- David Teten: I think you’re talking about overlays? see https://teten.com/how-vcs-can-and-should-invest-in-later-rounds/
- Sam Stein: David, that’s a great article. Learned something new – thanks for sharing. But I don’t think it’s an overlay fund because it is not a fund investing in the portfolio companies at later stages of fund III, rather it says fund III access will invest “in” fund III, which makes me think some sort of FoF structure, maybe to give access to a type of investor that’s not able to invest directly in fund III. I’m asking around and will let you know when I figure it out
- Brian Yoon: I think of it almost like a SPV that small to mid-sized VCs would use for growth rounds. but totally could be a FoF – thing being LPs would not agree to letting that happen
- Sam Stein: The access fund I’m looking at is run by a large institutional asset manager. I think they are acting as a placement agent in that they are offering the access fund to their clients, securing a large amount of commitments and then providing that capital to the VC for a small placement fee kickback. I think the VC also uses the services of the asset manager, so it is probably a mutually beneficial situation.