Next Round Capital

Next Round Capital

Next Round Capital was formed in 2019 by Christopher McCann and Justin Roberts to address a persistent friction in venture capital: the decade-long lockup that traps founder and employee equity. Operating from San Francisco, the firm runs a dedicated direct-secondary strategy, purchasing individual LP interests and direct-share positions in high-growth, late-stage technology companies. By targeting companies that are backed by established venture firms but remain private, Next Round Capital gives sellers partial liquidity while allowing the firm to hold for the final growth phase before IPO or acquisition. The firm focuses on minority transactions in technology sectors including enterprise software, AI/ML, fintech, and digital health. Its strategy spans late-stage direct deals and LP-led secondary purchases across North America. While Next Round Capital does not publicly disclose a flagship fund size, its model mirrors structured secondary platforms like Industry Ventures, concentrating deal flow through relationships with venture GPs, wealth advisors, and company boards rather than broad auctions. The firm has been cited in deal reporting for acquiring shares in secondary transactions involving major unicorns, though specific confirmed holdings and fund close numbers have not been publicly detailed as of mid-2026. The firm participates in both negotiated single-asset transactions and smaller portfolio-strip acquisitions. The firm is anchored by its two managing partners. Christopher McCann's background includes technology operational roles, giving the team a practitioner's lens on company quality, while Justin Roberts' experience is weighted toward investment structuring. The exact size of the professional team and total capital deployed have not been broadly disclosed. The firm operates primarily in the direct-secondary niche, with no publicly reported adjacent philanthropic or real-asset vehicles. Its lean structure — concentrated partner-level sourcing and underwriting — is consistent with a specialist firm design. Next Round Capital's structural differentiator is its concentrated bet on the illiquidity premium embedded in single-name late-stage positions. Rather than across-the-board portfolio diversification, the firm sources specific line items from known venture portfolios, making underwriting a function of granular company analysis rather than blind-pool bets. In a market with a persistent backlog of unicorns unable to exit, this model functions as a pressure-release valve for venture ecosystems — a role that traditional VC firms and broad secondary funds rarely execute with the same precision.