When Chloe Wang, a 36-year-old former tech executive from Seattle, sold her first startup, she found herself in a new financial bracket — comfortable, but unsure where to put her money. Stocks felt saturated, real estate was bloated, and the idea of dabbling in cryptocurrency was, as she put it, “like betting on the mood of the internet.”
A Stanford graduate, she’d heard about angel investing through colleagues, but it always felt like a private club — the kind where deals happened over wine in Menlo Park backyards or behind the veil of “warm intros.” That changed in early 2025, when a friend sent her a link to something called the AV Syndicate.
“I didn’t think people like me — not a VC, not some billionaire — could ever get in on this stuff,” she said.
Wang is not alone.
For decades, venture capital has been one of the most exclusive corners of finance. High minimums, opaque deal sourcing, and tight-knit networks kept participation limited to institutional players and the ultra-wealthy. But a quiet shift is underway. Platforms like the AV Syndicate, launched in April by Alumni Ventures, are opening the door — not wide, but wider.
From its beginnings in 2014, Alumni Ventures was CEO and founder Mike Collins’ brainchild to bring venture capital to more investors. Starting with funds for alumni from the Ivy League, Collins did just that, building the company to its current size of more than $1.5B in capital raised.
Now the AV Syndicate gives even more accredited investors the chance to participate in handpicked, institutional-quality venture deals, often alongside leading venture firms like Sequoia Capital or Andreessen Horowitz. The minimum to join a single deal through the AV Syndicate? $10,000. That’s a dramatic drop from the multimillion-dollar thresholds that defined traditional VC fund participation.
Besides lowering financial hurdles, AV’s move towards greater venture capital accessibility also involves providing more flexible investment structures, shared information about companies, and better educational resources. Although there are still risks associated with investing in startups, Alumni Ventures aims to provide a wider range of investors the opportunities and resources to get involved in this exciting market.
Collins observed, “Over the last 10 years, we have built one of the most valuable deal-sourcing and venture-investment engines in the world: network-powered venture investing at scale. The AV Syndicate now makes this deal flow accessible to individual investors like never before, allowing them to co-invest alongside our own funds at AV and other well-established venture firms.”
Through the AV Syndicate platform, investors have access to exclusive details and due diligence materials on carefully chosen investment opportunities. The platform puts a high priority on co-investing with leading VC firms, such as Google’s venture arm, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Khosla Ventures.
Such platforms have the potential to make a significant impact. It’s estimated that only 2%—or around 500,000 — U.S. adults have ever made venture or startup investments. Historically, many of these investors have done so alone—quite different than professional venture investing at scale.
The much larger pool of 20 million accredited investors in the U.S. is the target audience of Alumni Ventures. Its impact could be historic if platforms such as Alumni Ventures are able to effectively reach even a small portion of this demographic. And now is an opportune moment. Venture-backed companies are staying private longer than ever before, and enormous value is being generated prior to public market access. That may create an interesting chance for portfolio growth and diversification for individual investors who can now have a smart, simple way to access institutional-grade deals.
In keeping with federal regulations, Alumni Ventures does vet investors. Before writing a check to AV, investors must prove they are accredited. In many cases, this means having a verifiable net worth of over $1 million (excluding primary residence) or an annual income of over $200,000 ($300,000 for joint income).
Collins acknowledged that qualification puts limits on venture access. “We still can’t serve every investor in the U.S. who might like to back venture startups. But we’re unquestionably making venture capital more accessible than it was 10 years ago. Let’s see where another 10 years bring us.”
For those like Chloe Wang, who sit in that often-overlooked tier between retail investor and institutional whale, that feels like a new opportunity.
Venture capital investing involves substantial risk, including the risk of loss of all capital invested. Please consult with your financial advisor before making investment decisions. Example co-investors are listed for illustrative purposes only, do not represent all organizations with which AV co-invests, and do not necessarily indicate future co-investors.