In late 2025, Periodic Labs, founded by former OpenAI and DeepMind researchers, secured a $300 million seed investment led by Bezos Expeditions and Hillspire, the family offices of Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt. The deal is emblematic of a broader reality: Family offices and increasingly underwriting venture-scale innovation earlier, selectively and often outside traditional venture fund structures.

This is not an isolated data point. In 2025, Anthropic raised a $13 billion Series F round co-led by Iconiq Capital, a platform associated with ultra-high-net-worth families and their investment offices. In healthcare, Kriya Therapeutics raised $320 million in Series D financing co-led by Premji Invest, with Thiel Capital also participating. And outside software, Fruitist (formerly Agrovision) scaled into a consumer and ag-tech leader with backing from Ray Dalio's family office. The examples illustrate an important shift: Family office are not merely passive limited partners in venture - they are becoming catalytic capital providers via direct investments, co-investments and thematic platforms. 

Click here to read the full article written by Steven Thayer published in Venture Capital Journal. Login may be required.