> framing it against a traditional VC model might be a bit of a mistake

Google Ventures for example has a similar capital services model. Once you took money, you had access to a pool of GV folks who could help you with design, finance, engineering, etc. Having this talent to tap in to helps you avoid spending early money on things that aren't worth a full FTE but need to be solved.

The only thing new here is that they took out the writing of the check first.