HarbourVest Partners has raised $2.4 billion in initial closings for a dedicated private credit secondaries strategy, according to The Wall Street Journal, giving the global private markets firm a substantial pool of capital to pursue a rapidly expanding segment of the secondary market.
The Boston-based firm raised the capital across multiple investment vehicles, including a senior credit secondary fund and an opportunistic credit secondary vehicle. HarbourVest plans to continue fundraising for the strategy into 2027.
HarbourVest has already deployed approximately $500 million across five transactions, consisting of three general partner-led deals and two limited partner-led transactions. Additional investments are in the pipeline as the firm looks to capitalize on rising demand for liquidity across the private credit market.
The fundraising represents a significant expansion of HarbourVest’s dedicated private credit secondaries effort, which the firm formally established in October 2025. At the time, HarbourVest created a specialized investment team led by Greg Ciesielski from its secondaries platform and Sean Gillespie from its credit business.
Private credit secondaries involve the acquisition of existing interests in private credit funds or portfolios of loans from current investors. Instead of committing capital to a new fund before its underlying investments are known, secondary buyers typically acquire exposure to portfolios that are already partially or substantially invested.
That structure can give buyers greater visibility into the loans they are acquiring while potentially shortening the period before distributions begin.
HarbourVest says credit secondaries can also help investors reduce blind-pool risk, accelerate cash flows and obtain exposure to seasoned portfolios. Transactions can involve interests sold by limited partners as well as general partner-led structures designed to provide liquidity to existing investors while allowing managers to continue holding selected assets.
The GP-led portion of the market has been particularly active.
According to figures cited by The Wall Street Journal from Evercore, GP-led transactions represented approximately $17 billion of the $20.4 billion in private credit secondary volume recorded during the first half of 2026. That $20.4 billion total was roughly double the level from the comparable period a year earlier.
One of HarbourVest’s transactions involved a $730 million continuation vehicle for Willow Tree Credit Partners, illustrating the growing use of secondary structures to provide liquidity around existing private credit portfolios.
Continuation vehicles have become an increasingly important tool across private markets.
In a GP-led credit transaction, an investment manager can transfer a portfolio of existing loans into a newly formed vehicle. Existing investors may receive the option to sell their interests and obtain liquidity, while investors that want to maintain exposure can potentially roll their positions into the new structure.
For the manager, the transaction can provide additional time to manage the underlying portfolio rather than being forced to sell assets solely because an existing fund is approaching the end of its planned life.
The rapid expansion of private credit has created a larger pool of assets that can ultimately trade through secondary transactions.
HarbourVest said in 2025 that the global private credit market had surpassed $1.6 trillion in 2024, while only a relatively small amount of secondary-market capital had been specifically allocated to credit transactions. The firm described the sector as both rapidly growing and undercapitalized.
Since then, secondary activity has continued accelerating.
HarbourVest’s 2026 mid-year private markets outlook estimated that annual private credit secondary transaction volume increased from approximately $4 billion in 2021 to about $20 billion in 2025. The firm also said total private markets secondary volume exceeded $225 billion in 2025, with approximately $120 billion of transactions completed during the first half of 2026.
That growth reflects a broader need for liquidity throughout private markets.
Private credit investments are generally less liquid than publicly traded bonds or syndicated loans. Investors that commit capital to private credit funds may otherwise need to hold their positions for years before the underlying loans mature or are refinanced.
Secondary markets provide an additional exit mechanism.
Institutional investors can use secondary transactions to rebalance portfolios, reduce exposure to particular managers or strategies, generate liquidity or adjust allocations following changes elsewhere in their portfolios.
Fund managers can also use secondary structures to address liquidity requirements without immediately selling underlying loans.
Those pressures have become increasingly relevant as the private credit industry has expanded into vehicles serving a wider range of investors.
Business development companies, interval funds and other structures have helped broaden access to private credit, but some vehicles also face periodic investor redemption requests or other liquidity requirements.
An active secondary market can provide another source of capital when traditional exits or refinancing channels are less attractive.
For HarbourVest, the opportunity builds on a much larger secondaries franchise.
As of June 30, 2026, HarbourVest reported more than $83 billion committed to secondary investments and a secondary investment team of 54 professionals. The firm’s broader platform had $167.9 billion in assets under management as of the same date.
HarbourVest has spent more than four decades investing across private markets, including primary fund commitments, secondary transactions, direct co-investments, infrastructure and private credit.
That scale gives the firm relationships with hundreds of private market managers, which can potentially provide both transaction sourcing and information advantages when evaluating secondary portfolios.
HarbourVest has argued that its position as both a large private credit investor and an established secondaries manager is particularly relevant to credit secondaries because transactions require expertise in both individual loan underwriting and secondary transaction structuring.
The firm’s strategy includes separate pools of capital targeting senior secured credit and more opportunistic credit investments.
Senior credit secondaries generally emphasize portfolios backed by loans higher in the capital structure, while opportunistic strategies can pursue transactions with different risk profiles, structures or return objectives.
Using multiple vehicles gives HarbourVest the ability to pursue a wider range of opportunities rather than applying a single risk-return profile across every transaction.
The $2.4 billion raised so far gives the firm significantly more dedicated capital to deploy as transaction volumes increase.
HarbourVest Managing Director Greg Ciesielski expects the private credit secondary market could reach approximately $50 billion in transaction volume by the end of 2026, according to The Wall Street Journal.
If that projection is reached, it would underscore how quickly credit secondaries are evolving from a relatively small niche into a more established component of private markets.
The development resembles the earlier evolution of private equity secondaries, which expanded as private equity assets under management grew and investors increasingly sought liquidity before the scheduled end of fund lives.
Private credit appears to be following a similar path, but potentially at a faster pace because of the rapid expansion of the underlying asset class.
HarbourVest’s new capital positions the firm to participate in both sides of that market, providing liquidity to investors seeking exits while acquiring seasoned private credit portfolios that may offer shorter durations, clearer underlying asset visibility and potentially attractive entry pricing.
With approximately $500 million already invested and fundraising expected to continue into 2027, HarbourVest is building its private credit secondaries operation at a time when both GP-led and LP-led transaction activity is accelerating.
The $2.4 billion initial fundraising also demonstrates significant investor appetite for a segment of private credit that is increasingly becoming a dedicated strategy rather than simply an extension of traditional private equity secondaries.
