Tribe Capital Plans Challenge to AngelList

For years, venture firms have given pension funds, family offices and others who put money into their funds ways to invest more directly in the firms’ startups. Now, one well-connected VC firm in Silicon Valley has a plan to let a wider group of investors do the same.  

Tribe Capital, a $360 million venture fund founded by a trio of former Social Capital investors, is close to announcing a program called Firstlook that will allow qualified individuals—those with a net worth of more than $1 million and an annual income of $200,000—to co-invest in startups in deals underwritten and managed by Tribe. For the past two years, Tribe has been privately testing the program, mostly with limited partners, as the professional investors who back venture funds are known. To help manage the new program, which hasn’t been previously reported, Tribe has acquired another venture firm, Pif.vc, whose three partners will oversee Firstlook.