IVCA Secondaries Conference 2025 Shows India Is Ready to Make Secondaries Big

On 21st August 2025, the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) hosted its Secondaries Conference in Mumbai, a full day dedicated to discussions on liquidity, continuation vehicles, and the evolution of secondaries in India’s private markets. The event marked an important step in signaling that secondaries are no longer a peripheral topic but a central theme in India’s private capital conversations.

For years, secondaries were discussed in theory. Today, they are finally being debated, structured, and executed on the ground. The conference brought together global secondaries powerhouses, from HarbourVest and LGT Capital to Axiom Asia, alongside leading Indian managers. Oister Global was represented by Co-founder & Co-CEO Rohit Bhayana, who brought a distinctive India-focused perspective to the discussions.

The message was clear: India’s private markets are entering a new phase of maturity, where liquidity is no longer an afterthought but a central feature.

A Timely Conversation: Why Now?

Globally, secondaries have already become one of private markets’ most important growth engines. In the first half of 2025, global secondaries transaction volume surged to $103 billion, a 51% increase over H1 2024, the most active six-month period ever recorded (Jefferies). Dedicated capital for secondaries hit an all-time high of $302 billion, with both institutional investors and crossover allocators driving momentum.

Asia-Pacific has also embraced secondaries. In 2024, secondary sales were the largest exit route in the region. India, too, has begun to show signs of this shift. According to the Global Private Capital Association, secondary exits in the first half of 2024 totaled $2.2 billion across 23 deals, making them the second-largest exit channel after IPOs, and well ahead of strategic sales.

With exit backlogs rising and LPs pressing for liquidity, the timing of a dedicated secondaries conference in India could not have been more appropriate.

Key Learnings from the IVCA Conference

The day-long discussions revealed that India’s secondaries ecosystem is maturing at speed. Among the most important learnings:

• Pricing is complex and requires specialist expertise and rigorous due diligence. In opaque markets, advisors and managers with secondary expertise are playing an increasingly central role.
• Transparency is limited, making professional management and investor education critical. LPs and family offices must increasingly rely on trusted advisors to navigate opaque deal data.
• The stigma of selling is gone; secondaries are now mainstream. What was once considered a distressed exit is today a smart portfolio management tool.
• Deal timelines are shortening across players. Processes that once took months can now close in weeks, reflecting growing efficiency.
• GPs’ need to demonstrate DPI is stronger than ever. With fundraising cycles tightening, GPs cannot afford to delay liquidity.
• The industry has matured rapidly in the last 2–3 years, evolving into a true liquidity asset class. India is moving in step with this global trend, positioning itself as Asia’s fastest-growing secondaries hub.

Oister Global’s Perspective

On the panel covering Direct and GP-led Secondaries, Oister Global’s Co-founder & Co-CEO Rohit Bhayana stressed that secondaries in India are inevitable. As funds age, IPO timelines stretch, and liquidity demands grow, India will require structured solutions that go beyond conventional exits.

Oister’s perspective emphasized that success in Indian secondaries will depend on importing global best practices but tailoring them for local realities, from governance standards in GP-led continuation vehicles to educating domestic LPs about portfolio management benefits.

India’s Liquidity Crunch : The Catalyst for Secondaries

One of the strongest themes to emerge from the conference was that India’s exit landscape, while improving, still has gaps. India led Asia-Pacific in private market exits in 2024, signaling strength and maturity. Yet, distribution to paid-in capital (DPI) for Category II AIFs launched between 2015–2020 remains low at 0.5x–0.8x (Houlihan Lokey).

Paper gains may look attractive, but unless capital is returned to LPs, portfolio rebalancing and new commitments remain constrained. This discrepancy between unrealized value and actual cash distributions underscores the liquidity challenge.

This is where secondaries step in. They provide a bridge between unrealized NAV and realized liquidity, giving LPs liquidity while allowing GPs to continue managing high-potential assets.

Why This Conference Matters for India

The significance of the IVCA Secondaries Conference lies in the signal it sends: India’s private markets are ready to mainstream secondaries.

1. Institutional Validation: With global players like HarbourVest sharing the stage with Indian managers, secondaries in India are now part of the global conversation.
2. Regulatory Engagement: Panels explored how India’s AIF framework, while robust, may need refinements to facilitate larger GP-led transactions and cross-border secondaries. This kind of dialogue, in partnership with industry bodies, is a crucial step forward.
3. Domestic Buy-In: For secondaries to truly scale, domestic LPs such as pension funds, insurance companies, and family offices must view them as strategic allocations. The conference showcased that this mindset shift is beginning.
4. Knowledge Building: For many Indian LPs and GPs, secondaries are still new territory. Having a platform to discuss structures, pricing, and governance builds confidence and expertise across the ecosystem.

A Market Coming of Age

Globally, secondaries are enabling the next phase of private capital maturity. In India, they are becoming the foundation of it.

By dedicating an entire day to secondaries, India has shown it is ready to institutionalize this asset class and put liquidity at the center of private markets.

For LPs and GPs, the takeaway is unmistakable: India’s private markets are no longer defined only by entry capital chasing growth. They are increasingly defined by the ability to deliver liquidity, structure continuity, and recycle capital efficiently.

And for Oister Global, the event reinforced a long-held belief: secondaries are not the future of India’s private markets, they are already here, and they are set to become one of its biggest growth engines.