Union Square Advisors hired Eugene Song as Managing Director and Head of Secondaries and GP Solutions, the technology-focused investment bank announced Thursday. The move positions the boutique to capture mandate flow as venture-backed secondaries volume tracks toward another $120 billion year and general partners hunt new ways to manufacture liquidity for aging portfolios.
Song arrives from Morgan Stanley, where he spent the better part of a decade advising technology companies and financial sponsors. Union Square operates in the narrow channel between venture capital and middle-market M&A—a segment where secondaries became the exit mechanism of last resort after IPO windows slammed shut in 2022. The firm has advised on more than $50 billion in transactions since inception, concentrated in software, fintech, and digital infrastructure. Adding a dedicated secondaries practice acknowledges what the market already knows: liquidity events in venture now happen through continuation funds, strip sales, and GP-led restructurings as often as they do through trade sales.
The timing reflects structural shifts in private markets. Median fund holding periods stretched past seven years in 2024, forcing GPs to either return stale capital or engineer secondary exits. Continuation vehicles—where a GP moves portfolio companies into a new fund and offers LPs a choice between cashing out or rolling forward—represented nearly 40% of all GP-led secondaries last year, up from 18% in 2019. Those transactions require specialized advisory, particularly in technology, where valuations remain contested and buyers demand detailed diligence on revenue quality, churn, and path to profitability. Union Square's existing relationships with venture funds and growth-stage companies give Song a warm book to work from. The firm has no public balance sheet, no proprietary capital at risk, and no structural conflicts with the buyers or sellers it advises—a positioning that matters when trust is the product.
What changes is the advisory landscape for venture GPs sitting on $2.3 trillion in unrealized value, according to Pitchbook. Secondaries used to be a distressed option. Now they are portfolio management. Funds raised in 2018 and 2019 face extension decisions in the next 18 months, and many will choose continuation vehicles over fire-sale exits. Union Square's addition of Song signals the firm expects that volume to migrate toward independents and away from bulge-bracket banks, where secondaries teams compete internally with M&A desks for the same exit mandate. Song's mandate includes both LP portfolio sales and GP-led transactions, a pairing that reflects how the secondary market bifurcated into two distinct products with different economics and timelines.
Allocators and fund managers should monitor three follow-on signals. First, whether Union Square closes a notable continuation fund advisory in the next six months—that would confirm Song has existing deal flow. Second, whether other technology-focused boutiques hire similar profiles, which would indicate the secondaries advisory market is fragmenting away from the large banks. Third, whether Song's practice expands beyond venture into growth equity and late-stage crossover funds, where the liquidity problem is larger but the relationships are harder to unlock.
Union Square Advisors does not typically compete with Evercore or Lazard for $5 billion enterprise software carve-outs. It competes with Qatalyst, Greenhill, and Raine for the $300 million to $2 billion venture-backed exit where the founder still owns 18% and the cap table has six different share classes. Adding secondaries capability turns the firm into a one-stop shop for that founder's entire liquidity conversation, from trade sale to continuation fund to structured equity. The appointment is not a bet on market recovery. It is a bet on market fragmentation becoming permanent.
The takeaway
Union Square Advisors adds Morgan Stanley veteran Eugene Song to lead secondaries practice as GP-led liquidity structures replace traditional venture exits.
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