How to Get Exposure to Venture-Backed Companies Without Being an Accredited Investor

For decades, investing in venture-backed private companies was limited to high net worth individuals and institutions. A small but growing category of SEC-registered funds is changing that. These products — primarily interval funds and a handful of adjacent closed-end vehicles — offer retail investors direct exposure to venture-backed companies without requiring accredited investor status.

What Is Accredited Investor Status — and Why Does It Matter?

Under U.S. securities law, most venture capital funds are structured as private funds that rely on exemptions from SEC registration (commonly under Section 3(c)(1) or 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act). These exemptions restrict who can invest. In practice, that means limited partners in traditional VC funds must be “accredited investors” or “qualified purchasers.”

These requirements exclude the vast majority of Americans from traditional venture capital. According to the SEC's own estimates, roughly 13% of U.S. households qualify as accredited investors. The result is that one of the highest-performing asset classes — early-stage venture capital — has historically been available only to those who are already wealthy.

Registered funds, however, operate under a different regulatory framework. Because they are registered with the SEC under the Investment Company Act of 1940, they can accept investors regardless of accredited status. The trade-off is that these funds must comply with SEC disclosure, governance, and valuation requirements — which is precisely what makes them a viable (if imperfect) gateway for retail investors seeking venture exposure.

What Are Interval Funds?

An interval fund is a registered closed-end management investment company that provides limited liquidity through periodic repurchase offers governed by SEC Rule 23c-3. Unlike open-end mutual funds, interval funds do not offer daily redemptions. Unlike exchange-traded closed-end funds, they are not listed on an exchange.

The core mechanics are straightforward:

• Continuous offering: Most interval funds continuously sell shares at net asset value (NAV).
• Periodic repurchases: The fund offers to buy back a set percentage of outstanding shares (between 5% and 25%) at regular intervals, typically quarterly or semiannually.
• Pro rata mechanics: If more shareholders want to redeem than the repurchase offer allows, redemptions are prorated. You may not get all your money out in a single window.
• No secondary market: Shares are generally not transferable and no active secondary market is expected.

This structure makes interval funds well-suited for holding illiquid assets like venture-backed private companies, which cannot be easily sold on demand. The limited-redemption design prevents the forced selling that would devastate an illiquid portfolio.

The Current Universe of Venture-Backed Registered Funds

As of March 2026, the U.S. registered-fund market contains a small but identifiable set of interval funds whose strategies emphasize investing primarily in venture-backed private companies. These are distinct from the many interval funds focused on private credit, real estate, or hedge-style strategies.

We identified five active venture-focused interval funds, plus two adjacent registered closed-end vehicles that offer comparable exposure through different structures. The Pop Venture Fund, while listed as an active interval fund in the PE/Venture category, shows $0 in net assets and has limited publicly available documentation, so it is noted but not profiled in detail below.

A. Interval Funds (Rule 23c-3 Periodic Repurchase Funds)

B. Adjacent Registered Closed-End Vehicles (Not Interval Funds)

Two additional registered products give retail investors venture-backed exposure through different structures. These are relevant comparables but do not operate under the same interval-fund repurchase mechanics.

Profiles of Key Funds

How These Funds Value Private Companies

Understanding how these funds price their holdings is critical, because venture-backed private companies do not have observable market prices. The NAV you see on any given day is, to a significant degree, a modeled estimate.

The Fair Value Framework

Under the registered fund regime, valuation for NAV purposes is governed by SEC Rule 2a-5, adopted in December 2020. The rule formalizes a framework where fund boards are responsible for “good faith” fair value determinations and can designate the adviser as a “valuation designee” subject to board oversight, reporting, and testing requirements.

The relevant accounting standard is the ASC 820 fair value hierarchy:

• Level 1: Quoted prices in active markets (e.g., publicly traded stocks).
• Level 2: Other observable inputs (e.g., comparable transactions, broker quotes).
• Level 3: Significant unobservable inputs — the category where most private company equity falls.

For the funds in this report, the practical reality is that most underlying portfolio companies are private, trading occurs only episodically (if at all), and information rights can be limited. Fund sponsors consistently disclose that valuations are inherently uncertain and that NAV may not reflect realizable exit prices.

What “Daily NAV” Actually Means

Several sponsors market daily NAV (Connetic, Private Shares Fund, Jetstream), which can create a misleading impression of precision. In practice, the NAV calculation process can be daily while the underlying private-company marks may only change when new information emerges — a financing round, a material operating event, a secondary-market indication, or a periodic valuation refresh. This gap between high-frequency NAV output and lower-frequency fundamental inputs is a core feature and a recurring risk disclosure.

How Investors Actually Access These Funds

Purchase Channels

Distribution approaches vary significantly across funds:

• Traditional fund distribution: Connetic is distributed by Foreside Financial Services; The Pre-IPO & Growth Fund states availability on Fidelity's Institutional NTF platform.
• Brokerage platforms: ARK Venture Fund is available through various brokerage accounts and platforms that support interval fund purchases.
• Direct-to-investor: Jetstream offers shares directly through its web app, with no underwriter or dealer manager retained.
• Exchange trading: Robinhood Ventures (RVI) and eventually Fundrise (VCX) trade on the NYSE, meaning any standard brokerage account can purchase shares.
• Platform-native: Fundrise currently sells directly through its own platform with a $10 minimum.

The Liquidity Reality

A consistent disclosure across interval funds is that shares are not listed, no active secondary market is expected, and transferability is often restricted. Liquidity comes primarily through the periodic repurchase program — and that program has constraints.

Risks, Fees, and Conflicts to Understand

Liquidity Risk Is Structural

This is not the same as owning a volatile stock that you can sell tomorrow. Interval funds are unlisted closed-end products. Investors can only obtain liquidity through periodic repurchase offers that can be oversubscribed and prorated. There is no guarantee you can exit when you want to.

Valuation Uncertainty

Venture-backed portfolios require fair valuation using unobservable inputs. ARK explicitly notes that market values for direct investments may not be readily determinable and that valuations can be inherently uncertain. Connetic similarly discloses NAV variability. The price you see may not be the price you get.

Company Failure Risk

These funds invest in private companies that can and do fail entirely. ARK warns that it invests in highly speculative early-stage companies with a high rate of failure and restricted liquidity. Jetstream includes similar “loss of entire investment” language.

Fee Layers and Economic Drag

Fund-level management fees range from 1.85% to 2.90% — materially above traditional public equity mutual funds. But the more significant issue is layered fees when the interval fund invests through private funds, SPVs, or other pooled vehicles. Both The Private Shares Fund and Jetstream disclose that underlying portfolio funds charge their own management fees and performance-based fees (carried interest), which reduce net returns on top of the fund's own stated expenses.

Tax Considerations

One practical advantage these funds market over traditional VC limited partnerships is simpler tax reporting. Many aim to offer 1099 reporting rather than K-1s, which simplifies filing for taxable investors. Connetic explicitly markets “simple 1099 tax reporting.”

Several funds intend to qualify as regulated investment companies (RICs) under Subchapter M. RIC qualification avoids entity-level federal income taxes to the extent income and gains are distributed and the fund meets income, diversification, and distribution requirements. ARK's prospectus describes its intent to qualify as a RIC and discloses structural features (e.g., possible subsidiaries) used to manage qualifying-income constraints.

Many of these funds also state they are IRA-eligible, depending on intermediary and account rules — a meaningful difference from traditional VC funds, which can create unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) complications for tax-exempt accounts.

Key Takeaways for Investors