Allied Venture Partners

Hello Partners,

As a current or prospective partner, this newsletter provides exclusive insights into our investment strategy, portfolio companies, and industry trends.

Thank you for your continued trust and support,

Matt Wilson

Founder & Managing Director | Allied Venture Partners

Not an LP? Click here to join the Allied Venture Partners syndicate.

Team Updates

• Our core team includes Steve, Melinda, Brendan, and Colton.

• The Allied Scout and Advisory programs continue to expand with several new members each week, providing quality diversified deal flow from across Canada and the United States. Thank you to all those who have participated.

New Deals

• We closed two investments earlier this month, including a follow-on investment in Fonbnk and a new investment in doFlo. Thank you to everyone who participated in both deals.

• We currently have one open investment that we plan to close by the end of the month. If you missed the invite, please let me know.

• New LPs can join the Allied syndicate and gain access to our dealflow at no cost by clicking here.

Portfolio News

• Fonbnk has rapidly become the #1 stablecoin on-ramp and the #2 payments app in the Telegram App Center (read more).

• Learn more about our recent investment in doFlo – the new AI workflow automation platform that is pioneering the vibe flowing movement.

• Trace achieved its strongest revenue quarter in company history, securing major contract expansions with ESPN, including Super Bowl 2026, the NBA, PGA, NHL, and NCAA.

• RetinaLogik also had its strongest quarter in company history, growing revenue more than 2x since we invested last December.

• Thanks to Eric and the FoundersPress team for inviting me to share my bootstrapped founder experience in a recent blog post.

• I’ll be in Tokyo meeting with investors and LPs during the first week of September. If you’re in the area and would like to connect, please let me know.

• Also, a big thanks to Aaron, Kevin, and Founders Network for inviting me to co-host their recent Pitch Practice session.

Industry Insights

The AI boom has created an intoxicating cocktail of rapid wealth creation and rampant speculation. As companies like Cursor and Perplexity scale past $100 million ARR with multi-billion dollar valuations in mere months, we're witnessing an unprecedented surge in secondary transactions. Early investors and employees are racing to monetize their positions, creating what appears to be a liquidity bonanza—but appearances can be deceiving.

The secondary market has become a feeding frenzy for opportunistic brokers peddling multi-layered SPVs to unsuspecting investors. As an LP in numerous VC funds and 100+ syndicates, I receive over a dozen weekly pitches across everything from OpenAI to Groq, and I’ve noticed a troubling pattern emerging: most investors chase headline exposure to hot AI names without understanding the labyrinthine structures they're entering.

These often are not direct equity purchases. Instead, SPVs are investing in other SPVs, creating a Russian nesting doll-like structure of fees and intermediaries.

The math is sobering. Primary investors charge 2% management fees plus 20% carry to brokers, who layer on their own fees and success kickbacks before selling to end investors. By the time this fee cascade reaches the LP, true ownership percentages become opaque while 100% of the risk remains concentrated at the bottom.

Meanwhile, some brokers are pre-selling allocations they don't yet have, promising future share transfers from employees who may lack company approval to sell. This represents classic bubble behavior—FOMO masquerading as sophisticated investing.

The irony is stark: while chasing exposure to revolutionary AI companies, most investors would generate superior returns simply buying the NASDAQ.

At Allied, as we navigate this frothy environment, our focus remains on direct primary investments where we can secure clean cap table positions and transparent economics.

In secondary markets awash with intermediaries, the house always wins—and it's rarely the LP.

Be careful out there!

As a reminder, our Core Investment Values since Day 1:

Read our investment thesis one-pager, available here.

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