New Public VC: USVC
Another week, another public venture capital vehicle launch.
AngelList just launched USVC to “broaden access to venture capital, allowing retail investors to gain exposure to promising companies before they become well-known.”
USVC is part of the wave of products seeking to democratize VC. USVC is a credible new entrant, backed by one of the strongest brands in the VC ecosystem.
But structure still matters. The illiquidity of the product differentiates USVC from other Public Venture Capital funds (PVCs) such as Destiny & Fundrise.
This post will highlight the key features of USVC, as well as some of its differentiating factors. This is most certainly not investment advice.
What is USVC
USVC is a closed-end fund focused on venture capital.
Key features:
Structure: Closed-end interval fund (limited quarterly liquidity, up to 5%)
Fees: 2.5% management fee, no carry
Minimum: $500 (clearly retail targeted)
Valuation: Marked at NAV daily (no public market premium/discount dynamics)
The NAV as at December 2025 was $8m. Within 24 hours from public launch last week, Ankur Nagpal (GP of USVC) tweeted that “thousands of people ended up subscribing for literally tens of millions of dollars.”
The portfolio today consists of seven assets (xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Vercel, Crusoe, Legora & Sierra). xAI is roughly 50% of the private asset base today. The strategy is to invest across all stages, including early stage via funds and later stage to provide liquidity to shareholders.
The initial assets make it look like USVC is creating another galactico portfolio of hero assets rather than seeking to focus on earlier stage companies with potential for NAV growth. In that sense, it is akin to DXYZ and VCX.
Three things stand out compared to other PVCs
1. AngelList is the real asset
USVC will benefit from the brand halo effect of AngelList, and the involvement of Naval Ravikant as chairman (as well as Cyan Banister as an advisor) to accelerate distribution.
Naval can push USVC to his 3m+ followers on X, supporting dealflow and fundraising alike.
AngelList already has relationships with 4,500+ fund managers, including from AngelList’s fund administration business.
2. Limited liquidity
USVC is not listed and the starting position is potential for 5% liquidity each quarter. By contrast, exchange-traded closed-end funds, such as DXYZ and VCX, allow investors daily liquidity via public markets (assuming the trading volume is there).
The CEO of DXYZ has already tweeted the lyrics of Hotel California at USVC.
We have previously written about why the asset-liability mismatch for these types of interval funds is problematic. Venture assets are long-duration and illiquid.
The corollary of not listing the fund is that share price is set at NAV. This does not allow for the fund to trade at a premium to NAV when there is sufficient demand.
Nevertheless, ARK VC, which has a similar interval fund structure, has been successful in driving NAV growth and in raising capital. In Q1 2026 alone, ARK’s AUM grew by $207m to $711m.
3. Indirect strategy
The investment strategy lacks definition (and is potentially expensive). USVC positions itself as BOTH early and late stage, BOTH direct and indirect (via funds), and delivering BOTH brand-name exposure and future growth.
In practice, USVC will initially invest via other traditional VC funds. The positions today are via two vehicles (Acquired Capital Fund LP and NB Ventures XAI II LP). The plan in the future is to make more direct investments.
The indirect strategy of investing via funds will increase fee load as USVC will likely be paying management fees and carry to the underlying managers.
In short, USVC is a strong entrant into the PVC stable, offering a new product on top of the AngelList platform and network. The pull of Naval / AngelList is not to be discounted. Retail investors will surely flock to this product, in spite of questions to be answered about illiquidity and investment strategy.
We are aware of at least two other PVCs who have filed N-2s who will be launching publicly soon. It is exciting to see the emergence of this new financial product, especially as different managers are selecting different structures and strategies to achieve the same goal: providing retail capital with early access to the next power law companies.