The last gatekeeper in finance is cracking. You can bet on memecoins or election contracts, but buying into a startup seed round has remained illegal unless you’re already rich. Ankur Nagpal and Naval Ravikant are attacking that barrier with USVC, a $1 billion closed-end fund built on AngelList’s infrastructure. For a $500 minimum, any retail investor can buy in.
USVC isn’t a traditional venture fund. It offers quarterly redemptions, capped at 5% of the fund’s total value, creating a bridge between the total illiquidity of early-stage startups and the instant exit of public markets. Nagpal argues this structure aligns incentives differently. With no carried interest charged, the fund’s currency is purely its public track record. Underperformance triggers the redemption mechanism as a kill switch, allowing investors to exit and effectively shutting it down.
“If the portfolio underperforms, the quarterly redemption mechanism acts as a kill switch, allowing investors to exit and effectively shutting the fund down.”
- Ankur Nagpal, This Week in Startups
The fee structure sparked immediate debate. While marketed with a 1% management fee, the net expense ratio sits closer to 2.5% once fund operations and underlying fund-of-funds costs are included. Nagpal defends this as competitive for venture, noting the absence of traditional “2-and-20” carry. To manage the liquidity demands of quarterly tenders, the fund’s strategy allocates roughly one-third each to direct startup investments, emerging fund managers, and secondary market positions.
The model is a direct challenge to the accreditation wall, which Nagpal identifies as a source of growing public resentment toward tech growth. By democratizing the cap table, USVC tests whether venture-scale returns can be delivered in a structure that treats investors more like shareholders in a public company than limited partners in a private club.
