Robinhood Launches Public Venture Fund Focused on Y Combinator Startups

Robinhood has introduced a new publicly traded investment fund that will give retail investors exposure to startups backed by Y Combinator, one of Silicon Valley’s best-known startup accelerators.

The Robinhood Venture Fund II (RVII) is expected to begin trading on 13 August with an opening share price of $25. According to Reuters, the fund aims to raise up to $200 million, which will be used to acquire stakes in eligible startups founded by current and former Y Combinator participants, subject to the companies agreeing to sell shares.

Investors will purchase shares in the fund rather than directly owning equity in the startups. Those fund shares will be publicly tradable, allowing investors to buy and sell their holdings on the stock market.

Fund Targets Private Startup Investments

The fund will follow a venture capital-style fee structure. Robinhood said an affiliated management company will receive a 2% management fee, together with additional fees that bring total annual charges to just over 4%. The manager will also receive 20% carried interest on investment profits.

Unlike other venture capital funds, which typically operate over a fixed investment cycle before returning capital to investors, Robinhood Venture Fund II has not announced a defined end date or a schedule for distributing profits. Investor returns are therefore expected to depend largely on changes in the fund’s market value, although distributions may be made in the future.

Robinhood’s first venture fund, Robinhood Venture Fund I (RVI), has invested in private companies including Databricks, Mercor and OpenAI. While the fund has traded above its initial public offering price, its share price has also experienced significant volatility since listing.

The new fund differs from Robinhood’s tokenised private-company products introduced in 2025, which drew criticism after OpenAI said it had no involvement and that the digital tokens did not represent ownership in the company. Robinhood Venture Fund II instead invests in actual equity stakes, offering retail investors indirect exposure to selected private technology companies before they reach the public markets.