Michele Prencipe

The VC secondary market is on fire. But many LPs are rushing in without fully appreciating the risks. VenCap International plc has been active in VC secondaries (LP positions only) since 1987 — and this is one of the hottest markets we’ve seen. In the first half of 2025 we reviewed $6.5bn of secondary VC deals — a 41% jump from the $4.6bn we saw in the same period last year. This includes both GP-led and LP-led deals. Here are 4 lessons we've learned from nearly 40 years of buying secondaries: 1️⃣ Power law still rules – a few companies will drive most returns. 2️⃣ Quality over discount – our best deal was bought at a premium to NAV. 3️⃣ Know the valuation policy – different VCs can value the same company very differently. 4️⃣ Factor in manager behavior – holding winners vs. selling early can make or break returns. VC secondaries ≠ PE secondaries. The risks are different — but for LPs who can access the right deal, at the right price, the rewards can be exceptional.

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It’s no longer enough to just buy well and hope for multiple expansion. Time to roll up your sleeves. GPs have been hearing this from LPs for years — especially during fundraising. #Operational value creation has become the main act in private equity, not the footnote. Why? - Because with rising competition, more dry powder, and tighter exit markets, helping your portfolio companies actually improve is the only real edge left. I’ve kicked off a short YouTube series on how experienced funds approach value creation — where it starts, what works, and what LPs are now asking about in diligence. We started with a fireside chat featuring Anne Arlinghaus from KKR Capstone (link below in comments). In Part 1, I cover: • Why the real work begins long before the ink is dry • The go-to value levers (and why overhead reduction is just the start) • How firms are building internal ops teams — and tracking impact If you’re curious what “hands-on” really means — or what it takes to become an Operating Partner — this one’s for you. 🎥 Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/drfgcsMV Next up: Buy & Build — and yes, it’s as messy as it sounds. #PrivateEquity #ValueCreation #OperationalExcellence #PortfolioCompanies #GPstrategy #LPperspective #INSEAD Arnaud Bonzom Bowen White Michael Prahl Harsh Temurnikar @

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🚀 Excited to back Leo Acciarri, Francesco Paolo Defendi, and Mattia Zarrelli - three founders combining strong engineering, platform building and software development skills - who are tackling the big workforce shift of our times: the rise of skilled blue collar workers. They are building Gyver, an enterprise workforce infrastructure company to shape the careers of 1 in 5 skilled blue collars in EU. As a first step, Gyver built an AI-powered recruitment platform, rethinking how millions of technicians and electricians find jobs by recreating trusted word-of-mouth recommendations on WhatsApp. Workers apply with one click, while employers finally gain access to talent that is otherwise out of reach. Why now? 📊 40%+ of European employers face skilled trade shortages, blocking progress in the energy transition and reindustrialization. ⚡ Gyver has already built Italy’s largest community of electricians (21,000+ strong), who now use WhatsApp to discover jobs, apply instantly, and stay engaged through conversational AI. 🏗️ Top employers in the electrical sector are already hiring through the platform (the likes of Enpal, Schneider Electric, ...) Really fast-moving, hands-on founding team solving a real-economy problem that truly matters. Thrilled to welcome you to the portfolio, team!

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Margin Expansion: How Big a Driver For Value Creation? Margin expansion accounts for just 14% of private equity value creation — the smallest of the three key levers. Its impact is highly concentrated in specific deal types and situations. The PE playbook has evolved over the years. Today's private equity strategy focuses primarily on acquiring best-in-class businesses and scaling them, rather than the traditional turnaround model. Top-quartile businesses offer limited operational improvement opportunities, which explains margin expansion's smaller overall role. The real margin expansion opportunity lies with underperforming assets. The data clearly shows this. Among deals with negative EBITDA margins, 78% achieved meaningful margin expansion with a median improvement of 1,250 basis points. Public-to-private transactions show the highest margin expansion potential. Sponsors often identify inefficiencies as part of their investment thesis that they can address away from public market scrutiny and quarterly earnings pressure. Similarly, carve-out transactions also outperform other deal structures in margin improvement. By sector, Energy & Materials, Industrials, TMT, and Healthcare show the highest margin expansion, with asset-heavy sectors such as Energy and Industrials particularly benefiting from scale advantages and operational optimization opportunities.

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An excellent opinion piece from Kyriakos Pierrakakis in the Economist. " ... Let us, by all means, eliminate the invisible tariffs that fragment Europe’s internal market. But let us also ask ourselves: what kind of economy are we enabling once those barriers are gone? The answer cannot be “more of the same”. It must be an economy that innovates, competes and grows—with an institutional architecture designed not just to manage risks, but to catalyse Europe’s potential." https://lnkd.in/dzjFVHeN

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𝐏𝐄 𝐯𝐬. 𝐕𝐂 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞: 𝐀 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 Our latest data at Gain.pro highlights how PE and VC firms invest across Europe: ▪ PE-backed businesses are widely spread across the continent ▪ VC-owned assets are clustered in cities 📊 Sector focus drives this: – VC assets = 47% TMT (vs. 17% for PE) → drawn to innovation hubs – PE = 24% Services + 22% Industrials (vs. 13% & 7% for VC) → broader geographic reach beyond capitals 🌍 Top destinations: – Both: London & Paris lead – VC: 25% of assets in 11 cities (Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam next) – PE: 25% spread across 22 cities (Stockholm, Milan, Madrid stand out) ➡️ Same continent. Very different maps.

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