Greenspring Associates was a Baltimore-area venture capital firm founded in 2000, headquartered in Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland. Over two decades it grew into one of the more active US venture platforms combining a fund-of-funds model with direct co-investments. By the time of its acquisition in 2021, the firm managed approximately $15 billion in assets across venture funds and direct positions.
In September 2021, StepStone Group acquired Greenspring Associates in a deal valued at roughly $500 million in cash and stock. The transaction brought Greenspring's venture team and portfolio relationships into StepStone's broader private markets platform. Following the close, the Greenspring brand was gradually absorbed into StepStone Venture, and the firm no longer operates independently. For practical purposes, any new activity attributed to "Greenspring Associates" after late 2021 flows through StepStone's infrastructure and reporting.
The firm's investment strategy centered on backing top-tier venture funds as a limited partner while also taking direct positions in late-stage growth companies. Its sweet spot was enterprise software, cloud infrastructure, and fintech – sectors that occasionally overlapped with crypto and blockchain infrastructure plays, though digital assets were never a stated primary focus.
Notable investments
- Databricks – data and AI platform; one of Greenspring's most cited growth bets
- HashiCorp – infrastructure automation; backed pre-IPO, acquired by IBM in 2024
- UiPath – robotic process automation; Greenspring held a position ahead of the 2021 NYSE listing
- Okta – identity and access management; early growth-stage position
- Cloudflare – network security and CDN; held through and around IPO
Public information about Greenspring's specific crypto or blockchain portfolio companies is limited. The firm did not publish a dedicated digital-assets thesis, and its crypto-adjacent exposure likely came through fintech and infrastructure holdings rather than direct token investments. CoinMagnetic's database records 5 portfolio entries and 2 lead investments in the crypto vertical, but granular deal disclosures for those positions are not publicly available.
Team
Ashton Newhall co-founded Greenspring and served as a general partner throughout its independent life. He transitioned to StepStone following the acquisition. Hunter Somerville was another prominent partner, focused on direct venture investments. Additional investment staff joined StepStone in various roles after the close. Public information about the full current team structure at StepStone Venture is available on StepStone's team page.
Recent activity
Since the 2021 acquisition, Greenspring Associates no longer deploys capital under its own name. StepStone Venture continues to manage the legacy portfolio and raises new venture-focused vehicles under the StepStone brand. As of early 2026, StepStone Group is publicly listed on Nasdaq (STEP) and reports venture AUM as part of its broader $700+ billion total assets under management and advisement figure. Legacy Greenspring portfolio companies that reached liquidity events – through IPO, acquisition, or secondary – contributed meaningfully to StepStone's reported performance in the 2022–2025 period, though exact attribution by legacy firm is not broken out in public filings.
For investors tracking Greenspring-originated positions, the relevant disclosure source is now StepStone Group's SEC 13F filings. The independent Greenspring entity is effectively closed to new business. Any contact or LP relationships that were managed through Greenspring now sit with StepStone's investor relations team in La Jolla, California.