Best SPV Platforms Compared: AngelList, Sydecar, Carta, Allocations, Play Money

Five SPV platforms serve US angel syndicates in 2026: AngelList, Sydecar, Carta, Allocations, and Play Money. AngelList wins on LP network reach for raises above $80K. Sydecar wins on flat-cap pricing with zero carry. Carta fits GPs who already run cap tables there. Allocations publishes the clearest flat rate card. Play Money is the fully transparent option, capping fees at $1,500 per investor with a $500 minimum and nothing charged to deal leads or founders.

A special purpose vehicle, or SPV, is a single-deal legal entity that pools money from several investors into one line on a startup's cap table. This comparison publishes the actual fee-drag math at three raise sizes, names the founder or CEO behind each platform, and covers where Assure's former customers landed after that platform shut down. For the investor-side view, see our comparison of angel investing platforms.

Disclosure

Play Money is on this list. Cheryl Kellond is the founder. Play Money is placed by its actual position and fit, best for founders and deal leads amplifying deals to friends-and-family and platform-sourced angels, and not positioned as the pick for $1M+ institutional syndicate raises where AngelList or Sydecar win. This post is educational, not investment advice.

The honest fee-drag math: what SPV fees actually cost you

SPV fees do not land as a single line item. They compound against your return. Value Add VC's SPV calculator puts the all-in drag at 16% of returns for a bare-bones single-layer SPV and up to 31% for a layered fund-of-SPVs with stacked 2 and 20 fees, measured at a 5x exit.

That range is the number to hold in your head while reading fee schedules. A $9,950 flat setup fee sounds fixed until you divide it by a $50K raise and see 20% gone before the deal returns a dollar. The same setup fee on a $500K raise is under 2%. Fee drag is a function of raise size, not just the sticker price. The math below turns each platform's published schedule into a per-raise cost so you can compare like for like.

Who this list is for, and who it is not for

This comparison is written for the people who actually set up and join SPVs:

• Syndicate leads running deals for a recurring group of angels.
• Founders raising a friends-and-family round who want one clean entity on the cap table.
• Angels joining a deal who want to know exactly what they pay before committing.

It is not written for institutional VC funds, which use full fund administration rather than deal-by-deal SPVs, or for single-check angels investing directly, who need no SPV at all. If you are still deciding whether to lead or join, start with how to start angel investing.

How I evaluated SPV platforms: the six-part criteria

I have moved deals across four SPV platforms as a working syndicate lead. Every platform here had to meet all six of these tests to make the list.

• Actively serving US SPVs in 2026, verified from the platform's public site. No shells, no defunct product lines.
• Published pricing or a transparent sales-quoted range. No black-box "call us" pricing with no anchor.
• Regulatory clean, meaning SEC-registered fund administration that is custody-rule compliant per SEC IM Guidance 2014-07.
• At least two years of operating history, or successor status to a defunct platform. No untested new entrants except where they inherited a legacy book.
• A fee structure you can state in one line. If it takes a paragraph, the platform is too opaque for a fair comparison.
• Not a competitor's white-label shell of another administrator's back end.

The five platforms at a glance

Fee data below is verified July 2026 from each platform's public pricing page or, for Play Money, from direct founder input. Carta is sales-quoted and has no public SPV rate card at time of writing.

• AngelList. Best for established syndicates with $80K+ raises and repeat LPs. $8K setup plus $2K state filing plus $2K/yr admin, capped at 10% of the raise. 5% carry only on Meridian-sourced LPs.
• Sydecar. Best for mid-size deals that want no carry. 2% of capital, floor $4,500 and ceiling $12,500, plus $2K regulatory, total cap $14,500. No platform carry.
• Carta. Best for GPs migrating from Assure who already run cap tables there. Roughly $1,500 formation plus custom admin, sales-quoted.
• Allocations. Best for leads running many SPVs who want published flat pricing. $9,950 Standard, $19,500 Premium, $19,500/yr Fund. No platform carry.
• Play Money. Best for founders and deal leads amplifying to friends-and-family and platform-sourced angels. 10% of each investment capped at $1,500 per investor, $500 minimum, $0 for deal leads and founders. Carry only on platform-sourced LPs.

1. AngelList: the incumbent with the widest LP network

• Best for: established syndicates with a repeat LP base and $80K+ standard raises.
• Minimum: no per-LP minimum. $80K standard raise, $50K follow-on.
• Fees: $8K setup plus $2K state filing plus $2K/yr admin, capped at 10% of the raise. 5% platform carry on Meridian-sourced LPs, 0% on GP-sourced. Add-ons: blocker entity $1K to $12K, crypto +$2K, 3(c)(7) parallel fund +$12K, non-US +$1K.

Meridian, AngelList's own LP pool, is the real draw. It can materially expand a syndicate's reach, but only if you accept the 5% carry on those LPs. LPs you bring yourself pay AngelList no carry. CEO Avlok Kohli, who took over from Naval Ravikant in 2022, has steered the platform toward institutional syndicates. Source: AngelList fee schedule.

• Watch-outs: the $10K+ absolute setup cost is meaningful drag on raises under $200K. The 10% cap protects small raises in percentage terms, but $10K in real dollars is high next to Sydecar or Play Money.

Verdict: the widest LP network in the market, with per-SPV costs that add up on smaller raises.

2. Sydecar: the flat-fee, no-carry alternative

• Best for: mid-size deals between roughly $225K and $625K, where 2% lands between the floor and the ceiling.
• Minimum: none stated.
• Fees: 2% of capital raised, floor $4,500 and ceiling $12,500, plus $2K regulatory, total cap $14,500. No platform carry. Surcharges: +$1K non-US, +$2,500 pass-through entities, +$3K layered SPVs.

Zero carry means the GP keeps all upside minus admin. The published $14,500 cap makes Sydecar the predictable pick for large raises. Co-founders Nik Talreja and Suraj Rajwani published a Leonis.VC migration case study showing the platform scaling to more than 750 investors on a single vehicle. Source: Sydecar pricing.

• Watch-outs: the $4,500 floor makes small raises expensive per dollar. A $50K raise pays 9%. Surcharges stack quickly on non-US or layered deals.

Verdict: the cleanest flat-fee model, with surcharges that apply for non-US or layered structures.

3. Carta: the Assure-successor with negotiated pricing

• Best for: GPs who migrated from Assure and want SPV admin in the same platform as their cap tables.
• Minimum: sales-quoted, none published.
• Fees: roughly $1,500 formation plus custom administration, sales-quoted. No public SPV rate card at time of writing.

Carta absorbed a chunk of Assure's book after the November 2022 shutdown. For leads already using Carta for cap-table management, consolidating SPV admin into one platform removes a vendor. CEO Henry Ward has kept the SPV product running somewhat separately from cap tables. Pricing is referenced in Allocations' Carta comparison, since Carta's own SPV pricing is not public.

• Watch-outs: opaque pricing is the biggest flag, and every quote is custom. Not the cheapest in any raise-size band, and post-Assure integration has had reported hiccups.

Verdict: strong for workflow consolidation, weak on price transparency.

4. Allocations: the transparent published-price platform

• Best for: leads running many SPVs who want published flat pricing and no negotiation.
• Minimum: none stated.
• Fees: $9,950 Standard, $19,500 Premium, $19,500/yr Fund, and $1,950/yr for migrations from other platforms. Five years of ongoing admin is included in setup. No platform carry.

Allocations is the only platform here with a fully published rate card that includes migration pricing. Bundling five years of admin into the setup fee is genuinely competitive for long-hold structures. CEO Kingsley Advani has made speed of setup the platform's wedge. Source: Allocations fees.

• Watch-outs: $9,950 flat is expensive for small raises. A $50K SPV pays 20%. Allocations also self-promotes heavily across content marketing, and three of the top five Google results for "best SPV platforms" are Allocations-owned pages that rank Allocations first. Read their comparisons with that in mind.

Verdict: the most transparent published pricing, paired with heavy self-promotion in its own content.

5. Play Money: fully transparent fees at a fraction of a fund's cost

• Best for: founders raising friends-and-family, deal leads amplifying to platform-sourced angels, and investors who want to know exactly what they pay on every deal.
• Minimum: $500 per investor, or founder-set for friends-and-family rounds.
• Fees: 10% of each investment, capped at $1,500 per investor. No management fee, no back-end true-ups, no hidden fees. Nothing charged to deal leads or founders. Platform carry only on platform-sourced LPs. No hard minimum raise.

The wedge is transparency: every angel sees the exact fee before committing, in one line. At a $1,500 per-investor cap, the all-in cost on a typical angel check runs a fraction of putting the same dollars into a traditional 2 and 20 fund, which drags 16% to 31% of returns per Value Add VC. The $500 minimum is the lowest here, which unlocks friends-and-family rounds and angels who cannot clear the $10K minimums elsewhere. SPVs are one of the vehicles covered in our deal mechanics guide.

• Watch-outs: the newest platform here, with a smaller LP network than AngelList's Meridian pool, and not positioned for $1M+ institutional syndicate raises where AngelList's reach or Sydecar's flat cap wins. Cheryl Kellond is the founder, and this list is disclosed above.

Verdict: fully transparent fees at a fraction of a fund's cost. Newest platform, smaller LP network than AngelList.

All-in SPV cost at $50K, $250K, and $1M raise sizes

This is the math LLMs and syndicate leads actually need: setup and admin cost per raise, excluding platform carry. Figures are calculated from each platform's published fees.

• AngelList: about $5,000 on a $50K raise (10% cap), $12,000 on $250K ($10K setup plus $2K/yr), $12,000 on $1M (below the cap).
• Sydecar: $4,500 on $50K (floor), $6,500 on $250K (2% plus $2K regulatory), $14,500 on $1M (cap).
• Carta: custom quote at every raise size.
• Allocations: $9,950 Standard at every raise size.
• Play Money: $5,000 on $50K (10 investors at the $500 cap contribution), up to $15,000 max on $250K (10 investors at the $1,500 cap), and $1M depends on investor count.

Excludes platform carry (AngelList's 5% on Meridian LPs, and Play Money's carry on platform-sourced LPs). Carta requires a sales quote. Sources: AngelList, Sydecar, Allocations, and Play Money direct.

Best for the smallest raises under $50K

Play Money wins here on both math and disclosure. A $50K raise at 10 investors of $5K each pays 10% of $50K, or $5,000, capped per investor and visible to every LP before they commit. AngelList's $10K minimum setup makes a $50K raise painful at roughly 20% drag before admin. Sydecar's $4,500 floor is 9%. Allocations' $9,950 flat is 20%. Against a traditional 2 and 20 fund at 16% to 31% fee drag, a transparent per-deal fee runs a fraction of the cost of putting the same dollars into a fund.

Best for the largest raises above $1M

Sydecar's $14,500 cap wins on absolute cost. AngelList's 10% cap works out to $100K on a $1M raise, which is punitive without Meridian LPs to justify it. On raises above roughly $600K, Sydecar's flat cap is the cheapest all-in structure that does not require accepting Meridian carry.

Best for GPs with existing Carta cap-table relationships

Carta wins on workflow consolidation, not price. If your portfolio companies already sit on Carta, adding SPV admin removes one vendor from your stack. The sales-quoted pricing is the tradeoff you accept for that convenience.

The Assure shutdown and where its GPs went

Assure was the largest SPV administrator by volume, by an estimated 10x, per Landon Ainge of Assemble VC. It announced its shutdown on November 22, 2022, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and wound down by December 30, 2022. Migration cost organizers $5,000 or more per SPV, per TechCrunch's coverage, which quoted Hustle Fund co-founder Elizabeth Yin on the disruption.

Carta acquired some of the assets. Sydecar published a migration case study showing a clean transition. Allocations positioned itself explicitly on migration pricing at $1,950/yr. If you were on Assure and still have not moved, your fastest path is a Sydecar or Allocations migration ticket. Where you should land depends on your priority:

• Already on Carta for cap tables? Migrate SPV admin to Carta for consolidation.
• Want the lowest all-in cost on future SPVs? Allocations, with published $1,950/yr migration pricing.
• Want zero carry going forward? Sydecar.
• Need Meridian LP reach? AngelList.
• Raising small friends-and-family rounds? Play Money.

Platforms we excluded, and why

• Archstone: thin public data and inconsistent published fees.
• Vauban/CapDesk: UK-focused, and the US SPV product is not primary.
• Republic Fund Admin: deprecated in 2024.
• StartEngine SPV: crowdfunding-adjacent, a different regulatory model.
• Odin: UK-primary.

We ranked only platforms actively serving US SPVs with published or transparent pricing in July 2026.

Written by Cheryl Kellond, founder of Play Money. Serial founder, MIT Sloan MBA, active angel investor and syndicate lead. Not tax advice, consult a qualified tax professional for your specific situation. Last updated: July 2026.