Partner FundsCashmere FundInsights
Sweater is a fintech platform that offers professionally managed access to premier funds that deploy capital into private deals accessible to retail investors.
Operating a fund is incredibly time-consuming and requires significant expertise and resources. By partnering with Sweater, qualified partners can focus on what they do best – identifying and nurturing companies whose potential can be unlocked with additional capital – while Sweater handles the backend operations, compliance, investor communication, and technology.
For fund managers, our platform opens a whole new investor base from which they can raise capital without solicitation limitations, investment minimums, or fixed end dates. By leveraging the power of the retail investor, fund managers can back promising companies even before Tier 1 VCs get in, accept more investors, build community, and pursue more diverse investment theses.
Sweater works with various qualified partners including:
Fintech Platforms: Fintech platforms often have large, owned audiences of investors looking for new ways to diversify their personal investment portfolios. They’ve built communities of retail investors and frequently look to launch new, ancillary product offerings.
Traditional VC Funds: Established VCs can also benefit from Sweater’s platform as they may choose to open a parallel fund that is open to the public, helping them increase support for their portfolio companies.
Celebrities and Athletes: We make it easy for celebrities, influencers, and Athletes to engage their fanbase and support companies they care about. Imagine a basketball player launching a sports-tech fund that their fans can directly participate in, or a beauty influencer launching a beauty-tech fund to invest in companies featured in their content - and giving their followers a chance to invest alongside them.
Universities: Through Sweater, universities can launch a fund that allows students and alumni to invest in a diversified portfolio of innovative startups in the university’s network. This could enable student- or alumni-managed venture funds to raise capital directly from the university’s student and alumni population instead of relying on big checks from accredited investors.
Qualified partners must have an established audience large enough to reach $50M in assets within 24 months of launch. Partners can reach this milestone through different avenues including:
Rolling in Existing Assets: Leveraging current investments or portfolios to seed the fund and establish momentum.
Anchor LPs: Securing commitments from key investors who provide substantial initial capital.
RIA Relationships: Collaborating with Registered Investment Advisors to integrate the fund into their offerings and access a ready-made pool of retail and institutional investors.
Retail Waitlist: Organize a list of interested investors prior to launch that are nurtured and ready to go as soon as the fund becomes available.
Introduction and Alignment: The process begins with an introductory meeting where we discuss your goals, audience, and background.
Due Diligence: Sweater conducts a vetting process to ensure partners are well qualified to make quality investments in line with a well defined thesis and have a clearly defined path to raise at least $50M in assets within 24 months.
Contracts: Once approved, we define a partnership scope, formalize contracts, and create a roadmap for onboarding.
Registration: Sweater helps you design a Public VC fund specific to your audience and manages the registration and regulation on your behalf.
Launch and Support: With the fund live, Sweater provides ongoing operational, technical, investor relations, and compliance support.
If you're considering partnering with Sweater, here's an overview of what you can expect:
Clear Communication: We’ll be transparent with well documented assets that drive expectations, processes, and timelines.
Tailored Solutions: Sweater adapts its platform and services to fit the unique needs, thesis, distribution plans, and strategic advantages of each fund.
Seamless Onboarding: From fund formation to operational setup, Sweater manages the heavy lifting, including leading the effort to take the fund through the rigorous SEC registration process and white labeling of the investment portal.
Ongoing Partnership: Post-launch, Sweater acts as your operational partner to manage compliance, tax, audit, valuation, and investor relations at scale so you can focus on fundraising and capital deployment.
Sweater’s journey began with the launch of our proof-of-concept retail VC fund, Cashmere, in 2022. This fund not only showcased the feasibility of our model but also validated the infrastructure we built to support fund managers and investors alike.
Our platform handles every detail, including regulatory compliance, fund formation, and investor relations. Qualified partners benefit from our robust back-office capabilities, including:
Are you interested in beginning the process of launching your fund with Sweater? Contact us today here.
