Definition
Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)
A legal entity created to pool investor capital and hold a single asset or investment.
A special purpose vehicle (SPV) is a separate legal entity — most often a Delaware limited liability company — that pools capital from multiple limited partners (LPs) to make a single investment. SPVs ring-fence the investment from other deals and from the sponsor's personal balance sheet, simplify cap-table management for the underlying company, and let sponsors syndicate allocation from many investors under one signature line. In venture capital and private equity, SPVs are the standard vehicle for one-off allocations, follow-on rounds, and secondary purchases.