Special Purpose Vehicle

A separate legal entity created by investors to make a specific investment outside their main fund structure, often used for large or unusual deals.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) is a subsidiary entity created to isolate financial risk and make investments that fall outside a fund's normal parameters. In venture capital, SPVs allow firms to participate in deals that exceed their typical check size or investment stage without breaking their main fund's discipline. Benchmark's creation of 'Benchmark Infrastructure' SPVs to invest $225 million in Cerebras exemplifies this use case, as the investment far exceeds what their sub-$450 million funds would normally allocate to a single position.

Also known as