Use VC investments for Independent Sponsor deals?

July 25, 2025
by a searcher from University of Chicago in San Francisco, CA, USA
Are VC investments a positive or negative signal for IS or search fund investors? We are getting interest from VC to invest in our AI rollup strategy. However, I'm unsure whether accepting their funding would help us with independent sponsor deal fundraising (from family offices and IS backers like ) or hinder it, as VC has quite a different investor and risk profile.
Has anyone done this before? Have you seen folks using two entities for raising from VC (who focus on team and tech) and raising from traditional investors/LPs (who focus on deals)? Any sharing of experience or advice would be appreciated!
from University of Toronto in Toronto, ON, Canada
from ESCP Europe in Berlin, Deutschland