Robinhood is moving to broaden retail access to private markets, filing for a second venture capital fund just two months after the successful launch of its first, which has seen its value more than double.
The move follows the strong performance of the firm’s inaugural fund (RVI), which gave public investors access to a portfolio of 10 late-stage private tech companies, including OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks. The new fund, RVII, will cast a wider net by targeting earlier-stage companies, a strategy that carries more risk but offers potentially higher returns. The fundraising target for RVII has not yet been disclosed.
“You can think of [Robinhood Ventures] as a publicly traded venture capital firm with daily liquidity. No accreditation requirements and no carry,” Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said at a recent Wall Street Journal conference.
The first fund debuted on the NYSE in March at $21 a share and has since rallied to over $43, a surge of more than 100 percent. This performance has been largely attributed to market enthusiasm for the artificial intelligence exposure within its portfolio. RVI holds stakes in 10 companies: Airwallex, Boom, Databricks, ElevenLabs, Mercor, OpenAI, Oura, Ramp, Revolut, and Stripe.
The core premise of the funds is to circumvent federal rules that restrict private company investments to “accredited” investors—individuals with a net worth over $1 million or high annual incomes. By structuring the funds as publicly traded entities, Robinhood allows any investor with a brokerage account to buy into a portfolio of private startups, offering daily liquidity that stands in sharp contrast to traditional venture funds where capital is locked up for years.
This strategy directly addresses a market where massive value appreciation, especially among AI startups, has occurred in private rounds, out of reach for the average investor. Tenev’s longer-term vision involves retail investors participating directly in seed and Series A funding rounds, a move that could fundamentally alter the landscape of early-stage startup financing.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
