Justin Ernest invested $500 million using special deals

Last year, Justin Ernest noticed a big gap in venture capital. Family offices wanted to invest in AI companies but could not get access. Ernest spent five years at Playground Global. He helped lead fundraising there. He used his connections to get shares in big later-stage companies. He did not start a traditional VC fund. That process takes 12 to 18 months. Instead, he used special purpose vehicles called SPVs. He offered these deals to a group of about 30 smaller investors. Over the last 12 months, Sabertooth Capital invested nearly $500 million. The money went into 10 companies like Anthropic, Anduril, and SpaceX. Each deal was its own separate fund. He wrote checks from $10 million to $275 million. He always joined official funding rounds. Benjamin Wagner is a CIO for a family office. He said Ernest is a real investor with technical knowledge. Wagner tried to invest in PsiQuantum directly. The company told him to use Sabertooth. Ernest went to Harvard Business School. He overcame a childhood speech problem. His network helped him get shares. He wants to raise a traditional fund in the future. Sabertooth had one big return from Groq. Nvidia bought that company for $20 billion. SpaceX will have an IPO this Friday. Anthropic will also go public later this year. Ernest believes starting with SPVs was the right choice.