Robinhood to list a fund that lets anyone back Y Combinator startups

Robinhood this week unveiled a fiscal instrumentality that lets anyone consciousness similar they, too, tin marque wealth by backing Y Combinator startups.

Robinhood Venture Fund II (RVII) is expected to go a publically traded money connected August 13 astatine an opening terms of $25 per share.

The money intends to rise arsenic overmuch arsenic $200 million, Reuters reports, and usage that wealth to put successful startups founded by existent and erstwhile Y Combinator participants, should those startups hold to merchantability their shares.

While immoderate retail capitalist tin bargain shares successful the fund, they volition not straight clasp immoderate shares successful the startups. Investors volition beryllium capable to commercialized their shares successful the fund, but it’s unclear however overmuch nett they tin expect to marque should the YC companies negociate large exits.

The money intends to wage the 2/20 fees emblematic successful the VC satellite to different entity owned by Robinhood, positive tack connected other fees. That means Robinhood’s portion volition cod 2% of the nett returns arsenic a absorption fee, positive different fees, taking the full to conscionable implicit 4%, the institution said. The money volition besides wage the Robinhood portion 20% “carried interest” (commonly called “carry”). That means if capable Y Combinator companies person bully exits for the money to marque money, that Robinhood portion volition get 20% of the resulting returns.

But RVII doesn’t look to person an extremity day for returning its remaining profits to investors, dissimilar VC funds, which typically thin to tally for astir 10 years. Nor does RVII look to committedness regular distributions of currency profits. It whitethorn contented specified distributions, but investors whitethorn mostly person to slope connected returns from the fund’s rising banal price. (We’ve asked Robinhood for much accusation astir this.)

It’s surely imaginable to marque wealth by trading the fund’s shares. Robinhood Ventures Fund I (NYSE: RVI), which was besides founded to bargain shares successful blistery backstage companies similar Databricks, Mercor and OpenAI, routinely trades supra its IPO terms of $21.

It’s arsenic imaginable to suffer money: After peaking astatine implicit $56 successful May, RVI’s banal present trades astatine astir $28 per share.

Robinhood has besides gotten immoderate push backmost connected different schemes that tried to necktie fiscal products to the names of invaluable backstage companies. In 2025, it sold crypto assets described arsenic tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX. OpenAI condemned these, saying it wasn’t involved, and that the tokens did not correspond immoderate holdings successful the company.

This fund, however, appears to run more akin to a peculiar intent vehicle than to that 2025 crypto vehicle. It is buying existent shares. So, for anyone that likes the thought of betting connected the YC pedigree, this is surely a precise Silicon Valley mode to go.