beyond closed-end: a guide to semi-liquid evergreen funds in venture

meet the redalpine Summit Fund

Many investors admit they struggle to fully understand semi-liquid evergreen funds. The concept feels new, compared with the familiar 10-12 year closed-end model in venture capital. Yet, the approach is quietly becoming mainstream, with many European and global managers adopting it in the last three years. It enables access to business models with strong long-term potential, giving investors exposure to opportunities often overlooked by traditional vehicles. This may sound inflexible and locked-in from a capital perspective, but the benefits are actually the opposite, resulting in higher liquidity and lower program complexity for the investor.

an introduction to the world of semi-liquid evergreens

An evergreen fund is an open-ended vehicle with no predefined termination date. Instead of liquidating after eight to twelve years, the fund reinvests realized proceeds and offers investors scheduled liquidity windows (typically quarterly or annually). The result is semi-liquidity: capital can flow out without forcing premature exits.

So, typical drawdown funds or upcoming evergreen funds? Neither is necessarily better. It depends on what fits your objectives, priorities and risk tolerance:

• Liquidity & control: Evergreens provide optional liquidity, closed-end funds require periodic capital calls and there is limited control in terms of when distributions occur.

• Program complexity: Evergreens need a cash-flow model and internal NAV pricing, draw-downs are simpler but rigid.

• Product availability: Closed-end funds are ubiquitous, evergreen access is still limited (but growing).

• Structural performance effects: Evergreens can compound winners longer, closed-end funds must liquidate/distribute even if there is still substantial value upside.

Why can semi-liquid evergreen structures maximize returns? By avoiding forced exits, evergreen vehicles can ride the full value curve, often capturing outsized gains that occur after the 10-12 year mark. Academic work on venture holding periods shows that many category leaders peak in value 12–15 years post-founding. In redalpine’s multi-stage, evergreen Summit Fund, we reinvest partial proceeds, maintain exposure to our star performers, and still provide orderly redemptions, aiming for both compounding value and flexibility. The Summit Fund allows us to stay patient while founders cross technical chasms and markets unlock.

UBS’s ‘accessing private equity with perpetual capital funds’ (Nov 2023) reinforces that there is no single “best” structure, only trade-offs which investors must weigh.

Four key dimensions may drive this vehicle decision

• Liquidity & Control - flexibility without forfeiting exposure: Semi-liquid evergreen funds permit scheduled (typically quarterly) redemptions, letting LPs calibrate exposure as liquidity needs, or strategic focus, shift. Crucially, realized gains are recycled, so the portfolio keeps compounding instead of shrinking, giving investors agile, cycle-agnostic access to Europe’s true innovation engine, and shielding them from vintage risk.

• Operational Burden & Transparency - lighter admin, closer partnership: With capital fully committed up-front and deployed continuously, LPs skip the unpredictable capital-call calendar, and cash-flow juggling, inherent in draw-down programs.

• Accessibility & Diversification - early entry to Europe’s growth engines: Evergreen vehicles generally accept lower minimum tickets, opening doors for a broader set of allocators. Through the Summit Fund, those tickets translate into stakes across multiple European tech ecosystems, including under-represented but high-potential markets, providing portfolio diversification well beyond public benchmarks, and exposure to breakout winners long before they list.

• Return Dynamics - compounding winners, mitigating the J-curve: Fees charged on NAV reflect only deployed capital, while immediate deployment eliminates the idle-cash drag that suppresses early IRRs in draw-down funds. By recycling exits, and holding outperformers through their true value-inflection curves, evergreen funds harness full-cycle alpha and smooth vintage dispersion, turning high-growth breakthroughs into sustained portfolio outperformance.

UBS concludes that perpetual funds are a compelling on‑ramp for new private‑market investors and a complementary sleeve for mature programmes, exactly the dual role we envisage for the Summit Fund.

DACH investors go evergreen

Major Swiss and German VC platforms are increasingly adopting semi‑liquid or perpetual structures, evidence that evergreen capital is moving firmly into Europe’s mainstream:

• Swisscom Ventures (Bern): Telecom leader Swisscom’s venture arm has operated an evergreen vehicle since 2007, counting 80+ tech investments and nearly 40 profitable exits. (sicorporation.net)

• Novartis Venture Fund (Basel): With about USD 750 million asset under management and 40+ active portfolio companies, Novartis deploys a balance‑sheet evergreen pool to nurture life‑science breakthroughs over multi‑decade horizons. (nvfund.com)

• Allianz X (Munich): Allianz Group’s digital‑investment arm is structured as permanent capital and, in 2024, co‑launched a semi‑liquid evergreen private‑debt programme for UHNW investors. (allianzx.com, alti-global.com)

• Partners Group Evergreen Platform (Zug): The Swiss private‑markets giant now manages USD 48 billion across 20+ evergreen funds, raising USD 8 billion for such strategies in 2024 alone. (businesswire.com, citywire.com)

• AENU (Berlin): Climate‑impact VC AENU launched an evergreen vehicle in 2022, its later structural pivot underscores the growing, but still evolving, LP appetite for perpetual funds. (sifted.eu)

outside of DACH

• Sequoia Capital’s Evergreen Fund: In 2021, Sequoia Capital restructured its U.S. and European investments into a single, open-ended fund to provide greater flexibility in holding both private and public company stakes (AUM of approximately $19.6 billion).

• StepStone Private Venture and Growth Fund: StepStone Group’s SPRING is an evergreen fund focusing on venture and growth investments, primarily through secondary transactions and co-investments.

• Samsung Catalyst Fund: The Samsung Catalyst Fund is Samsung Electronics’ evergreen, multi-stage venture capital fund, which invests in deep-tech infrastructure and data-enabled platforms, including sectors like artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, networking, 5G, autonomous systems, sensors, and quantum computing.

• Hamilton Lane Evergreen Platform: Hamilton Lane has launched a U.S. Venture Capital and Growth Evergreen Fund, providing investors with access to a diversified portfolio of venture capital, and growth equity, investments (AUM of approximately $10 billion).

Across these examples, and roughly 200 evergreen VC vehicles globally, investors are recognizing that perpetual capital is more than a niche product. It is a strategic tool for those who prioritize flexibility, compounding, and deep alignment with founders’ growth trajectories.

As a pioneer in the industry, redalpine’s Summit Fund is the only European semi-liquid, open-ended product that covers VC from seed to pre-IPO (with diversification across stages, vintages, and sectors), provides immediate exposure and compounding of returns, and allows you to manage your liquidity needs.

Get in touch at investor@redalpine.com if you would like to discuss how the Summit Fund could fit into your mandate.