Rebels, Royals, and Rich Uncles: The New VC Power Players
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Written by Carlos Cado, Partner at One Degree
The venture capital landscape is no longer defined solely by blue-chip institutional investors. We’re now witnessing the rise of a new breed of Limited Partners: family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and angel investors, all quietly but powerfully reshaping the contours of early-stage investing. This shift isn’t just about capital flows; it’s about how capital behaves, what it prioritises, and how it influences innovation across the globe. At One Degree, we believe understanding this new “LP Stack” is essential for anyone building a fund or startup in today’s ecosystem.
Family offices are perhaps the most intriguing component of this evolution. Traditionally seen as quiet allocators, these entities, often managing generational wealth with assets averaging over $1.4 billion, are leaning into venture capital with far more agility and intention than in years past. Unlike institutional LPs that demand quarterly updates, rigid mandates, and multi-year fund structures, family offices often seek simplicity, flexibility, and alignment with their legacy values. Increasingly, they’re opting for direct investments, bypassing traditional fund-of-funds to back startups that resonate with personal convictions. Tech, healthcare, and climate-tech continue to dominate their allocation targets, and the appeal goes beyond financial returns. These families want to play a role in shaping the world their descendants will inherit.
However, agility isn’t always a silver bullet. The lean setup of many family offices means they often lack institutional-grade due diligence processes or deep sectoral expertise. While this can occasionally open them up to risk, many have compensated by forming alliances with emerging managers, joining syndicates, or building in-house VC teams to blend speed with sophistication. The smartest family offices aren’t just writing checks, they’re becoming startup whisperers, and it’s elevating the whole game.
Then there are the sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), the sleeping giants of the investment world. Representing state-owned assets estimated to be worth over $13 trillion globally, these funds are no longer sitting on the sidelines or merely allocating capital to safe havens. They’re stepping boldly into VC, with mandates that now include startups innovating in infrastructure, deep tech, AI, and sustainability, sectors tightly aligned with national transformation agendas. In countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, sovereign funds are pushing hard into venture ecosystems as both catalysts and controllers of long-term industrial change.
What sets sovereign funds apart is their time horizon. These investors are playing a 30 to 50 year game, far beyond the typical 7–10 year VC cycle. That makes them powerful partners for both venture firms and founders, especially those tackling hard problems that need patient capital. Think fusion energy, climate adaptation tech, or even food security. However, they must constantly walk a tightrope, balancing geopolitical interests, regulatory scrutiny, and global ambitions. As a result, many are adopting a two-pronged approach: setting up internal venture arms while also backing specialist funds that offer geographic or vertical-specific expertise.
Meanwhile, angel investors, often the overlooked but foundational layer of venture finance, are also evolving. Once perceived as lone operators writing modest seed checks, today’s angels are organised, networked, and increasingly professional. Spaces like One Degree have democratised access to deals, data rooms, and due diligence tools. The result? An explosion of high-conviction capital from diverse profiles including retired operators, successful founders, and even influencers, who are investing at the intersection of purpose and performance.
One of the most exciting shifts is the rise of female angel investors. In North America alone, women now represent nearly 47% of the angel ecosystem. This is more than just a welcome statistic, it’s a structural transformation. More women at the cap table means more funding flowing into female-led ventures, more inclusive innovation, and a wider range of risks and returns being pursued. At One Degree, we’ve seen firsthand how this new generation of angels brings not only money but mentorship, community capital, and long-term alignment to the startups they back.
However, the angel ecosystem isn’t without friction. As venture capital becomes more mainstream and institutional investors move downstream into earlier rounds, competition for allocation is intensifying. Many angels are being squeezed out of the best deals unless they move quickly, syndicate smartly, or partner with funds that provide them consistent access and vetting. This is where venture networks like One Degree play a crucial role, acting as bridges between angels and startups, providing curated deal flow, and eliminating the noise from the signal.
What’s most powerful about this new LP Stack is how complementary the players are. Family offices bring patient capital with purpose; sovereign wealth funds bring massive scale and sovereign strategies; and angel investors bring speed, intuition, and grassroots networks. Together, they’re not just investing, they’re co-architecting a new venture economy. Across Europe, the Gulf, and Southeast Asia, we’re seeing increasing collaboration between these groups: co-investment platforms, rolling funds backed by family offices and angels, and sovereign funds quietly seeding emerging managers to learn the venture game from the inside.
This shift has profound implications for fund managers, founders, and even regulators. For VCs, it demands a new playbook. Gone are the days when a single pitch deck worked for all LPs. Today, family offices want alignment with values and transparency; SWFs require geopolitical acumen and long-term strategy; and angels need access, education, and community. The future belongs to fund managers who can tailor their communication and structure creatively, building products that resonate with the diverse motivations behind each LP type.
For founders, the takeaway is equally clear: understand who your backers are and what they care about. Angels may be your first believers, but family offices can be your bridge to scale, and sovereign funds could be the capital behind your Series C infrastructure push. Managing these relationships with intention and with the right narrative at every stage, can dramatically improve not just your chances of raising, but your chances of building something that endures.
At One Degree, we’re building with this future in mind. Our LP network is intentionally diverse, with angel investors hungry for early-stage opportunities, family offices looking for defensible startups with strong teams, and institutional capital that’s increasingly open to values-aligned innovation. We curate, educate, and co-invest to make sure every dollar is not only smart but strategic.
The new LP Stack is here, and it’s changing everything. If the last decade was about institutional capital building unicorns, the next decade may be about personal capital building purpose-driven market leaders. For those ready to embrace this change, not just as an investor or founder, but as a participant in a more collaborative and conscious form of capitalism, the opportunity is vast.
