Robinhood is building another public path into private tech
Robinhood Markets has started formal marketing for Robinhood Ventures Fund II, its second publicly traded closed-end fund focused on private companies.
The new fund will focus on startups that have participated in Y Combinator, one of the most influential startup accelerators in the world. Y Combinator has backed companies including Airbnb, Stripe and Instacart.
According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Robinhood Ventures Fund II is offering 7.6 million shares in the IPO. Affiliates of Robinhood are also offering about 400,000 shares. The shares are being offered at $25 each.
The fund will target early and growth-stage companies
Robinhood Ventures Fund II plans to invest in a diversified portfolio of early-stage and growth-stage private companies.
The main focus will be current or former Y Combinator participants. The accelerator provides seed funding, mentorship and access to a global network of founders and investors. Roughly 500 to 700 startups participate in its programs each year.
The fund may also invest in companies that are not part of Y Combinator, according to the filing.
The offering is expected to price after the market closes on August 12, according to deal terms seen by Bloomberg News.
Robinhood Fund I set the template
Robinhood launched its first closed-end private company fund earlier this year.
Robinhood Ventures Fund I went public in March at $25 per share, raising $315.4 million in its IPO. The fund holds stakes in large private technology companies including Databricks, Stripe and Canva.
Shares of Fund I rose as much as 2.8% on Monday to $25.50.
The new vehicle follows the same basic idea: give public-market buyers access to private technology companies that are usually reserved for venture capital funds, institutions and high-net-worth investors.
Fees include a management fee and incentive fee
A Robinhood affiliate will act as adviser to the new fund.
The adviser will receive a 2% base management fee and an annual incentive fee equal to 20% of cumulative realized capital gains from inception.
Those fees are worth noting because closed-end private-company funds can look simple on the surface, but the cost structure can be closer to private-market vehicles than traditional public ETFs.
Major banks are backing the offering
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and Wells Fargo are working on the offering.
Robinhood is also hosting a video presentation on the new fund through the Robinhood app and YouTube, with executives including CEO Vlad Tenev expected to participate.
Shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RVII.
Robinhood is leaning into private-market access
Robinhood built its brand around giving retail traders easier access to public markets. Its private-company funds push that idea into a different category.
The pitch is simple: private technology companies are staying private longer, and many of the biggest startup gains happen before an IPO. Robinhood is trying to package that exposure into a listed structure that public-market buyers can trade.
The risk is equally clear. Early-stage private companies are hard to value, returns can be uneven, and liquidity is not the same as owning large public stocks. The fund’s success will depend on the quality of the companies it can access, the prices it pays and how the closed-end structure trades after launch.
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