Adams Street Partners

Adams Street Partners is a private markets investment manager headquartered in Chicago. The firm says it manages $76 billion in assets for more than 780 institutional investors, including corporate and public pensions, foundations, family offices and endowments.^[1],[2],[3]

Adams Street Partners is not a pure venture capital firm. Its releases and leadership page describe fund investments, secondaries, co-investments, private credit and venture growth strategies, and the venture growth team is one part of a larger platform.^{[4],[5],[6],[7],[8]}

Adams Street Partners reports a global team of more than 340 employees, including more than 110 investment professionals. The firm lists 15 offices, from Chicago and Menlo Park to London, Singapore and Tokyo, and says it has invested with more than 520 general partners in more than 30 countries. Adams Street Partners describes itself as 100% employee-owned.^[1]

Adams Street Partners' stated assets under management rose across its 2026 releases, from more than $65 billion in April to more than $73 billion in August and more than $76 billion in October. A footnote says the firm changed its methodology effective July 2026, so the readings are not like-for-like. The updated method counts fund net asset value plus unfunded commitments plus borrowing, and the earlier method was based on investor commitments minus commitments to fully liquidated partnerships.^{[7],[6],[3],[1]}

Adams Street Partners traces its start to 1972, when a small team at First National Bank of Chicago began making direct private investments for a select group of institutional clients. The group was then called First Chicago Investment Advisors.^[2]

Adams Street Partners says the same advisor team formed the industry's first venture capital fund of funds in 1979. The firm dates its first secondary investment to 1986 and its start in co-investing to 1989, the year the group spun out of the bank to form Brinson Partners, Inc.^[2]

Adams Street Partners' predecessor, Brinson Partners, joined Swiss Bank Corporation in 1995, which later became UBS AG. The firm became employee-owned and independent in 2001.^[2]

Adams Street Partners opened New York and Boston offices and established a dedicated private credit team in 2016. It opened an Austin office in 2021 and a Hong Kong office in 2025.^[2]

Adams Street Partners announced on April 22, 2026 that its Co-Investment Fund VI closed with $2.5 billion in committed capital, exceeding its target. After the close, the firm said it manages $7.2 billion in co-investment strategy assets.^[5]

Adams Street Partners said on August 3, 2026 that it had secured over $5 billion in capital commitments for its latest Secondaries Investment Program, including the close of Global Secondary Fund 8 at $2.7 billion. The release says the fundraise is around 50% larger than the firm's previous secondaries program.^[6]

Adams Street Partners announced on April 13, 2026 the close of its third private credit platform, including its Private Credit III fund, with $7.5 billion in committed capital, a figure that includes borrowing. The release says total private credit strategy assets have grown to $15 billion since the program began in 2016. It also cites the firm's inaugural $350 million public CLO, launched earlier in 2026.^[7],[2]

Adams Street Partners launched the Adams Street Venture & Growth Fund, known as AVNGR, on October 13, 2026 with $363.5 million in net assets funded by anchor investors. AVNGR is a closed-end, perpetual-term tender offer fund that primarily invests in secondaries and venture growth co-investments. The release says it will be broadly available beginning December 1, 2026.^[3]

Adams Street Partners lists Jeffrey Diehl as Managing Partner and Head of Investments, based in Chicago and Austin. Jeffrey Akers is Partner and Head of Secondary Investments, and David Brett is Partner and Co-Head of Co-Investments.^[4]

Adams Street Partners lists Brijesh Jeevarathnam as Partner and Global Head of Fund Investments in Menlo Park, and Bill Sacher as Partner and Head of Private Credit in New York. Michael Kurlander is Partner and Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer. The leadership page says the Executive Committee collectively has more than 330 years of experience.^[4],[8]

Adams Street Partners' venture growth team is headed by Robin Murray, Partner and Head of Venture Growth Investments, based in Menlo Park. Terry Gould is Senior Partner, Venture Growth, in Chicago. Thomas Bremner, Ali Cliff, Brian Dudley and Fred Wang are Partners on the team, and Vikram Chari is a Principal.^[8],[4]

Adams Street Partners' venture growth strategy invests in growth-stage technology and healthcare companies. The firm says it has invested since 1972, partnering directly with more than 330 companies and managing more than $3 billion during that time.^[8],[2]

Adams Street Partners looks for venture growth companies with at least $5 million in annualized revenue. The team typically invests between $20 million and $50 million per company, with capacity to invest more, and says it prefers to lead rounds and join boards but can join syndicates in larger financings.^[8]

Adams Street Partners' venture growth page lists no exits, realized returns or fund-level performance. The pages reviewed also give no amounts invested in any named company.^[8]