Raising capital on your own isn’t just slow, it’s limiting.
Fund managers are starting to realize what institutional firms have known for decades: strategic partnerships help you scale faster. When raising capital, structuring your fund for partnerships isn’t optional in 2025; it’s essential.
At Avestor, we have helped hundreds of fund managers tap into a broader ecosystem of deal flow, co-investors, and back-office simplicity using models that are built for collaboration, not competition.
A Customizable FundTM can support different models, so let’s start there and then we can jump into partnership options.
- Owner/Operator (OO) funds – These funds are traditionally started by owner/operators that are seeking to scale up their business. They use their funds to raise capital continuously to acquire new properties.
- Capital Allocator (CA) funds – These funds are investment funds typically started by fund managers seeking to continuously pool and deploy investor capital into investments and deliver better than market returns to their investors.
- Loan Origination (LO) funds – These funds are operators focused on the debt side of the business. They continuously provide loans to other owners/operators.
- Private Equity (PE) funds – These funds are primarily focused on purchasing businesses to take advantage of scale and expertise.
While each of these funds can raise capital independently from their own investors, by partnering, they raise capital much faster.
Let’s break down 4 proven fund partnership models that are already working across the Avestor network.
Partnership Model 1
Owner/Operator – Capital Allocator Partnership
Scenario:
An OO Fund wants to purchase an asset. The fund manager can raise 50% of the equity needed from its own investors but has a gap on the remaining 50%. The OO Fund partners with a CA Fund that is interested in investing in the project. The partnership allows the OO to close the funding gap and provides the CA’s investors a great investment opportunity.
How It Works:
- The OO fund creates an investment offering with better financial terms for a minimum investment of $500,000 vs the retail terms they are offering their direct investors.
- The CA raises capital through their fund and invests into the OO fund for better returns.
- The CA charges its fund investors a fee for its efforts returning better returns than if the investors had gone directly to the OO as a direct investor.
Why It Works:
- Clear role division between the funds
- Faster fund raising with multiple funds raising capital for the same project
- Access to investor bases without duplicating back-office
- Investor terms to investors through the CA fund are better than going directly to the OO fund.
Partnership Model 2
Debt Originator - Capital Allocator Partnership
Scenario:
A DO fund is seeking to scale their business by providing more loans to its customers (bridge loans, fix-and-flips, private credit). It currently charges a rate to its borrowers and provides a lower rate to its investors keeping a portion of the interest as its share. Its current investor base only provides access to a certain amount of capital. The DO fund partners with a CA fund to scale up its business.
How It Works:
- The DO fund creates an investment offering with better financial terms for a minimum investment of $500,000 vs the terms they are offering their direct investors.
- The CA raises capital through their fund and invests into the DO fund for better returns.
- The CA charges its fund investors a fee for its efforts returning better returns than if the investors had gone directly to the DO as a direct investor.
Why It Works:
- The CA fund is leveraging the expertise of a DO fund to provide a fixed return offering to its investors
- The DO fund is now able to scale its business faster by originating more loans having a new channel for investor capital
- Access to investor bases without duplicating back-office
- Investor terms to investors through the CA fund are better than going directly to the DO fund.
Partnership Model 3
Owner/Operator – Owner/Operator Partnership
Scenario:
An OO fund is seeking to acquire a $50 million hotel but does not have the capability to raise all the necessary capital. It partners with another OO fund that is also seeking to acquire another asset. Both OO funds raise capital through their funds and then do a Joint Venture on the project thereby investing directly into the asset purchase.
How It Works:
- A roles matrix is first created where each partner determines its operational role in the asset purchase and management.
- Each OO fund then makes the offering available to investors in its fund.
- Once its determined how much capital each fund is bringing into the project, the JV agreement is finalized that combines the roles matrix and the capital raised by each OO fund to determine final deal structure.
- Each DO fund then sets up similar terms for its investors and raises capital in parallel.
Why It Works:
- Both OO fund managers are working together leveraging each other’s strengths to acquire and operate a specific asset.
- Investors in both OO funds get the opportunity to invest in a much larger and likely more attractive project simplifying capital raising.
- Risk is reduced for both OO fund managers and both their investors as there is a check and balance in place with two independent fund managers operating the asset.
Partnership Model 4
Private Equity – Capital Allocator Partnership
Scenario:
A PE fund is seeking to accelerate the pace it is acquiring businesses. It partners with CA fund that is seeking diversification opportunities for its investor base.
How It Works:
- The PE fund creates an investment offering for a specific business that it is seeking capital from CA partners. The PE fund then partners with multiple CA partners to raise capital for that offering.
- The PE fund calculates the double promote structure and returns necessary to make the deal work.
- Each CA fund raises capital through their fund and invests into the PE fund for better returns. The CA fund sets up reserves for fund expenses and management fees as its projected to be a 5-7 year exit period. The remaining capital is then sent to the PE fund.
- The PE fund completes the acquisition and manages the investment on behalf of CA funds.
Why It Works:
- The CA funds are leveraging the expertise of a PE fund to provide alternative investment opportunities for its investors.
- The PE fund is now able to scale its business faster by originating more loans having a new channel for investor capital.
- The structure ensures sufficient reserve holdbacks at both the CA fund level and the PE fund level.
Why Partnerships are Work
We see that fund managers who don't leverage partnerships hit scale limitations. Growing your investor base takes time and money. In many cases, managers are limited to their own geographic boundaries or existing network.
By actively seeing partnerships, these managers quickly break through these barriers. Inside the Avestor ecosystem, these partnership models are helping managers:
- Launch larger funds with fewer investors
- Increase deal velocity
- Simplify onboarding and back-office
- Build long-term, cross-functional partnerships
Avestor’s Role in Partnerships
On the Avestor platform, fund managers have access to a Deals Marketplace that are investments where managers are actively seeking to partner with other managers. This accelerates the initial step of finding potential partnership opportunities.
Managers are able to create investment offerings specifically for other fund managers that are not visible to their direct investors. This enables managers to provide any additional collateral necessary to accelerate manager-to-manager partnerships.
But beyond the marketplace, Avestor goes much further. We provide financial models, business structuring support and guidance to managers to create a win-win partnership on our platform.
Ready to try one of these Models?
You don’t have to build it all yourself. Let’s show you how 300+ fund managers are using Avestor to scale smarter through partnerships that work.
.png)
