Robinhood is advancing its efforts to make private startup investing accessible to everyday consumers, announcing plans for a second venture fund listing on the stock market. This move follows the successful launch of its inaugural retail venture fund just two months prior.
The Scope of the Second Fund (RVII)
The company has filed confidential registration paperwork for RVII. Unlike its predecessor, which holds investments in 10 specific late-stage firms—including Airwallex, Boom, Databricks, ElevenLabs, Mercor, OpenAI, Oura, Ramp, Revolut, and Stripe—RVII is designed to adopt a broader investment approach. This new fund will focus on investing in both growth-stage and early-stage startups. Experts note that while early-stage companies inherently carry higher risk due to their youth, they also possess the potential for substantial returns.
As of the latest reports, Robinhood has not yet disclosed a fundraising goal for RVII.
Market Performance and Investment Structure
The first fund, which trades under the ticker RVI on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has demonstrated strong performance. The fund debuted in early March at $21 per share and subsequently more than doubled its value, closing recently at $43.69. This significant increase suggests that market enthusiasm surrounding the AI potential of the underlying startups has positively influenced investor sentiment.
Both RVI and RVII aim to solve a long-standing problem in private capital markets: historically, only “accredited” investors—individuals with either an annual income surpassing $200,000 or a net worth exceeding $1 million—were permitted to invest in private companies. This restriction often excluded ordinary individuals from the most lucrative and earliest phases of corporate growth.
Democratizing Venture Capital
The structure of Robinhood’s funds is intended to change this dynamic by allowing any retail investor to participate in a portfolio of private startups through a standard brokerage account. According to CEO Vlad Tenev, Robinhood Ventures functions as “a publicly traded venture capital firm with daily liquidity,” stating that the investment requires no accreditation requirements or traditional carry fees.
Tenev explained these benefits by noting that daily liquidity means investors can buy or sell shares any time the market is open, a major difference from conventional VC funds where invested capital remains locked away for years. Furthermore, “no carry” signifies that Robinhood does not take a percentage of the profits generated, unlike most traditional venture firms.
The appeal of these investments lies in the fact that many of the most valuable AI startups have achieved their greatest appreciation within private markets, making them previously unreachable for the average investor. Tenev articulated his long-term vision: “retail should be a big chunk of that round [seed and Series A rounds], much like it now is in the public markets.” He emphasized that this would allow retail investors to participate at the “ground floor” of companies, benefiting from potential appreciation happening increasingly in private sectors.
