 9 | Carlyle AlpInvest | Washington, DC | $24.5bn | Alternatives giant |
| 10 | Ares Management | Los Angeles | $21.9bn | Alternatives giant |
The full SI 50 raised $584.6bn over the period, 12% more than in the previous edition.
Dry powder (committed capital not yet invested) for the whole market is tracked by Jefferies. Its July 2026 review gives these figures:
Dedicated capital covered only 1.2 times the last twelve months of deals, down from 1.4 times a year earlier. Less spare capital per deal tends to support pricing for sellers.
These firms focus mainly on secondaries and run some of the largest flagship funds.
Coller Capital held the final close of Coller International Partners IX, its largest fund, in January 2026. It raised $17bn across the cycle, including co-investment vehicles, separate accounts and evergreen funds. Coller manages $50bn with 77 investment professionals in 11 offices.
Lexington Partners, the secondaries arm of Franklin Templeton, closed Lexington Capital Partners X at $22.7bn in January 2024, against a $15bn target. Lexington has total capital of over $75bn and has bought more than 5,000 fund interests in over 1,000 transactions.
These firms run secondaries inside a wider private markets, alternatives or asset management business.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management has invested in secondaries since 1998 through its Vintage funds. Vintage IX closed with $14.2bn of equity commitments in September 2023, and secondaries assets across the Vintage funds topped $45bn at June 2023.
Ardian closed Ardian Secondaries Fund IX at its $30bn hard cap in January 2025, the largest secondaries fund raised to date. The fund drew 465 investors from 44 countries, and private wealth supplied 22% of the capital. The close took Ardian’s secondaries assets to $97bn.
Blackstone runs secondaries through Strategic Partners, founded in 2000, which manages $91bn of investor capital. In September 2025 it closed Strategic Partners Infrastructure IV at $5.5bn, the largest dedicated infrastructure secondaries fund to date.
Carlyle AlpInvest closed AlpInvest Secondaries Program VIII at its $15bn hard cap in September 2025. Including $3.2bn of co-investment and $2bn of private wealth capital, the strategy raised $20bn. AlpInvest managed $97bn at June 2025.
Ares Management has a secondaries group with $38bn of assets and more than 30 years of secondaries investing. In January 2026 it raised about $7.1bn for credit secondaries including leverage, with about $4bn of LP equity against a $2bn target.
These managers combine secondaries with primary fund investing and co-investment for LP clients.
StepStone Group closed StepStone VC Secondaries Fund VI at $3.3bn in June 2024, the largest fund focused only on venture secondaries. StepStone had $157bn of assets under management at March 2024.
HarbourVest Partners, founded in Boston in 1982, closed Dover Street XI at $15.1bn and Secondary Overflow Fund V at $3.4bn in August 2024, $18.5bn in total. It has put more than $55bn into about 650 secondaries deals.
Pantheon made its first secondaries investment in 1988. Its Pantheon Global Secondary Fund VII raised $3.25bn in November 2023, well above a $2bn target.
The ranking is useful for three groups of readers:
Fundraising shows buying power, but check strategy too. StepStone’s VC fund and Ares’s credit fund buy very different assets from Ardian’s flagship secondaries fund. If you are preparing for interviews, read our secondaries interview questions.
Secondaries buyers work in two main markets:
Most of the top ten invest in both markets. In the first half of 2026, GP-led deals made up the majority of volume for the first time since 2021, according to Jefferies. Lead-investor capacity in continuation vehicles is now a large part of how these firms compete.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management ranks first in the 2026 SI 50, with $45.1bn raised for secondaries over 2021 to 2025. Ardian is a close second at $43.8bn and runs the largest single secondaries fund, the $30bn Ardian Secondaries Fund IX closed in January 2025.
About $290bn of dedicated secondaries capital at the end of June 2026, according to Jefferies. Including evergreen funds and other buyers, total available capital was about $328bn. That covered roughly 1.2 times the previous twelve months of deal volume.
Ardian Secondaries Fund IX, which closed at $30bn in January 2025. Other large flagship funds include Lexington Capital Partners X at $22.7bn and HarbourVest’s Dover Street XI at $15.1bn. Goldman Sachs’ Vintage IX raised $14.2bn of equity commitments in 2023.
No. Most large firms also buy stakes in infrastructure, real estate, credit and venture funds. Blackstone and Ares have raised dedicated infrastructure and credit secondaries funds, and StepStone runs a venture secondaries fund. Pricing differs by strategy, from about 91% of NAV for buyout to 68% for real estate.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Ardian, StepStone, Blackstone and Coller Capital lead secondaries fundraising, each with more than $35bn raised over five years. With about $290bn of dedicated dry powder and record deal volume, these ten firms are the main buyers to approach on large LP and GP-led deals.
P.S. If you want to model how secondaries fit into an LP portfolio, the Fund of Funds Financial Model is built for exactly this kind of work, and our Premium Resources include additional tools you might be interested in. For weekly finance updates and the latest financial reports, join the Private Equity Bros newsletter.
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